Kansas City Chiefs
Grade: C+
Best Pick: Chris Jones, Mississippi State DT
When you don’t have a first-round pick, it sure helps when a first-round caliber prospect falls to you in the second. Jones is great value and a need fit for a defense that relies on the line to disrupt the interior while the linebackers attack the edge. Keivarae Russell has the unenviable task of replacing Sean Smith, and while it’s not Russell’s fault the Chiefs let him walk, it’s hard to see how the safety/corner tweener fills that hole.
Los Angeles Rams
Grade: D+ (downgraded from C+, because Tyler Higbee)
Best Pick: Pharoh Cooper, South Carolina WR
If Jared Goff is good, this is the best Rams draft ever. If he’s not, it’s a travesty. Just like the Eagles, only moreso, the Rams get bumped down a letter grade for running to the podium to take Tyler Higbee, who did a really bad thing right before the draft. Pharoh Cooper is great value in the fourth round, though, and if Higbee can get his life right, they could provide two immediate pass-catching options for a team that has very few.
Miami Dolphins
Grade: A
Best Pick: Laremy Tunsil, Ole Miss OT
Serious praise for the Dolphins: They did their homework, stuck to their evaluation, and didn’t panic when surprised with new info at the start of the draft. Their reward: A fantastic value, and a potential perennial Pro Bowler at a premium position. They did it again in the third round, when explosive receiver Leonte Carroo was there for them at the No. 86 pick. For Carroo, it was the other way around: cell phone video actually cleared him of an assault charge that gave teams pause.
Minnesota Vikings
Grade: B+
Best Pick: Mackensie Alexander, Clemson CB
Vikings fans were crestfallen to miss out on Josh Doctson, who would have been both a perfect fit and fantastic value at No. 23. Treadwell, though, provides the strength and physicality missing from the Vikings’ pass-catching corps; his slow 40-yard dash times are a concern, but not as much as many draftniks think. Alexander is good value in the second round, but sort of retroactively casts aspersions on last year’s first-rounder, Trae Waynes. No clue if German prospect Moritz Boehringer will ever play NFL football, but he’s a tremendous athlete and a great story.
New England Patriots
Grade: B+ (upgraded from C+, because Vincent Valentine)
Best Pick: Vincent Valentine, Nebraska DT
In Vincent Valentine, the Patriots added a shotgun-toting magical vampire who sleeps in a coffin, and that’s just awesome. They also got fantastic value with Georgia receiver Malcolm Mitchell, who can attack the so-called “turkey hole” between deep zones like no one else on the Pats roster. With no first-round pick, the Pats solidified their not-very-deep cornerback depth chart with Alabama’s Cyrus Jones.
New Orleans Saints
Grade: A- (downgraded from A, because quarterback)
Best Pick: Sheldon Rankins, Louisville DT
Sometimes, you gotta be smart to ace the NFL draft. Sometimes, you just gotta show up. With Rankins falling to the Saints at No. 12 overall, it’s a little bit of both: He’s a very versatile player and potential dominant force. Depending on who you ask, the Saints also got one of the best receiver prospects in a weird class at No. 47 overall: Ohio State standout Michael Thomas. However, I can’t give a team scrambling for Drew Brees’ successor an unblemished “A” when they passed on Connor Cook in the fourth round.
New York Giants
Grade: D+
Best Pick: Sterling Shepard, Oklahoma WR
The Giants got rooked when the Bears moved ahead of them to poach Leonard Floyd, and their apparent lack of preparation showed. Apple’s a good man corner prospect, but he’s a work in progress, and corner isn’t a pressing need. It almost seems like they took him just because they’ve had good luck with guys named “Eli.” Shepard is a personal favorite who will make an quick impact, and safety Darian Thompson is good value in the third—but again, the Giants desperately need front seven help, and didn’t get any.
New York Jets
Grade: F
Best Pick: Darron Lee, Ohio State LB
Christian Hackenberg is a massive reach, a long-term project, and completes a disastrous quarterback depth chart of him, Geno Smith and Bryce Petty. This pick makes zero sense, period, but makes even less sense on a team trying to win now. Lee, meanwhile, is exactly the kind of player the Jets need, if a bit of a reach at No. 20—but again, when they took Lee, they passed on Paxton Lynch. Brutal.
