Did Your Team Nail The Draft?
THE DRAFT IS OVER!
I have uploaded all the pics on the appropriate page, including those past round 1. How did your team do?
To be honest, outside the first couple of rounds, I don’t think anyone can really judge the picks. The first 3 or so rounds are the guys we hear about. The ones with talent, the ones who had good seasons, the ones who are the strongest in a weak positional year. It feels fairly easy to judge those picks even if we don’t know for sure which will bust or boom yet. When it comes to the later rounds, it feels like the best thing to do is look for anyone who actually knows the players specifically to get a judgment or examine their positions and see if they fit the needs your team has.
I was generally pretty happy with the Giants draft, outside our second-round pick. Thibs and Neal are slam dunks, but their second-rounder, Wan’Dale Robinson, seemed like a bizarre choice. He’s a small shifty wide wide receiver. That would be fine if WR was a bigger need than it is. The Giants re-signed Shephard (which I didn’t expect) who is basically already this guy (though older and injured). Golladay was a bust last year for sure and Toney was an often-injured headcase, but we have WRs and now we have an offense not run by Jason Garrett and Freddie Kitchens, nor will we be subjected to the likes of Mike Glennon and the worst offense in history. WR is needed, but there were better more pressing options on the board at that moment. Would have preferred a CB there.
Past round two, we ended up with a Guard, a CB, a Tight End, a Safety, a Linebacker, a DT, another guard, and another linebacker. In terms of quantity, that’s a good haul. If two of them are starter material, it’s a steal. If they mostly end up as depth, it’s not bad. Time always tells on the late picks, but they were generally things we needed and anything to get us out from under the specter of Gettleman is a blessing.
From what little else I know, it seems to me like the Jets absolutely killed it this draft, but none of it might matter if Zach Wilson sucks. (I personally think Wilson is a bust but who am I to say yet)
My way of knowing if a team drafted poorly is if homers spend the days after the draft swearing up and down that scouts and analysts know nothing and we have to wait until the season to judge.
Not because it’s a bad take, it’s actually a very reasonable thing to say. If homers start dropping reasonable takes like that, it’s a clear sign that they’re coping over a shitshow.
The Bears weakest position group was defensive tackle, and Ryan Poles, much like Ryan Pace, did everything to prove us that he isn’t drafting a need. Corners were very low on the shopping list. So they drafted Prince with the first pick and it’s just like…bruh are we gonna have a base 3-1 defense with 7 DBs all the time?
In the MLB draft, fangraphs releases Future Values for the prospects in addition to the rankings, to “stop meltdowns over drafting someone 20 spots below your pick spot who’s actually a very similar player”. So usually there’s one or two guys >50, then like 4-6 50s, then a few 45+, then like 20 45s, then another like 20 40+ guys, etc. Because a straight up ranking loses a lot of the nuances of the draft.
Football meanwhile doesn’t care about nuances, your team sucks and should die in a hole for drafting a guy we didn’t think they should draft.
In general football is frustrating when it comes to media compared to baseball. I can watch a regular show on MLBnetwork and get a bunch of enlightening analysis. If I watch NFLnetwork it’s like HOW DOES X TEAM STOP TYREEK HILL???? THEY CAN’T!!!!!! (GONE WRONG!)(AT 3 AM!)
To be fair though in baseball the draft is far less immediate/critical than in the NFL because of the years anyone will be expected to spend in the minors, the existence of the minors to begin with, all the various types of draft/draft-like vehicles for getting prospects (such as the international free agent slots which I don’t entirely understand), and a long standing culture of wheeling and dealing prospects (which even with the unprecedentedly bonkers off-season the NFL just had would not be practical for the NFL to fully replicate).
That said a similar obsessive culture of constant worry and focus about prospects as far down as Single A has been seeping into baseball fan sites at least. Worse yet is the unhealthy fixation on long since traded away prospects you might find (for example I knew beforehand I’d see someone bring up Jared Kelenic in the comments about Robinson Cano being DFA’ed today in a Mets site I read even though he was traded to the Mariners over three years ago).
Half the Bengals draft picks was Safeties. Either they are preparing to lose both Jessie Bates III and Vonn Bell after the next season OR Soft-of-GM Duke Tobin is still traumatized over the Rams’ last drive in the Super Bowl where Mattthew Stafford reduced the difficulty level to Rookie and the Bengals Secondary ran out of gas.
The comic does a good job explaining why it is hard not to get excited about your drafts. You have several ways to talk yourself into liking it.
I’m happy with the Panthers draft. We got a stud O Lineman, didn’t overpay for our Golden Corral buffet, and got some strong athletic talent that just need to be coached up in the late rounds. I don’t think we’ll win many games this year, but it was a good draft to build on for only having 4 picks to start with.
Most of the “experts” agreed that the Panthers had an above average draft, but the one that amuses me is CBS. Gave us an A and a B+ for our first two picks, and a C- (their lowest grade this year!) overall because we picked based on athletic measurables like 40 speed in the 6th and 7th rounds in positions of need, instead of somehow magically finding 1st round talent there.
alright i know this is late but the only reason i knew who dotson was is because he beat the fuck out of the terps when penn state came to college park.
You should have drawn Matt Corral as a star wars character.
Very very bad looking into the future, not re football, football isn’t looking any worse than anything else, wait what am I saying, this league is terrible, but the sport is fun.
everything will be on fire in 6 months.
Very very bad looking into the future, not re football, football isn’t looking any worse than anything else, wait what am I saying, this league is terrible, but the sport is fun.
everything will be on fire in 6 months.