2019 Draft class review...last one was fun, so let's do it again.

[vegas492]

Quick note:  Grades reflect the player, what he did or did not do and takes into account where he was drafted.

Let's get after it!

1.12: Rashan Gary, OLB.  Very high pick and we took a guy who didn't produce stats in college, despite immense talent.  First year was basically a developmental year.  Had Z and P in front of him and Fackrell, if I recall correctly.  2 sacks.  3 QB hits in year one.  Was progressing really, really well.  5 sacks, 11 hits in year 2.  9.5 sacks and 28 hits in year 3.  Then the injury happened, which was too bad as he wasn't elite yet, but he was knocking on that door.  9 games, 6 sacks, 12 hits.  (per PFR)  I disliked the pick at the time.  Too high to take someone who needed to learn a new position.  But?  I was wrong.  Gary is a stud and will soon be paid like one, despite the injury.  Grade wise?  Right now, it's probably a solid B.  And that is because of his redshirt year and a bad injury.  But the immense talent is there, as is the work ethic, and this could easily be an A in the near future.  My final grade....B.

1.21: Darnell Savage, S.  Traded the #30 pick and 2 fourth rounders to move up to #21.  Tease.  There I said it.  He's a tease.  Maybe he had first round buzz prior to the combine and I just wasn't paying attention.  But from what I say, as purely a fan reading junk on the internet, he was one of those fast risers after the combine.  Being fair to the dude.  2,4,2,1.  Interceptions by year.  He's flashed elite safety stuff early...then poor safety stuff later.  And then he flashed some pretty elite slot corner stuff, including a pick and 75 yard TD return.  Considering we gave up enough for him, my final grade is.......C+.  But, kind of like Gary, this grade could improve.  

2.44: Elgton Jenkins, IOL.  I'm going to tell on myself here.  I love watching OL film.  Maybe it is because my old man loved coaching OL and I loved watching him do it as a young kid.  We both giggled about this guy when we talked.  He played some center in college.  He could snap the ball and then get out and lead a sweep.  He would literally pass up a guard on the way.  Big men shouldn't be able to move like that.  He 's a stud.  Plain and simple.  Very happy that he got his second deal despite struggling to come back from his injury.  We both loved him as a prospect and didn't think there was any way GB would take a C/G with a second round pick.   My final grade is....A.  Only thing keeping from an A+ is the injury.

3.76:  Terry McLaurin....oh wait, that was the pick after ours.  Pick 3.75  Jace Sternberger, TE.  It's an F.  No point in even talking about it.  

5.150:  Kingsley Keke, DL.  What an odd player to evaluate.  0, 4, 2.5.  Sacks by year.  Really seemed to be primed for a breakout season.  Then something happened and he was toast.  Anyone remember what that was?  Or was he just not very good and getting PT because our entire DL was junk at the time.  Either way, didn't even see year 4 of his deal before being cut.  Still, 6.5 sacks in 3 years from a fifth round pick.  I'd say that is a little better than what you can realistically expect from a 5'th rounder.  My final grade is ....C+.

6.185:  Ka'dar Hollman, CB.  Had to look this up, because I couldn't remember how long he lasted on the team and whether he even got playing time.  Stats don't tell me much, neither does my memory.  Honestly can't tell you if he contributed anything to specials either, and if I'm remembering, our specials were God awful then.  This scratch off lottery ticket was a hard bust.  My final grade is.....F.

6.194: Dexter Williams, RB.  Seems to me like he had good size and some speed to him.  Kind of another tease.  Kept waiting for him to get a chance and carve out a role for himself.  Never happened.  7 rushes for GB, 19 yards.  My final grade is .....D.  Probably generous here, but I thought he had potential.

7.226:  Ty Summers, ILB.  He was on the roster long enough, he played specials and even had a spot start in there over the course of 3 seasons in GB.  52 tackles.  39 in 2020 in limited action.  I think he's going to bounce around the league for a while because he's not God awful and he does play specials.  My final grade is....B-.  Inflated because of being a 7'th round pick that was actually useful on the roster.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Injuries suck.  This should be a building block for the Packers.  Stud pass rusher.  Stud offensive lineman.  But they were both hurt.  Savage should be better, but maybe he can carve out a career as a nickle slot now.  We shall see.  This will also be the draft for WHY GUTE NOT PICK MCLAURIN???  

