We can’t help it. Every year, right after the NFL draft ends, pundits give out grades for each team’s draft class. It’s way too early to give an accurate grade, but we can’t help it.
Denver Broncos coach Sean Payton correctly noted after the 2023 NFL draft ended last weekend that this year’s class should be graded three years from now.
“Tomorrow [Sunday]’s the day that all the draft grades come out,” Payton said. “I love tomorrow. But truly, I hope three years from now when all of us will have a better idea of how this draft went, the reports will be good. We heard it a million times — we got our guy today. Half of them are lying, but I would say, and I don’t want to speak for George [Payton], but man, I was excited.
“The process and the hours going into it, all of that, because it was new for me and there’s elements of it that were new relative to how we scout. There are some things that were fantastic. If you started really at the beginning of it all and you said here’s free agency, here we are and the draft just ended — I’m really excited.”
Next year will mark three years since Paton’s first draft with the Broncos and it looks pretty good in hindsight with Pat Surtain, Javonte Williams, Quinn Meinerz, Barron Browning, Caden Sterns and Jonathon Cooper all poised to have key roles this season.
Three years from now, it will be time to look back on the 2023 class, and fans in Denver can only hope it will look as good as the 2021 class in hindsight.
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