Tag: draft class

Broncos’ draft picks represent 7th-best value in 2023 class

The Broncos landed great value in Drew Sanders (projected 1st or 2nd), JL Skinner (projected 3rd or 4th) and Alex Forsyth (projected 5th).

The Denver Broncos only made five picks in the 2023 NFL draft last week, but they found great value with those selections (no pun intended).

The Broncos had the seventh-most valuable draft class this year, according to analysis from Warren Sharp of SharpFootballAnalysis.com.

The team’s biggest value picks seem to be Arkansas linebacker Drew Sanders, Boise State safety JL Skinner and Oregon center Alex Forsyth.

NFL.com’s Lance Zierlein predicted Sanders would go off the board in the first or second round. Denver got him in the third. Zierlein had Skinner going in the third or fourth round (the Broncos got him in the sixth). The Athletic’s Dane Brugler had a fifth-round grade on Forsyth (an eventual seventh-round pick).

Denver did a good job getting the most out of its limited draft capital this year, and the team will return to having a more normal set of picks (including a first-round pick) in 2024.

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Packers assign uniform numbers for entire 2023 draft class

The Packers handed out official uniform numbers for the team’s 13-player 2023 draft class.

The Green Bay Packers assigned uniform numbers for the team’s 13-player draft class in 2023.

Here are the numbers for the rookies:

OLB Lukas Van Ness: 90
TE Luke Musgrave: 88
WR Jayden Reed: 11
TE Tucker Kraft: 85
DL Colby Wooden: 96
QB Sean Clifford: 8
WR Dontayvion Wicks: 13
DL Karl Brooks: 94
K Anders Carlson: 17
CB Carrington Valentine: 37
RB Lew Nichols III: 32
S Anthony Johnson Jr: 36
WR Grant DuBose: 86

Quick hits: Van Ness wore No. 91 at Iowa but No. 90 in high school…Musgrave wore No. 88 every year at Oregon State…Reed wore No. 5 and No. 1 at Michigan State but gets No. 11 in Green Bay, replacing Sammy Watkins…Kraft wore No. 85 at South Dakota State and replaces Robert Tonyan in the number…Colby Wooden, a Kingsley Keke-like player, gets No. 96 after wearing No. 25 at Auburn…Sean Clifford assumes backup duties as No. 8 after wearing No. 14 at Penn State…Dontayvion Wicks wore No. 3 at Virginia, but the number is retired in Green Bay…Karl Brooks, who wore No. 11 and No. 44 at Bowling Green, gets Dean Lowry’s old number…The new kicker gets Davante Adams’ old number…Valentine will attempt to follow the path of Sam Shields in the No. 37…Nichols III, a Cedric Benson-like player, gets an appropriate new number after wearing No. 7 at Central Michigan…Can Johnson Jr. become the next great safety wearing No. 36 in Green Bay?…DuBose, who wore No. 14 at Charlotte, was pretty much out of options.

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Common quality among players in Seahawks draft class is ‘toughness’

The members of the Seahawks draft class had been tagged by the organization with a hammer insignia, standing for toughness and physicality.

A common theme emerged this year as the Seattle Seahawks put together their 2023 NFL draft class.

“I would say tough,” general manager John Schneider said after the draft wrapped up Saturday afternoon

Pick after pick, each player selected seemed to have a chip on his shoulder for one reason or another.

“I think it’s toughness and physicality,” coach Pete Carroll reiterated. “I think this is a really — from top to bottom it’s a group that’s going to really demonstrate that. We’re fired up about that.”

Schneider expanded on exactly what he and Carroll mean by “tough.”

“On our tags, we have different insignia on there to represent different things, and I would say just about every one of these guys has a hammer on there, which means a scout has to say, ‘this guy’s a legitimate tough guy,'” Schneider explained. “So when you look at their tag, all these guys have a hammer on it.”

The Seahawks draft class will have the first chance to prove “toughness” during the upcoming rookie minicamp.

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Seahawks draft efforts this season were continuation of last year

The Seattle Seahawks are already receiving high marks for their 2023 NFL draft class, similar to the success they had last season.

The Seattle Seahawks have already received high marks for their 2023 NFL draft class, including an A+ grade from Touchdown Wire.

Coach Pete Carroll equates this class with the successful picks from last season.

“Can I just say, it’s just an observation from how we walk out of this thing, it feels like we’ve continued from where we left off last year in the draft effort, just the kinds of people, the opportunities that the guys are going to be faced with when they come here and they see their chances,” Carroll told reporters Saturday afternoon. “It’s going to feel like last year in some regards. So it’s our job to do a good job to knit that together and make sure that that happens so we maintain the momentum and the movement.”

“But we loved last year’s class and we’re fired up about this year’s class and it just feels like we’ve added onto it, and I’m really proud of the work that all the guys did and where we are right now,” Carroll continued. “And you have met a lot of these players and you can tell that they’re the kind of guys that we love and it feels like an extension of some really good stuff. So we’ve got to prove that, but it’s there for us to do.

“So it’s really exciting.”

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Behind Enemy Lines: Comparing NFC East teams’ 2023 draft hauls

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Eagles set the curve for the NFL when most experts’ draft grades came out, but another NFC East team also made great strides.