My final grade for the entire draft is......B.  And very much could have been higher if Gary had not gotten injured.  And can still be higher when he comes back healthy.  Savage is still the wildcard, because there is a scenario that he plays up playing a different position.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by vegas492

[ThatJerkDave]

I think this draft is overall a C or C- hopefully my reasons can show why I think this way.

Gary - I think we have an A player with B or B- stats.  We know what he is capable of, but Brian Burns and Montez Sweat have been more productive at the same position.  Last we saw him, he is on the cusp of being very, very good though.  Grade him probably a B.

Savage - If I remember correctly, this was kind of like HaHa being picked.  We needed a safety, badly.  He isn't as good as we had hoped.  He is probably also a one contract player.  But only CJ Gardner-Johnson has really been better from this class, and everyone missed him until the 4th round.  Savage has also started 59 games for the Packers.  It is not a total failure, but I don't think it is good.  C- probably.

Jenkins - Easy A.  Not much discussion needed.

Sternberger, Hollman, Williams - F.  Didn't do anything for us, didn't do anything in the league.  I thought Hollman was going to be a steal, I was wrong.

Keke - Looked to be a good sub pass rusher.  And was not played enough. As soon as he got good PT he was cut.  I have no idea what happened.  Out of a 5th round pick that isn't horrible, but it isn't really good either.  Give him a C- or D.

Summers - He played in 46 games for the Packers, mostly on STs, on a really bad STs unit.  I think he was just not a good enough athlete to compete in the NFL.  He seemed pretty good at ILB in the preseason, and was the back-up green helmet, IIRC.  In baseball there is a term, AAAA player.  I think that is where Summers lies.  Give him a C for contributing as a 7th rounder.

Seems like an average draft.  We got 2 long term starters, a major contributor, and a couple of minor contributors.  It is about the minimum that you want.  I am betting that the grades people will give will be based on what the person's opinion of Gary and Savage will be.  I think I am a little more lenient on Savage than most will be, but probably a little less generous for Gary.  I give this a solid C.  I would love to hear any arguments for an A or F, I just can't see that here.  

My biggest whiff here was Ka'Dar Hollman.  I thought that we had a bright young CB group with Alexander and King, then when we needed 3, Hollman mans the outside with King and Alexander moves inside.  I was WAY off.  Like, I was envisioning Casey Hayward.  

[skibrett15]

Strangely Savage has better Rookie contract AV than Gary.  Positional value gets washed out in that stuff, and all that matters are starts if you don't have awards or eye popping stats.

[incognito_man]

Late round guys' grades are too harsh. 

An AVERAGE guy busts in those rounds. 

[MacReady]

When it happened no draft had ever made me more excited.

If Savage had hit…

[TransientTexan]

They did at least get a 7th round pick for Hollman. & fwiw, I think over 50% of NFL players drafted rounds 5 thru 7 are cut before the end of their rookie contracts. 

so calling such guys busts is kind of like calling a UDFA a bust. 

Edited March 4, 2023 by TransientTexan

[VegasDan]

Keke was a strange story. Cut at the very end of the 21 season as he appeared to be an ascending player. The story was there was some personal issues going on. The rumor was he argued with coaches and his attitude was heading south.  As I recall another team signed him and then cut him soon thereafter. I don't think he was ever signed again. Must have been something fairly serious and word got out quickly.

I was really shocked when he was cut - thinking he was above average and a good shot at becoming impactful.

[Mazrimiv]

Damn, had GB taken McLaurin at #75, that would have been a hell of a draft.

[ThatJerkDave]

13 hours ago, TransientTexan said:

They did at least get a 7th round pick for Hollman. & fwiw, I think over 50% of NFL players drafted rounds 5 thru 7 are cut before the end of their rookie contracts. 

so calling such guys busts is kind of like calling a UDFA a bust. 

