Tag: draft grade

POLL: What grade do you give the Broncos for drafting Bo Nix?

What grade would you give the Broncos for drafting quarterback Bo Nix at No. 12?

The Denver Broncos stayed put at pick No. 12 in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft on Thursday night to select Oregon quarterback Bo Nix.

The Broncos now have their new franchise quarterback (and a new catchphrase), but some fans and pundits have been critical of the pick. There was thought going into the draft that Denver could trade down from pick No. 12 and still select Nix later in the first round.

Broncos coach Sean Payton pushed back on that notion on Thursday night.

‘[W]hen the Chiefs selected Patrick [Mahomes] and you go back and tune into everything, it was said, ‘Well, they could have got him later.’ No, they couldn’t have,” Payton said. The coach knows that firsthand because the New Orleans Saints were going to take Mahomes at No. 11, but Kansas City jumped above them in a trade to get Mahomes at No. 10.

The consensus in 2017 was that the Chiefs could wait for Mahomes, but the consensus was wrong. We’ll never know if Nix would have been available later, but after five quarterbacks went off the board early, there was certainly no guarantee. (The Las Vegas Raiders, who picked right after the Broncos, would have been a top candidate to draft Nix if Denver passed on him.)

So with that context in mind, how would you grade the Broncos selecting Nix? Let us know your take by voting in the poll below!

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Cumulative draft grades are not kind to the Broncos’ 2023 class

Cumulative draft grades have the Broncos ranked 28th out of 32 teams for their 2023 draft class.

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The Denver Broncos only made five picks in the 2023 NFL draft this spring, and general manager George Paton tried to maximize those picks.

Opinions are varied on the team’s 2023 draft class. Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar gave the team a “B” grade, which seems pretty fair. Some draft pundits were much harsher.

René Bugner (@RNBWCV on Twitter) recently compiled 29 evaluations of the 2023 class and gave each team a cumulative draft grade. The cumulative grade for Denver is 2.42, which ranks 28th out of 32 teams.

The Broncos’ cumulative grade was sunk by an “F” grade and three “D” grades. Denver was one of just four teams who received an “F” from one of the 29 evaluators.

Of course, none of this really matters — draft experts have been wrong plenty of times before. As coach Sean Payton noted after the draft, it’s hard to give a fair grade to any particular class until three years after the draft.

We’ll have a better idea of how good (or bad) the Broncos’ 2023 draft class is in 2025. In the meantime, draft pundits aren’t feeling too optimistic.

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Lions draft grade ranked near the bottom by USA TODAY

The Detroit Lions draft grade ranked near the bottom by USA TODAY, the latest to slam the team’s draft approach

Draft grade opinions on what Detroit Lions GM Brad Holmes and the team did in the 2023 NFL draft continue to fly all over the place. The latest one from USA TODAY analyst Nate Davis flies on the lower end of the grading spectrum.

Davis gave the Lions a C-minus grade for their draft haul, which included five picks in the first three rounds. The lowly grade ranks 25th on Davis’ scale.

Like many who criticize what Holmes did, the focus is not on the player but rather the slotting in which the players were selected,

Really mixed bag. Hard not to view LB Jack Campbell as anything but a reach, even if GM Brad Holmes might have been right to scoop up fellow first-round RB Jahmyr Gibbs at No. 12 given the general lack of depth in this draft. At No. 34, worth wondering if Sam LaPorta was the optimal tight end to take, though DB Brian Branch was a slam dunk 11 spots later. And can’t argue with a third-round payout on QB Hendon Hooker, who’s at least a year away from competing for Jared Goff’s job. Fifth-round OL Colby Sorsdal out of William & Mary could provide a sweet ROI.

If the point of the draft is to add players who help the team get better, not many did a better job of that than the Lions. That fact seems to be lost on a lot of graders.

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Broncos coach Sean Payton had a good quote on draft grades

Forget instant draft grades. “[W]e will have a better idea of how this draft went” in three years, Broncos coach Sean Payton said.

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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Touchdown Wire gives Broncos a “B” grade for 2023 draft class

Touchdown Wire gave the Broncos a “B” grade for their 2023 draft class.

The Denver Broncos ended up picking five rookies in the 2023 NFL draft over the weekend. After the draft, Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar graded all 32 team’s classes and he gave Denver a solid “B” grade.