The Cowboys were playing catch-up to the Philadelphia Eagles within the NFC East all last season. After an aggressive offseason that saw them improve their roster by leaps and bounds, the Eagles were the last undefeated team in the league during the regular season, claimed the division crown, and then sailed through the playoffs to a Super Bowl berth.

Dallas, on the other hand, went into the schedule with rose-colored glasses regarding several players and how they would perform. It was a best-case-scenario plan, and it flopped. The team had enough talent to scratch and claw their way to a 12-5 season, but the ride came to an abrupt end in the postseason while the obviously better teams moved on.

The 2023 NFL draft showed that Philadelphia is still swinging for the fences, while the Cowboys seem content to stick to their guns and wait for some secret master internal plan to gradually unfold.

But 2023 won’t be just a two-team race in the East. The Giants impressed many draft analysts with their picks and look to be trending upward, perhaps more quickly than assumed. And while the Commanders are expected to start turning the ship around under new ownership, it will take a while; their draft class got mixed reviews.

Here’s how the NFC East stacks up after three days of drafting.

[Ed. note: We took the draft grades from six national outlets and averaged them out to determine a composite grade for each team.]

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Denver Broncos 2023 NFL draft class: View the 5 new players

The Broncos added six players (five via picks and one via trade) during the NFL draft.

The Denver Broncos ended up with five picks in the 2023 NFL draft, along with a new tight end acquired in a trade. Broncos Country, meet the newest members of the team!

49ers select Robert Beal Jr. in fifth round with No. 173 pick

Georgia product Robert Beal Jr. should be a solid player for the #49ers after being drafted with the No. 173 pick in the 2023 NFL draft

The San Francisco 49ers selected University of Georgia defensive end Robert Beal Jr. with the 173rd overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft. Beal is a proven talent from one of the best football programs in the nation, but may have a hard time getting reps on the 49ers ultra-talented defense.

Something of a project, Beal will need time to adjust to the pace of the NFL game, and could surely benefit from time in a professional weight room as a rookie. He needs to get more consistent with his game on a snap to snap basis to become the player scouts hope he can be, but if he puts it all together over the next several years, Beal could be one of the best picks in this draft.

San Francisco entered this draft with minimal assets, so converting picks to valuable prospects will be crucial to their success in the coming years. Beal should prove to be a competent selection here.

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McCarthy excited to see which second-, third-year Cowboys make ‘the jump’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The new draft picks will get the attention, but it’s the Class of ’22 and ’21 who are about to take the biggest leaps in their pro careers.

By the end of the weekend, 259 young men will have seen a dream come true by being drafted into the NFL. Another couple hundred will have gotten the call to join a team as an undrafted free agent. For all of them, life is about to change dramatically.

But no one- not even this year’s wide-eyed rookie class- will see more growth over the next few months of minicamps, OTAs, preseason, and roster cuts, than another group. These are the guys whose teams are expecting them to make the much-ballyhooed jump, the transition that happens- or doesn’t- that separates the players who flame out of the league early from the ones for whom it clicks and cements their place on an NFL roster.

Everyone will be talking abut the Class of 2023, but it will actually be the Classes of 2022 and 2021 that Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy will be watching most intently.

“I’ve always felt that the most improvement that I’ve felt, the teams that I’ve coached,” McCarthy said this week at the pre-draft press conference, “are the people that are already here working. It’s your second-, third-year players that will take that jump.”

For the Cowboys, it’s a group that has already had a huge impact and shown tons of promise and potential.

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Packers GM likes depth of edge rusher class in 2023 draft

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst likes the edge rusher class in the 2023 draft.

Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst pointed to the edge rusher position as one area where the 2023 draft looks especially good and deep.

“I think it’s a good draft overall,” Gutekunst said Monday. “I think it’s a good edge class this year. It’s a deeper class of edge players then there has been in other years.”

Outside evaluators seem to agree. Dane Brugler of The Athletic has 15 edge rushers in his top 100 players, while Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com has 19 edge rushers in his top 150 players.

A need at edge rusher exists for the Packers. Although the team’s top six edge rushers from last year all return, Rashan Gary is coming off a torn ACL and is entering a contract year, Preston Smith turns 31 in November, and edge rusher remains a premium position requiring high-level investment through the draft every few years.

Kingsley Enagbare, last year’s fifth-round pick, impressed as a rotational player as a rookie. Justin Hollins, a waiver pickup mid-season, returned on a one-year deal after flashing to finish 2022. Jonathan Garvin and Ladarius Hamilton have also played regular season snaps at edge rusher for the Packers.

Depth in the draft class and a stockpile of picks will provide the Packers with an opportunity to be patient at edge rusher. Gutekunst now holds three picks in the top 50 and four in the top 100, plus seven more picks on Day 3. Attractive options for the Packers should be available all three days of the draft.

Day 1 options: Myles Murphy, Lukas Van Ness
Day 2 options: Felix Anudike-Uzomah, Keion White, Isaiah Foskey, Derick Hall, Isaiah McGuire, Zach Harrison, Yaya Diaby
Day 3 options: Tyrus Wheat, Robert Beal, Habakkuk Baldonado, BJ Thompson, Tavius Robinson

Packers 2023 draft preview: Always smart to stockpile talent at edge rusher

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