Pigskin Paul’s remedial draft class grades … Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for every team at the 2023 draft and GBN Associate Editor Pigskin Paul Guillemette’s has a few draft grades that maybe didn’t quite hit the pass mark here. And props to Paul as he finished tied for 8th on the Huddle Reports annual… Read More »
Eagles’ Carter first 1st to sign … That didn’t take long! Philadelphia became the first team to sign an opening round pick from last weekend’s draft as the Eagles came to terms with DT Jalen Carter, the 9th player selected overall this year, on a 4-Y, $21.8M fully guaranteed deal. Of course, the Eagles will also have the… Read More »
Giants Report: If the draft gods give you lemons, make lemonade!! … That’s the theme of our review of the Giants 2023 draft, which we don’t think went anywhere near where the team thought it would go, but it all turned out as the team ultimately ended up with one of the best drafts in the league last… Read More »
Let me start with something of a caveat. One of the dangers of doing this kind of analysis is that one resist the urge to simply interpret events from the context of a preconceived notion of what was going to happen. Over the course of the past 6 weeks or so we were pretty vocal about our impression… Read More »
No bull, Bull top pick in CFL draft … Pretty much as expected, CFL teams are passing overall the NFL bound top-rated prospects for tonight’s Canadian league draft and instead have concentrated on players who’ll be available when the CFL kicks off its regular season in July. Ottawa with the first pick, for example, chose Fresno State OT… Read More »
Panthers first to sign 2023 pick … Carolina had the first pick overall at the 2023 draft; the Panthers also became the first team to sign a player selected at last weekend’s draft when they signed former Florida State S Jammie Robinson to a standard 4-year deal.
Cowboys make 8th round statement … Dallas’ 2023 draft class was generally panned by analysts around the country. However, Jerry Jones and company may have made up for it bit by signing a pretty good undrafted free agent class. Indeed, the Cowboys UDFA signings included 6 players on our list of top undrafted post-draft free agents including Kansas… Read More »
Draft lite up north … The Canadian Football League holds its annual draft of Canadian born players this evening beginning at 8 PM ET. Coverage is available on TSN.Ottawa has the first pick in this year’s CFL draft, followed by Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Calgary. Here is the full selection order. Former Syracuse OT Matt Bergeron and the Brown… Read More »
8th round off and running … As noted at the end of the 7th round on Saturday evening, the draft doesn’t end with the selection of Mr. Irrelevant with the final pick of the weekend as NFL teams are in full-scramble mode to sign the best available undrafted players. Indeed, most teams will have started reaching out to… Read More »
Fave picks by round … While my colleague Pigskin Paul puts together his grades from this past weekend’s draft, I had a little fun with it and went back and on sober reflection picked my favorite picks in each round. And it was interesting in the sense that in several rounds, including both the 6th and 7th rounds,… Read More »
Colts, Eagles ace draft on Pigskin report card … As a general rule we don’t really like to grade drafts here at the GBN. And its not that you have to wait 2-3 years. That’s something quite different in that 2-3 years down the road one can grade a draft based on how it turned out. What we… Read More »
NFL schedule up next … For those that haven’t heard the NFL has tentatively set a week Thursday (May 11th) as the date that the 2023 schedule will be released.
Cards well positioned for 2024 … There are still 361 days o go until the 2024 draft gets underway in Detroit next April, but at least for now, Arizona looks to be the team best positioned to do some damage next spring. After the smoke had cleared from this past weekend’s draft, the Cardinals currently have 6 picks… Read More »
Two thumbs up; one down for NFL Net draft coverage … I pretty much always watch the NFL Network’s draft coverage and this year I give them two thumbs up for their coverage on the first two nights of the draft as they did their best to provide some reasonably serious draft coverage with what often seemed to… Read More »
Canadians set draft record … Speaking or record at the 2023 draft, it was a great day for Canada as a record number of players from up north were selected. Indeed, a total of 5 Canadians were selected this weekend, breaking the old record of 4. And there was nothing cheap about the Canadian selections as all were… Read More »
SEC leads conference again; AAC and MVFC surprise … Just to follow-up the earlier breakdown of picks by school, the SEC once again had the most players of any conference selected at the 2022 draft. Led by Georgia’s record 15 picks, the SEC had 65 players taken at this weekend’s draft which tied last year’s record haul. In… Read More »
Trade record set … Personally it didn’t seem that there were all that many trades this weekend – maybe they were just spread out relatively evenly over the three days – but when the smoked had cleared we actually had a new record for trades. Indeed, there were a total of 43 trades this weekend which broke the… Read More »
Tide, UGA lead school picks; SEC top conference again … To absolutely no one’s surprise, Alabama and Georgia had the most players selected by any school at this weekend’s 2023 draft. In the end, 10 players from each school were selected this weekend, although neither school had a particularly dominant individual year as Georgia did last year and… Read More »
2024 Draft just 362 days away!! … For the record, the 2024 draft is just 362 days away, so to help wile away the time, here is our annual way ‘way-too-early’ projection for next year’s draft. And while its done with more than a little tongue-in-cheek – so please don’t anybody write in asking what we are smoking… Read More »
That’s a wrap; THE end, finish!! … The 2023 draft came to a fitting close just before 7 PM ET this evening when the LA Rams selected former Toledo DT Desjuan Johnson with the 259th and final pick of the draft. Of course, that makes him ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ for the year. And while the actual draft is in… Read More »
And we are underway again (almost) … The third day of the 2023 draft is just moments away with Chicago on the clock with the 103rd pick overall to start today’s 4th round. As usual, we will be updating the GBN Big Board over the course of the day so folks can see who the top remaining prospects… Read More »
That’s a wrap; part deux … The second and third rounds of the 2023 draft came to a close just a few minutes ago when Minnesota selected former USC CB Mehki Blackmon 102nd and last pick of the third round. However, as usual there won’t be much rest for NFL personnel people, though, as teams will be burning… Read More »
Winners and losers on first blush from opening round … First impression of who did well at a draft and who didn’t often don’t age well with time, but its hard not to look back at last night’s proceedings and not come away thinking that Houston and Philadelphia may have stolen the show. The Texans, in particular, who… Read More »
Random first-night notes … They may end up calling the 2023 draft ‘The year of the fake out!’ after several teams pulled fast ones on the rest of the league, or at least the world watching the pre-draft process. Houston, for example, took Ohio State QB CJ Stroud with the second pick overall, after pretty much convincing everyone… Read More »
Tide sets record; BIG upset conference winner … Alabama didn’t make this year’s CFP for the first time in what seems like forever; however, the Tide may have gotten a little consolation at the opening round of the 2023 draft. Indeed, when Carolina selected QB Bryce Young with the first pick overall last night, it marked the 15th… Read More »
