2023 NFL Draft: Consensus grades from best to worst for all 32 teams

The wisdom of crowds isn’t always the ideal, but here’s how 29 different analysts rated every NFL team’s draft, from best to worst.

Finding oneself beholden to the wisdom of crowds isn’t always the wisest move, but there is some tangential value in looking at how multiple analysts view the drafts of NFL teams. Worst-case, you get a sense of how we’re all wrong at the same time. Best case, there’s an aggregate response that can be accurate and telling.

Recently, football analyst René Bugner did us all the favor of compiling the post-draft grades for 2023 from 29 different sources (including yours truly, for better or worse), and did the math for each team from a grade-point perspective.

So, with those roll-offs and curves, we have a general sense of how those who analyze these things for a living (again, for better or worse) have put each NFL team in its respective place.

Here, then, are the post-draft GPAs for all 32 NFL teams. I’m including analysis for every team from my original grades at Touchdown Wire.

2023 NFL Draft: Final grades for all 32 NFL teams

Comparing the 2023 draft hauls for all four NFC East teams

We’re looking at and comparing the 2023 NFL draft hauls for all four NFC East teams

The Eagles are the top dawgs in the NFC after winning the division and vanquishing the 49ers to advance to Super Bowl LVII.

After losing multiple critical free agents, Howie Roseman retooled on the open market and landed seven more draft prospects to help shore up the NFL’s best roster.

Philadelphia was one of the few teams to land an A+ draft grade overall, but the rest of the NFC East also did their part to retool personnel while attempting to keep up with the Eagles.

With the offseason workouts entering Phase 2, we’re comparing the draft hauls for all four NFC East teams.

2023 NFL Draft: Final grades for all 32 NFL teams

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.

Position lists and scouting reports for the 2023 draft

Top 50 players

Secret Superstars of the 2023 draft

2023 NFL Draft: Complete second-round grades

Second-round doesn’t mean second-class. Here are Doug Farrar’s grades for every pick in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft.

The 2023 NFL Draft class is as wide or wider than it is deep, which is to say that while there aren’t a ton of obvious first-round alpha dogs, there are a ton of prosects who are ready to provide potential first-round value in the second day.

Over the last few years, more than a handful of second-round picks have become franchise cornerstones. Deebo Samuel, Shaquille Leonard, Budda Baker, Jonathan Taylor, Trevon Diggs, Nick Chubb, A.J. Brown, Jalen Hurts, and D.J. Metcalf are among those second-rounders who would he first-day guys in any re-do of their drafts.

So, with that in mind, here’s our look from a grades perspective of how this second round went, and which teams might have stolen those types of players just outside of the first round.

2023 NFL Draft: Instant grades for all 31 picks in the first round

First-round grades for all 31 picks right after they happen? It sounds weird, but there is a method to Doug Farrar’s madness.

The concept of grading draft picks in any sport right after they happen may seem silly to some, as we obviously have no idea how those prospects will perform for their new teams. In these cases, it’s not about assigning an absolute grade to a player; it’s more about weighing positional value, value at the pick, any trade capital that may be involved, and how one estimates that prospect might fit with his new team.

So, if there are grades here that make you happy or enraged as a fan of your favorite team, remember that these are not the last word on anything. NFL players outperform their initial evaluations all the time, and as John Wooden was fond of saying, “Success is never final, and failure is never fatal.”

With that bit of philosophy out there. it’s time to assign initial grades to the 31 picks in the first round of the 2023 NFL draft.

Wisconsin NT among six lesser-known Big Ten players with high draft grades

Wisconsin nose tackle Keeanu Benton was named by ON3 as a lesser-known Big Ten player with a strong NFL draft grade:

Earlier this week, Matt Zenitz of ON3 named six lesser-known players in the Big Ten that have strong NFL draft grades going into next season, and Wisconsin nose tackle Keeanu Benton made the list.

Related: Wisconsin picks up the No. 46th-ranked IOL in the class of 2023

Benton has been absolutely phenomenal at clogging the middle for the Badgers’ defense over the last few seasons, and even though he might not get the statistics of the edge rushers, the Wisconsin NT finished as second-team All-Big Ten last season. Zenitz states that he is graded by NFL scouts right now as a Day 2 or Day 3 selection in the draft.

Hopefully, this season at the helm of the defense alongside outside linebacker, Nick Herbig, will help to cement Benton’s draft grades with NFL teams.