As a refresher, here’s a look at the team’s draft picks this year:

Round 2: No. 63 overall: WR Marvin Mims, Oklahoma 
Round 3: No. 67 overall: LB Drew Sanders, Arkansas
Round 3: No. 83 overall: CB Riley Moss, Iowa 
Round 6: No. 183 overall: DB JL Skinner, Boise State 
Round 7: No. 257 overall: C Alex Forsyth, Oregon

And here is a portion of Farrar’s commentary for the Broncos’ draft class:

Mims is one of the better and more nuanced deep receivers in this class, and if he’s not catching passes right away in Sean Payton’s offense, it won’t be his fault. Drew Sanders trnafered from Alabama because he couldn’t get reps as an edge-rusher and moved to off-ball linebacker, which now gives him a really interesting two-level skill set.

You’ll hear people saying that Riley Moss should move to safety, but the tape doesn’t show that at all — he’s a quick, aggressive cornerback who will give up the occasional big play, but is just as likely to erase his target. And I had a third-round grade on Skinner, who is one of the more interlining deep safeties in this class.

The Broncos are the inverse Jay-Z — they have one (huge) problem, and about 99 things going well, and this draft class is in the latter category.

To view all of Farrar’s NFL draft grades, visit Touchdown Wire.

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What grade do you give the Jets’ 2023 draft class?

Vote with your grade for the Jets’ draft haul.

The Jets have made it through the 2023 NFL Draft and added some help in the trenches and getting after the quarterback.

They started the draft by selecting Iowa State edge Will McDonald IV and his 34 career sacks in college. In round two, the Jets find their (hopeful) long-term center in Wisconsin’s Joe Tippmann.

On Day 3, the Jets double-dipped from Pittsburgh with offensive tackle Carter Warren and running back Israel Abanikanda before wrapping up with Western Michigan LB Zaire Barnes, LSU DB Jarrick Bernard-Converse and Old Dominion TE Zack Kuntz.

With that, what grade do you give the Jets for their draft haul?

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Grading the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2022 NFL draft class

Grading the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2022 NFL draft class

The Eagles entered Thursday night’s NFL draft with 10 total picks after two timely deals involving 2021 trades with the Dolphins and Colts (Carson Wentz).

The Eagles ultimately moved from No. 15 overall up to No. 13 overall to select Georgia All-American defensive tackle, Jordan Davis.

In doing so, Philadelphia parted ways with the Nos. 15, 124, 162, and 166 picks to the Texans to move up two spots where it selected Davis.

After the Chargers used the No. 17 overall pick on Zion Johnson, the Eagles made another move, trading picks No. 18 overall, and a third-round pick (101) to the Tennessee Titans for star wide receiver, A.J. Brown.

That trade left Philadelphia with four picks remaining in the draft and the Eagles utilized Day two picks on Cam Jurgens and Nakobe Dean.

On Day three, Philadelphia moved a fifth-round pick for two sixth-round picks and then traded up to pick No. 181 for Kansas linebacker Kyron Johnson.

At pick 198 overall, the Eagles ended their draft haul with SMU’s pass-catching tight end, Grant Calcaterra.

Here are the grades for Philly’s five-man class.

Report Card: Cowboys receive mixed grades for Tyler Smith selection

The Cowboys took Tulsa offensive lineman Tyler Smith at pick No. 24. @AsaHenry_55 gathered the media reviews, and the majority were passing grades.

Tulsa’s Tyler Smith was a late riser throughout the draft process, and rumors began to swirl earlier in the week that Smith could be in the mix for the Cowboys in Round 1. The smoke was followed by fire, and Smith was the eventual choice for the Cowboys.

Evaluations on Smith can vary quite a bit depending on the analyst, so how did the Cowboys do by grabbing the 21-year old with No. 24 overall? The grades are in, and the majority of major outlets gave the Cowboys a positive score for the pick.

By all accounts Smith’s technique needs refinement, and he could easily have a steep learning curve in the NFL, but he has building blocks that can’t be coached, like his size, athleticism, and strength to move defenders in the run game. Many believe his biggest weaknesses in pass protection can be potentially mitigated by a move inside to left guard, which seems to be the exact plan for Smith.

