The draft is over, and I love about two thirds of the league’s drafts as friends of mine point out. It’s true, as a football evaluator I am an extreme optimist, and at no point does that optimism run at more of a fever pitch than after the NFL draft.
Am I a draft expert? No, I’m a name expert. I am absolutely fantastic at collecting names throughout draft season, Youtubing some highlight packages and keeping them in the back of my head until draft day. This year there were about fifteen guys on day two and three that were embedded in my brain and I liked quite a bit.
However, in this new era of what I am trying to make daily blogging starting May 17th I am striving to keep these take sheets, short and sweet. So here are the winners, I have a hard time identifying major losers, of the NFL draft.
Winners
New York Football
It’s hard to do much better than both of the New York teams did this draft. For the Giants, this year was about building a spine. They successfully did that. When you add Evan Neal to an offensive line with Andrew Thomas, you suddenly look at that line and think, man that could be an above average NFL unit, that simply has not been true of the Giants line for the past five years.
The Giants then added a stud pass rusher, Kayvon Thibodeaux was a player I watched throughout college covering Utah and thought, this dude is just going to be an absolute monster in the NFL.
In later rounds, a pick I enjoyed was the Wan’Dale Robinson a speedy wide out that can be used in the slot for oft injured Sterling Shepard. The Giants have a decent line, a developing secondary and some intriguing offensive weapons, and in Brian Daboll an offensive mind that has excelled in developing raw QB’s even if things go south for Daniel Jones the Giants will be in good position next year to be just a QB away potentially.
Whereas the Jet’s strategy in this draft was to surround their young signal caller with weapons. Zach Wilson should have no excuses not to perform at this point. Garrett Wilson is a WR1 according to draft experts despite his size.
The Jets add to a thin backfield and take Breece Hall as well, the explosive running back out of Iowa State. A tandem of he and Michael Carter should help propel a Mike LaFleur offense that wants to build off play action and establish a running game.
The defense gets better as well, for years on Endzone pod I’ve asked during our season previews, who exactly is playing corner for the Jets? Well now we know, a player hyped up as the next lockdown corner in the NFL in Sauce Gardner.
You add a raw, fast, long EDGE player in Jermaine Johnson and suddenly with Carl Lawson and Quinnen Williams you have a tangible pass rush. Are the Jets a playoff team? Probably not, but this team is a lot better than it was a year ago.
The Steelers
Kevin Colbert, he played the hits for his last draft. Wide receivers that the Steelers can mold into the next star playmakers in the NFL? Check. George Pickens would benefit from some common sense in his life, wear a seatbelt folks, but he’s a talented prospect that could develop into a Chase Claypool type.
Then the Steelers grab the guy to take the top off the defense in Calvin Austin the third. This kid is a track star, and the Steelers receiving core, again looks like one of the best in the NFL.
Could you have gotten Kenny Pickett in the second round? Probably, but I don’t hate taking a swing. They fixed the offensive line in free agency, or at least made small changes that could slightly improve it. Trubisky and or Pickett will have a chance to lead a competitive offense. The Steelers are winners most years, they just draft good players.
Eagles
The Eagles are in this position largely because for a third round pick they drafted AJ Brown. That right there, home run pick.
The Eagles also add an interior game wrecker in Jordan Davis, some depth on the O line and finally pick up a respectable day 1 starting linebacker in Nakobe Dean in the third round.
Jalen Hurts is a massive question mark, who knows if he can actually play the guitar, but it’s fair to say he’s improved every year he’s been in the NFL. If he can limit the turnovers and get the ball to his playmakers the Eagles will be a legitimate contender in a weak NFC.
Texans
Ok, are the Texans huge winners? No. Are they going to win more than six games this year? Probably not, but what the Texans needed to do in this draft was get starting caliber players and they did that.
Derek Stingley will be they day one CB1 for the Texans. A player that has the hype of being a lock down all pro that can change a defense. That’s the type of player that can hide other weaknesses on defense and the Texans need that.
Kenyon Green provides a starting option on the interior of the offensive line. That’s also something the Texans needed.
Jalen Pitre is a day one starter at safety on this roster. Same with Christian Harris, you can never go wrong drafting an Alabama linebacker, it usually works out.
John Metchie is controversial because of his size and lack of physicality, but if used correctly he can be a deep threat for Davis Mills.
The Texans are tanking next year, the team isn’t going to be very good but the reason they’re winners is because the roster is bad enough right now that most of the guys, they drafted in the first three rounds will be immediate day one starters. Nick Caserio has a plan; it didn’t look like one existed a year ago.
Ravens
It must be fun to be a Ravens fan. If you were to send out a tweet that read, I really love this Ravens draft, you could pretty much re post that every single year. It’s an evergreen sentiment.
By adding Kyle Hamilton, to me the Ravens have created the best defense in the AFC, a league full of explosive offenses. The Ravens can stop high powered division rivals the Bengals and Browns. Marcus Williams in free agency helps with that as well.
The Ravens take Tyler Linderbaum and Daniel Faalele, two players that could vie to be starters on the line. Sure, you can complain about getting rid of Marquise Brown, but he was never really used properly in that system anyways.
The Ravens identity is running the football, they committed to that with this draft. As long as Lamar Jackson can stay healthy, this will be an immediate contender in the AFC. Oh and they add depth at pass rusher in David Ojabo without having to worry about playing him right away because of an achilleas injury.
The Ravens are just a well run organization that are always able to take best player available and excel at it.