It depends on the exercise.  Is Ka'Dar Hollman a franchise altering bust like Jamarcus Russell? Absolutely not.  But we are trying to objectively rate a single draft class, using mostly subjective means.  Getting an F grade on pick 10 is also a whole lot different than getting an F grade on pick 200.  But just because you don't expect much from pick 200 doesn't mean that not getting much of anything out of the pick makes it average.  Even with a curve, a 5% is usually still an F. 

[Refugee]

33 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

It depends on the exercise.  Is Ka'Dar Hollman a franchise altering bust like Jamarcus Russell? Absolutely not.  But we are trying to objectively rate a single draft class, using mostly subjective means.  Getting an F grade on pick 10 is also a whole lot different than getting an F grade on pick 200.  But just because you don't expect much from pick 200 doesn't mean that not getting much of anything out of the pick makes it average.  Even with a curve, a 5% is usually still an F. 

The guy played in some games and had some tackles and PDs and ST reps as a 6th rounder then got us a Texans 7th rounder back. Was never a great player but did fill in some snaps and was not enough of a liability to cut out right. I don’t think that’s a failure. 

[TransientTexan]

2 hours ago, ThatJerkDave said:

It depends on the exercise.  Is Ka'Dar Hollman a franchise altering bust like Jamarcus Russell? Absolutely not.  But we are trying to objectively rate a single draft class, using mostly subjective means.  Getting an F grade on pick 10 is also a whole lot different than getting an F grade on pick 200.  But just because you don't expect much from pick 200 doesn't mean that not getting much of anything out of the pick makes it average.  Even with a curve, a 5% is usually still an F. 

I’m just saying that he did at least get the team a draft pick, which is more than can be said for most other 6th-rounders, who are cut for nothing. If you’re already at ‘F’ when a guy gets you another draft pick, how do you grade the 6th-rounders that just get cut outright? double-‘F’?

[ThatJerkDave]

1 hour ago, Refugee said:

The guy played in some games and had some tackles and PDs and ST reps as a 6th rounder then got us a Texans 7th rounder back. Was never a great player but did fill in some snaps and was not enough of a liability to cut out right. I don’t think that’s a failure. 

So, what do you grade him? Is that a D? C? 

Ask 2 questions:  1.  Was he good?  2.  What pick was used?

Nobody is arguing that Jace Sternberger wasn't an F.  He was pick 75, and had 114 yards and a TD.  More or less nothing.  Ka'Dar Hollman was pick 185 and gave us 1 start, 10 tackles and 3 PDs.  Again, more or less nothing.  One is a nickel slot and the other was a dollar slot, both paid out $0.  

Nobody is saying Gute needs to be fired, or is not good at his job because he didn't hit on a 6th round pick.  But a swing and a miss, is a swing and a miss.

[ThatJerkDave]

2 minutes ago, TransientTexan said:

I’m just saying that he did at least get the team a draft pick, which is more than can be said for most other 6th-rounders, who are cut for nothing. If you’re already at ‘F’ when a guy gets you another draft pick, how do you grade the 6th-rounders that just get cut outright? double-‘F’?

So do you give him a D? Does that really change the overall value of this draft? 

Jenkins is great, Gary is very good, Savage is okay, the rest really didn't amount to a whole lot.  Still probably a C grade for the entire draft.

[TransientTexan]

25 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

Does that really change the overall value of this draft?

Probably not, but it still is an interesting topic to discuss.

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by TransientTexan

[Refugee]

12 minutes ago, ThatJerkDave said:

So do you give him a D? Does that really change the overall value of this draft? 

Jenkins is great, Gary is very good, Savage is okay, the rest really didn't amount to a whole lot.  Still probably a C grade for the entire draft.

I don’t know where he would fall on an A-F scale but I’d say he certainly met expectations for a 6th rounder. He played some positional snaps, gave us depth and was on several ST units.  Nevermind that our ST was dismal, he wasn’t in charge of the scheme. He’s been on various PS and is still on the Texans roster so he’s still cashing NFL checks. Anyway, I know this is an offseason exercise in splitting hairs and I will likely never type the name Ka’dar Hollman again but he was well worth pick 185.