If you are looking at the title of this article, and scratching your head wondering if this is April 1st, and this is bad April Fools Day joke, just relax. No, it is indeed May 1st, and it is not a joke. But you would be correct in thinking to yourself that your friend Pigskin has proclaimed that he doesn’t do/like Letter Grades for NFL Team Drafts. And I certainly do think at least of pass/fail when I study NFL Draft results by team.
So here we are with my Top 5 2023 Team Drafts… the real ones, not my Mocks.
GRADE : A COLTS
Yep, even though they made the biggest “risk” Pick in this Draft in QB ANTHONY RICHARDSON, GM CHRIS BALLARD , and his scouting staff, likely hit a tape measure Home Run with his 12 selections. And those 12 Picks were 3 more than he entered the proceedings with. So it means he danced around a bit and added Picks to his Draft Capital. Secondly, he stuck to his basic philosophy of taking “athletes” with those Picks. In the Math Bomb world of Relative Athletic Scores, RAS, 9 of his player choices were above 9.0, which means they would be rated as “elite” athletes. They had the highest average RAS, per player, of 8.86. And it make take a couple of seasons for RICHARDSON to become a top flight NFL QB, but based o. athleticism he had a 10.0, or pretty much perfect score for athleticism.
BALLARD also made sure he spread his Picks around to meet team needs. He snatched up 1/QB, 1 RB, 1 WR, 1 TE, 2 OL, 2 DL/E, 4 DB. Only LB and Special Teamers (PK,P,LS) were not drafted. With only 3 Top 100 Picks they still nabbed 5 of my Top 100-ranked players. Assuming the COLTS staff can keep their owner JIM IRSAY under control and not force them into starting the uber-talented, but equally raw, RICHARDSON right away, by the end of this coming season this team could be the Play-Off contender many thought they would be last season.
IMO, the stage has been set, and assuming minimal injury attrition, the pressure will clearly be on the new coaching staff to develop this Draft talent quickly into key performers on game day, to be mixed in with some elite players like RB/TAYLOR, WR/PITTMAN, OG NELSON, DT BUCKNER, LB LEONARD, CB RODGERS & vet QB GARDNER MINSHEW as the interim QB. Who could the Rookie starters from this Draft turn out to be? I would project WR/JOSH DOWNS in the slot; JULIUS BRENTS/CB trying to replace GILMORE; DANIEL SCOTT/S might dislodge someone around mid-season; BLAKE FREELAND/OT might allow them to move RAIMAN inside to OG where his playing inexperience might not be exploited so easily by opponents. And somehow, somewhere they may figure out how to get ADEBAWORE out on the field for Edge Rush on passing downs. EVAN HULL/RB may actually become a key component of their Special Teams units in addition to back-up RB work in FB type work.
Its a good Draft Class and new head Coach SHANE STEICHEN and his staff can plug some roster holes/weak spots with some fine tuning.
GRADE: A EAGLES
No real surprise here, since GM HOWIE ROSEMAN has emerged as perhaps the Savant NFL Executive 0f this decade… so far. Although some may accuse him of perusing the GEORGIA football roster on an annual basis and just selecting eligible players from it, his system of scouting/drafting is a bit more complex than that… I think. Howie likes to move around a bit by using his Draft Picks to dance around and position himself for guys he really wants to draft. This year he had 6 Picks a week ago, and ended up using 7 selections, including 3 Bulldogs from Athens, GA. He is also a believer in the athleticism of his draftees as evidenced with a RAS dance card of 4 players over 9.0, with the certainty that if First Pick JAELN CARTER had completed all his testing he most certainly would have made that 9+ number a 5, not a 4. His other 2 Picks were 8.29 or above.
It should also be noted, since these are my opinions, that 5 of their Picks were in my Top 89 players. With older vets like COX & GRAHAM, this team now has JORDAN DAVIS & JALEN CARTER from their last two Drafts to replace the two vets, perhaps as early as the 2024 season. They will clearly find places to use Pick 30, Nolan Smith, to compliment vets BARNETT, REDDICK & SWEAT as an Edge Rusher deluxe. Round 3 Pick STEEN may serve as a backup along their OL at every spot except OC this season, while waiting for a starting OG spot to open up in 2024. SYDNEY BROWN/Illinois has shot, IMO, to win a starting S slot in Training Camp. KELEE RINGO might be allotted as a transition from CB to S in the long term. In fact my only question in their Picks is QB McKEE from Stanford. He looks more like a BRADY model, than he does a fit to serve as a HURTS back-up when athletes like MARIOTA & BOOK currently man those slots behind HURTS.
I have 3 teams with grades of A- this year. To keep this train moving I will close off today with a tease as to who you can catch here tomorrow in that threesome. They are: SEAHAWKS, PACKERS, PATRIOTS.
