Draft grades! You love them, you hate them! And here’s Doug Farrar’s draft grades to add to the cacophony!
What is the point of grading a draft right after it happens? We have no idea what the prospects will do at the NFL level, so it seems that the primary reason for draft grades is clicks.
Which is not altogether inaccurate, to be brutally honest. I can only speak to my process, but when I’m grading a draft right after the fact, it’s all about taking the work I did pre-draft and projecting that analysis to the NFL with the understanding of NFL homes for every player. Grades are evaluations in the moment. Ideally, you’re weighing prospect strength with positional value and draft capital expended. It’s more than a letter and some snark for clicks.
That’s what I did here in grading the 2023 NFL draft for all 32 teams. I could be completely wrong regarding how these players do at the next level, but that’s not really the point. The point is more about how the teams did with the resources they had, the capital they spent, what they got in return, and what they might have left behind.
That’s the mindset I took into the grades you see here. And here’s some of the evaluation I have done to get to this point.
Tennessee Titans select Peter Skoronski with the 11th pick. Grade: A-
(Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports)
One does wonder whether Skoronski will be able to play tackle in the NFL, but at worst, he has everything it takes to be a Pro Bowl guard, and Zack Martin — who I compared him to — went 16th overall in the 2014 draft. So, this isn’t too far off. Skoronski is more of a high-floor player than a guy with a ridiculous ceiling, but the Titans so desperately need high floors on an offensive line in need of upheaval.
Wingspan: 79½” (9th) Arm Length: 32¼” (4th) Hand Size: 10″ (45th)
Bio: A four-star recruit out of Maine South High in Park Ridge, Illinois, Skoronski started getting college offers as a sophomore, but his status as a Northwestern fan sealed the deal. His grandfather, Bob Skoronski, played left tackle for the Packers from 1956 through 1968, winning five NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls under Vince Lombardi. Peter Skoronski was Freshman All-American in 2020 and immediately played left tackle for the Wildcats, as Rashawn Slater (now with the Chargers) opted out for the season due to COVID. Skoronski then made First Team All-Big Ten in 2021, and gathered up all the awards in 2022 — Unanimous All-American; First Team All-Big Ten; Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year. He had 33 starts in 33 games, all at left tackle.
Stat to Know: In 184 True Pass Set plays last season, Skoronski allowed one sack, one quarterback hit, and no quarterback hurries.
Strengths: Skoronski is able to overcome his “measurable deficiencies” because his technique is at a level to rival any offensive lineman in this class. He sets well straight-ahead and vertically, he has a smooth kick-step, and his uses his hands well to mirror the defender through the rep. His hands work well with his base.
Skoronski also does a very nice job of consistently getting his hands out first — he beats his opponent to the punch very well. This is another way he’s able to get past his arm length and keep rushers out of his radius.
If you want to project Skoronski as a guard, there are reps last season in which he’s inside another tackle in heavy sets, and his power to wrestle interior defenders to a draw or better is pretty impressive.
Weaknesses: NFL teams will obviously be interested to find reps in which Skoronski’s wingspan is an issue, and they’re out there. If he doesn’t come off the ball with leverage and target accuracy, things can get ugly for him in a hurry. He will get overwhelmed in these situations, and the recovery ability is limited.
And I’m not always in love with Skoronski’s ability to get to the next level with timing and accuracy — this would be a coaching point were he to convert to guard or center at the NFL level.
Conclusion: It’s not impossible for a tackle to succeed in the NFL with Skoronski’s height/weight profile — David Bakhtiari, Duane Brown, and Donald Penn are among those tackles in the 6-foot-4, 310-poundish range who have found favor in the league in the new millennium. And Skoronski brings enough refinement and technique to the position to make it a possible reality, despite the fact that his arm length doesn’t align with those guys. He’ll need to be with the right team and in the right system for that to happen, but Skoronski should be given the opportunity to at least try tackle before the seemingly inevitable move inside.
NFL Comparison: Zack Martin. It’s the automatic comparison for every top-level tackle who kicks to guard at the next level, but in Skoronski’s case, it’s a good fit with his power, technical refinement, and playing demeanor. A tackle at Notre Dame, Martin was selected by the Cowboys with the 16th overall pick in the 2014 draft, and he’s racked up eight Pro Bowls and six All-Pro nods since. I do think that Skoronski will be better inside, but it’ll be an acceptable compromise if he maximizes his attributes there.
How much is your favorite team over or under the 2023 salary cap of $224.8 million?
When the NFL announces the salary cap for the upcoming league year, which it did on Monday, some teams are very excited by the prospect of that number.
For other teams, the accounting/reckoning is soon coming due.
As Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported, the 2023 salary cap will be $224.8 million, an all-time high, and quite a bump from 2022’s $208.2 million. You would think that this would have every NFL team in high cotton from a player payroll perspective, but as our friends at OverTheCap.com point out, there are just 15 teams — just under half the league — under that number in Effective Salary Cap Space (the cap number against the actual payroll, plus what it will take to sign at least 51 players and the rookie class) as we stand today.
Of course, all kinds of things are coming for the team in need of offsets. Players will be released, contracts will be restructured, and cans will be kicked down the road so that all teams can be in compliance with the cap when the new league year begins.