Oakland Raiders
Grade: C+
Best Pick: Connor Cook, Michigan State QB
It wouldn’t be an NFL draft if the air didn’t suck out of the room when the Raiders made their first-round pick, and sure enough: Karl Joseph went very early, especially considering his injury status. But for once, the Raiders just might be crazy-like-a-fox here; a healthy Joseph is exactly what the defense needs. They added two yin/yang rotational DEs on Day 2, and then jumped the Cowboys for Cook. Cook is a strange choice as the presumptive backup for Derek Carr, but the value is exceptional.
Philadelphia Eagles
Grade: C
Best Pick: Carson Wentz, North Dakota State QB
How do you grade a draft when so much was given up for one player? Either Wentz is a Joe Flacco/Ben Roethlisberger hybrid who makes the Eagles contenders for the next dozen years, or he isn’t and it’s a massive disaster. They gave up what they had to to get their man, and picked up a versatile offensive line prospect in Isaac Seumalo.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Grade: D
Best Pick: Javon Hargrave, South Carolina State DT
This is a tough one to figure out. Of all the years the Steelers presumably needed a first-round cornerback and didn’t take one, Artie Burns is both a reach and a weird scheme fit at No. 25. Seth Davis is another corner/safety tweener who will eventually find a role in the Steelers’ secondary—but to go one-two with defensive backs who don’t clearly project to the Steelers’ starting lineup is a head-scratcher.
San Diego Chargers
Grade: B
Best Pick: Joshua Perry, Ohio State ILB
Bosa is a fantastic physical talent, and certainly worthy of a top-five pick. But this is an odd fit: He’s not quite big enough to control the line of scrimmage as a 3-4 end, and a little too plodding to make sense as an every-down 3-4 linebacker. Center Max Tuerk out of USC immediately helps an interior line that needed help, and fourth-round linebacker Josh Perry brings size and versatility to a linebacking corps that’s a little short on both.
San Francisco 49ers
Grade: B
Best Pick: DeForest Buckner, Oregon DT
The 49ers had to be thrilled to get Buckner at No. 7; he fits the new prototype for a prototypical 3-4 end. With rumors he could go as high as No. 3, this is a perfect fit and great value. Together with Glenn Dorsey and Arik Armstead, that is a BIG defensive line. The trade up to get guard Joshua Garnett is a lot less exciting; he’s a power-run blocker in a zone-running scheme. If he’s a Chip Kelly pick, I’ll assume Kelly knows more about his scheme than I do. If he’s a Baalke/York pick Because Stanford, it’s brutal.
Seattle Seahawks
Grade: B-
Best Pick: Jarran Reed, Alabama DT
First-round pick Germain Ifedi is a versatile player who can help almost anywhere along the line—which is great, because the Seahawks need help almost everywhere along the line. He’s a little bit of a reach at the bottom of the first, but that’s balanced out by Reed, who’s a great second-round value. Reed’s another strong step toward rebuilding the flexible defensive line depth that won them a Super Bowl. Keep an eye out for sixth-round center Joey Hunt; the loss of Max Unger may have proved to the Seahawks that they do need a pass-blocking center after all.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Grade: A
Best Pick: Roberto Aguayo, Florida State K
Yeah, I said it.
The Bucs traded up for a kicker and drafted him high, and it was a good move. Historically, people crap on kickers, but they’re an important part of the game. Aguayo isn’t a huge-legged guy, but he fills a hole in the roster that repeatedly cost the Bucs games last year. Golf clap.
Meanwhile, getting an extra pick to slide from No. 9 to No. 11 and drafting the stud corner you’d have drafted at nine anyway is what good drafting is all about. Noah Spence is a pure 4-3 rush end in a draft that doesn’t have many of them, but he was available in the second for a reason. Huge upside, huge risk.
Tennessee Titans
Grade: D
Best Pick: Kevin Byard, Middle Tennessee State S
Jack Conklin is a good player and will be a fantastic pair with Taylor Lewan, but his projection to the NFL is a little murky, and Laremy Tunsil was still on the board. Combine that with the nonsensical addition of one-speed bruiser Derrick Henry to a backfield of nothing but one-speed bruisers, and a ridiculous aversion to actually getting Marcus Mariota the weapons he needs, and this is a frustrating draft.
Washington
Grade: A-
Best Pick: Josh Doctson, TCU WR
Washington flipped picks with the Texans, picked up an extra sixth-round pick, took the better receiver prospect one spot later and eventually snagged an interesting quarterback prospect in Indiana’s Nate Sudfeld. Su’a Cravens is one of those newfangled linebacker/safety hybrids who fits perfectly in an NFL world where the nickel defense IS the base defense.