A pick that undoubtedly comes with serious risk and serious reward, only time will if Dallas made the right choice, but that doesn’t the media from grading the perceived the value on draft night. Keep reading for nine media members’  instant opinions on the Cowboys latest first-round addition.

Mel Kiper gives Jaguars a ‘B’ grade for 2021 NFL draft

The obvious headline from Jacksonville’s haul in the 2021 NFL draft is Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Widely considered a generational talent at the position, he’s the centerpiece of the rebuild being undertaken in Jacksonville. But the …

The obvious headline from Jacksonville’s haul in the 2021 NFL draft is Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence. Widely considered a generational talent at the position, he’s the centerpiece of the rebuild being undertaken in Jacksonville.

But the Jaguars made eight other picks in this draft, and those were very important, as well, when it comes to the future of the team. Though they addressed many areas of need, there were also some that didn’t receive much attention, and a couple of the picks were a bit puzzling.

Overall, ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper gave the Jaguars a “B” grade for their efforts this weekend. Unsurprisingly, Kiper loved the decision to select Lawrence, who he has as the fourth-highest graded quarterback he’s ever evaluated.

It’s the Jags’ second pick in the first round, which was used to take Lawrence’s college teammate in running back Travis Etienne that Kiper becomes a bit skeptical. Though he likes Etienne as a player, he’s not a fan of drafting running backs in the first round (and given the value Jacksonville got from an undrafted rookie in James Robinson last season, it’s hard to argue with it).

He also didn’t love the selection of Tyson Campbell with the 33rd pick, who he thinks was inconsistent on tape despite having high-level traits. He said there were better cornerbacks on the board.

The Jaguars’ selections at No. 45 and No. 65 were both a bit high-risk/high-reward. Offensive tackle Walker Little hasn’t played in nearly two years, while safety Andre Cisco has some injury concerns despite unreal production. Still, Kiper liked the potential upside with these picks. He also liked the Jags’ first pick in the fourth round, defensive tackle Jay Tufele.

Kiper took some issue with the selection of tight end Luke Farrell from Ohio State in the fifth round. With only 17 career collegiate catches but strong blocking skills, Farrell likely projects as a TE2 in the NFL. He thinks the team should have invested its third-round pick in Boston College tight end Hunter Long, instead, and that selecting Farrell was a reach for a player with a fringe draftable grade.

Here’s how Kiper summarized the class.

All in all, this is a team with a long ways to go. There’s a reason they had the No. 1 pick and have a new front office and coaching staff. But no class with a quarterback like Lawrence can get graded too poorly.

Meyer and Co. certainly took some risks, and only time will tell if they pay off. One thing is for certain, though: The team finally has an elusive franchise quarterback in Lawrence.

Grading the Browns Day 3 haul in the 2021 NFL draft

The Browns landed several players on Day 3 including OT James Hudson

The third day of the NFL draft is all about finding potential. Browns GM Andrew Berry and his scouting staff landed several players with high long-term potential in the final four rounds of this weekend’s 2021 NFL draft.

The Day 3 haul

James Hudson, OT, Cincinnati – 4th round

Tommy Togiai, DT, Ohio State – 4th round

Tony Fields, LB, West Virginia – 5th round

Richard LeCounte, S, Georgia – 5th round

Demetric Felton, WR, UCLA – 7th round

As an entire class, it’s a day focused on players who likely will only play on special teams as rookies. Hudson is a developmental tackle who needs seasoning; he began college as a defensive tackle at Michigan before switching to offense for the Bearcats. Even though he’s the first of the Saturday picks, he’s the least likely to play outside of special teams in 2021.

Togiai fills the need for depth on the interior defensive line, where the depth chart has been rocked with upheaval. He has the upside to play in the rotation and eventually start.

The final three picks are all about special teams. That is not at all meant as disrespect to the trio, because the Browns sorely need help filling several holes left by player departures from the special teams core group. Fields seems a natural fit to take over the Tae Davis role, while LeCounte can plug the hole left behind by Tavierre Thomas. Felton could win the return gig right away.

Overall, it’s a group that might not have a lot of impact outside of special teams in 2021. The Browns didn’t need more than that. Hudson, LeCounte and Togiai could become more important players on the offense and defense in time, too. They could have gone for more immediate impact at wide receiver or cornerback but that wasn’t the focus. A developmental QB might have been nice but certainly wasn’t something the Browns needed, either.

Grade: B