So, there’s a lot that’s going to happen, but as it stands now, here’s how all 32 NFL teams stand on either side of 2023’s $224.8 million salary cap, from the most under the cap to the most over. Teams over the cap have their totals represented in parentheses as negatives.
The NFL has announced 2023 regular-season opponents for all teams. Here’s a breakdown for each of the league’s 32 teams.
On Monday, the NFL announced opponents for all 32 teams in the 2023 schedule. Per the league, the formula for the schedule is as follows:
Home and away against its three division opponents (six games).
The four teams from another division within its conference on a rotating, three-year cycle (four games).
The four teams from a division in the other conference on a rotating, four-year cycle (four games).
Two intraconference games based on the prior year’s standings (two games). These games match a first-place team against the first-place teams in the two same-conference divisions the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place and fourth-place teams in a conference are matched in the same way each year.
One interconference game based on the prior year’s standings on a rotating four-year cycle (one game). These games match a first-place team from one division against a first-place team in an opposite-conference division that the team is not scheduled to play that season. The second-place, third-place and fourth-place teams in each division are matched in the same way each year. The home conference for this game will rotate each season, with the AFC teams hosting the game in 2023.
The scheduling formula implemented in 2002 with realignment guarantees that all teams play each other on a regular, rotating basis.
The 2023 schedule, with playing dates and times, will be announced in the spring.
There’s a lot on the line as the NFL’s regular season comes to a close. Here is every possible playoff permutation for Week 18.
The final week of any NFL regular season leaves us with all kinds of postseason possibilities to be decided, and never more so than in the 2022 regular season. Due to the cancellation of last Monday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals because of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field, the NFL had to create multiple stipulations in order to try and maintain competitive balance in a league that had two teams with one fewer game in the books.
We’ll get into all that in the scenarios below. Suffice to say, there are a bunch of teams with everything on the line in Week 18. Week 18 started Saturday, with the Kansas City Chiefs clinching the AFC’s one-seed, and the Jacksonville Jaguars clinching the AFC South, and the AFC’s four-seed.
Things are less complicated in the NFC. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have clinched the four-seed, and they’ll do so even if they go into the playoffs with a losing record. The New York Giants have already clinched the six-seed no matter what happens in their game with the Philadelphia Eagles… but as you’ll see, the Eagles can move anywhere from the one-seed to the five-seed based on what they, and several other NFC teams, do on Sunday. By the time we get to who can win the NFC’s two-seed, your head may be ready to explode.
In order to provide as much clarity as possible, here is every possible playoff scenario in both conferences for all non-eliminated teams.
Paul Wane, who totally shredded the Star-Spangled Banner before the Jaguars-Titans game, has a foundation to give guitars to local kids.
NFL games have pregame national anthems both expected and unexpected. Given that Saturday’s game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans had the Star-Spangled Banner performed by a dude is in Duval County, it makes sense that the dude shredding the anthem on an American flag Telecaster-style guitar looked as Florida Man as possible.
They really got a guy who looks like he jobbed to Arn Anderson on a 1995 episode of WCW Saturday Night to shred the national anthem.
But there’s more to Paul Wane, the shredder in question, than his resemblance to Lawrence in “Office Space.” Wane has a band called the Duval County Line (of course), and he operates a foundation called “Guitars 4 Kids.”
“We gave an instrument to a young man, and it turns out his father works security here at the stadium,” Wane recently said. “He got to talking to some of his co-workers about it, and they invited me to do this.”
The foundation has gifted somewhere between 200-300 guitars to local children over the last couple of years.
“I remember what it felt like, you know, to know it was my guitar,” Wane told Ashley Harding of News4Jax.com. “And no one’s going to have it, it’s mine. To see that look on their face and to know they can’t wait to get it home.”
As for his big moment, Wane knew beforehand that his family would be with him — in person and in sprit.
“My mother will be standing there. Unfortunately, my father is not here to see. I wish he could, but he’s watching,” Wane said. “My uncle, he gave me my first guitar, he’s going to be standing there.”
If you would like to learn more about the Guitars 4 Kids program, you can visit Paul Wane Music to do so.
Joshua Dobbs threw his first TD pass in the NFL after being drafted in 2017
The less time you have been with a team the better on Thursday Night Football.
Baker Mayfield led the Los Angeles Rams to an unlikely victory over the Las Vegas Raiders a couple of weeks ago after arriving with the NFC West team two days earlier.
On Thursday, Joshua Dobbs started and played well for the Tennessee Titans against the Dallas Cowboys.
Dobbs was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round of the 2017 draft.
He hadn’t started a game until facing the Cowboys. In the second half, the former University of Tennessee star threw his first NFL TD pass.
The play was good for 7 yards and went to Robert Woods. After the PAT, the underdog Titans trailed, 17-13.
The Titans remain in the race for the AFC South crown with the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, the quarterback situation has become dire as the team slides each week.
It would mark Dobbs’ first career start. He has thrown 17 passes since entering the league in 2017, completing 10 for 45 yards and one interception.
Dobbs was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2017. He has bounced from team to team during his NFL career.
Titans signed Josh Dobbs off the Lions’ practice squad eight days ago and, tonight, he now is expected to make his first start at QB for Tennessee.
