Draft Day Winners and Losers

[Adrenaline_Flux]

I don't usually participate in these winners/losers threads because so often what determines the answers for this happens well after the fact of the draft, but I did want to pop in and say that from top to bottom I was very impressed with the Carolina Panthers draft. I don't know Phil Hoskins and I'm not going to pretend I had scouted the long snapper (but he apparently has a very well-timed long snap), but literally every pick before that were guys I was a fan of. I can't remember another time a team took 9 players in the draft that I liked before the draft.

[VigilantZombie]

11 hours ago, Johnny Nix said:

I think the AFC North as a whole got a whole lot better. 

I think its going to be the most competitive division in the league this year tbh. An absolute blood bath Mortal Kombat Style so to speak. When the dust settles, who knows what's going to happen 

[RaidersAreOne]

Yea we know the Raiders reached on Leatherwood. But FWIW there's been a number of reports saying the Ravens were going to take him at 27. Obviously 27 > 17 value, but people saying he'd be there in the mid 2nd/early 3rd are off. 

[DawgX]

6 hours ago, Johnny Nix said:

I was fairly happy with the Bengals draft. There was some players here and there I would have preferred, but it was obvious they wanted to beef up the lines. We drafted 7 offensive and defensive lineman of our 10 picks. 

Did you prefer Chase or Sewell?

Chase will be a stud for you guys, but I think you should have went with Sewell. Priority #1 should be protecting Burrow and you guys already have a couple of really good receivers.

With that said, defending Boyd, Higgins, and Chase is gonna be a huge problem for defenses. As long as the offensive line holds up.

[Turnobili]

while i dont hate their picks, i think Miami's decision to prematurely trade back up to 6 will be called into question. they had to assume that one of Chase/Pitts would have been there. would they really have moved up from 12 to 6 in the moment to grab Waddle?

[Johnny Nix]

26 minutes ago, DawgX said:

Did you prefer Chase or Sewell?

Chase will be a stud for you guys, but I think you should have went with Sewell. Priority #1 should be protecting Burrow and you guys already have a couple of really good receivers.

With that said, defending Boyd, Higgins, and Chase is gonna be a huge problem for defenses. As long as the offensive line holds up.

I wanted Chase. Wish we would have went Teven Jenkins in the 2nd instead of trade down. 

[CatalystNX]

51 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Yea we know the Raiders reached on Leatherwood. But FWIW there's been a number of reports saying the Ravens were going to take him at 27. Obviously 27 > 17 value, but people saying he'd be there in the mid 2nd/early 3rd are off. 

For me it depends on where they're going to play him. I think he can be a pretty good guard in the NFL; I'm less optimistic about him as a right tackle.

[Nut]

8 hours ago, Nick_gb said:

Fans do it to pass time because there's nothing else to do until training camp starts. It's also to showcase who they liked / didn't like prior to the draft. In no way shape or form is anyone saying "Damn they'll suck for the next decade because of this draft" -- What's dumb is coming on an NFL Football forum and expecting not to see this immediately after draft.

Please, you got living room GM's that play the whole "oh they reached on this guy", "this team is dumb for doing this", etc.

The draft is the single most overhyped, overanalyzed and overrated event in the NFL.

[Xenos]

11 hours ago, SBLIII said:

I think the top 2 picks of the Chargers will hit but think they could have done better overall especially in the 3rd

The 3rd round was definitely interesting to say the least. I didn’t think WR was a need. Though we did need a TE that could block after Henry left. I’m actually okay with the day 3 picks. Would have preferred a safety earlier than round 7 but in Staley I trust.

[Uncle Buck]

12 hours ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Interesting. A few analysts had him going higher. I love his potential. 

The Raiders did just fine.  People are being hard on them because Leatherwood was a bit of a reach, but as you said, if you reverse the order of Moehrig and Leatherwood, everything seems pretty normal.  Either way, Leatherwood should be a decent player on your offensive line.

The main thing I would complain about is that someone needs to teach Gruden and Mayock about the concept of value in drafting players.  Mayock is a very good talent evaluator, but over time, if you take even good players at the wrong time, it is going to catch up to him because he could have gotten more overall talent.

Ultimately, the Raiders don't have anything to be embarrassed about.  Everything ended up fine. 

[Uncle Buck]

10 hours ago, Nut said:

I love threads like this.

Grading drafts right afterwards has got to be one of the dumbest things football fans do.

Get back with me in 3 or 4 years THEN we'll talk.

Isn't talking about this stuff exactly what this site is all about?  3-4 years now, I would HOPE you would have a decent grasp on them.  What will there be to talk about then?  There's nothing wrong with people speculating on how good players will be.  That's part of the fun of the draft.     

[wackywabbit]

2 hours ago, Nut said:

The draft is the single most overhyped, overanalyzed and overrated event in the NFL.

It's not any of those things though. The draft is the most important part of the year for long term success of a team. You just don't immediate and clear answers confirmed right away. But some teams were greatly improved and others were greatly set back because of the decisions they made.

35 minutes ago, Uncle Buck said:

Isn't talking about this stuff exactly what this site is all about?  3-4 years now, I would HOPE you would have a decent grasp on them.  What will there be to talk about then?  There's nothing wrong with people speculating on how good players will be.  That's part of the fun of the draft.     

Maybe some people just want to be emailed a spreadsheet of the scores at the end of each week. Why speculate or care about who is going to win a game that's still going on when you can just look up the score after it's over? It's common sense, really.

Edited May 3, 2021 by wackywabbit

[Bearerofnews]

 

 

[wackywabbit]

3 hours ago, RaidersAreOne said:

Yea we know the Raiders reached on Leatherwood. But FWIW there's been a number of reports saying the Ravens were going to take him at 27. Obviously 27 > 17 value, but people saying he'd be there in the mid 2nd/early 3rd are off. 

IDK... the Ravens didn't take a single tackle with any of their 9 picks. Seems hard to believe a report they were planning to take Leatherwood, especially since he wasn't even close and they said they didn't want to trade up at all. They surely were not narrowed down to a player that far in advance. It seems like there is one guy saying that "report" and he doesn't seem to be on the Ravens beat or have broken anything about the Ravens. The FO also literally admitted they were putting smoke out about who/where they were targeting, including saying they didn't need WRs and that it was insulting to the young WRs on the team to say they needed more there. They of course took Bateman in the 1st AND Tylan Wallace in the 4th.

[Uncle Buck]

10 hours ago, Johnny Nix said:

I was fairly happy with the Bengals draft. There was some players here and there I would have preferred, but it was obvious they wanted to beef up the lines. We drafted 7 offensive and defensive lineman of our 10 picks. 

Yep.  They got a great receiver in the first round and still did what they needed to do to protect your franchise QB later in the draft.  Nice job by the Browns.