Goldfish's Way Too Early Draft Rankings 2024 (All Up)

[Sad People]

8 hours ago, onejayhawk said:

What makes their draft better in my eyes is their elite post-draft work. They signed two draftable players in Edge Gabriel Murphy, UCLA and CB Dwight McGlothern, Arkansas.

This an area where the Chiefs have excelled so the importance should not be overlooked. 

I forgot to add this into my post but yeah the UDFA signings have some potential. A lot of the "depth" we gave up drafting by getting Turner and Co could come from here. A lot of DL and CBs.

Edited May 1 by Sad People

[THE DUKE]

Looking forward to seeing where the Bengals rank here.  Took a deep dive into the old GFW reviews last year and other than the odd minor miss here and there, he did a great job seeing into the future post draft.

[General Tso]

1 hour ago, SteelKing728 said:

The move up one spot makes more sense now.

Sounds like they read mock drafts too!

[Snake Plissken]

I was expecting the Vikings to be in the top half of the rankings given Goldfish's Final Draft Rankings (Top 150) and Mock Draft, but think it was a successful draft.   I think Viking Fans should be happy to come away with 6 players (including UDFAs) ranked/mocked in the top 175.

 

10.  JJ McCarthy.  Mocked to go at 5 with the Vikings giving up pick 11 and 23.

17. Dallas Turner.  Mocked to go at 8. 16th on GFDR

108. Kyree Jackson.  71 on the GDFR.  Mocked to go at 65.

177 Walter Rouse.  Mocked to go 154

UDFA Gabriel Murphy.  Mocked to go 145

UDFA Dwight McGlothern.  Mocked to go 174

 

Throw in a K, IOL, and DL in the 6th and 7th rounds.

[minutemancl]

14 minutes ago, Snake Plissken said:

I was expecting the Vikings to be in the top half of the rankings given Goldfish's Final Draft Rankings (Top 150) and Mock Draft, but think it was a successful draft.   I think Viking Fans should be happy to come away with 6 players (including UDFAs) ranked/mocked in the top 175.

 

10.  JJ McCarthy.  Mocked to go at 5 with the Vikings giving up pick 11 and 23.

17. Dallas Turner.  Mocked to go at 8. 16th on GFDR

108. Kyree Jackson.  71 on the GDFR.  Mocked to go at 65.

177 Walter Rouse.  Mocked to go 154

UDFA Gabriel Murphy.  Mocked to go 145

UDFA Dwight McGlothern.  Mocked to go 174

 

Throw in a K, IOL, and DL in the 6th and 7th rounds.

It'd be very disingenuous to rank the JJ and Turner picks as the value at just 10 and 17 without factoring in the trades required to get them. Like, the Vikings didn't spend pick 17 on Dallas Turner. They spent picks 42, 167, 188, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th on Dallas Turner.

[Snake Plissken]

10 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

It'd be very disingenuous to rank the JJ and Turner picks as the value at just 10 and 17 without factoring in the trades required to get them. Like, the Vikings didn't spend pick 17 on Dallas Turner. They spent picks 42, 167, 188, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th on Dallas Turner.

Yes it would.  I'm glad no one is doing that.

[goldfishwars]

2 hours ago, SteelKing728 said:

The move up one spot makes more sense now.

That video is nothing like how it’s described in the tweet haha

[Spartacus]

I'm a Packer fan so take it with a grain of salt if you like but I was pretty outspoken 2023 & 2022 of not liking the Vikings drafts (Although I did like Cine). Kwesi has not impressed me at all with his drafting so far and this year really isn't any different. JJ is such a hard scout to figure out part of me sees a little Zach Wilson in his game, Trubisky, Bridgewater, or frankly even a little Herbert. I don't really have a great comparison for him that I like... Either way I think he went exactly where he should have as the 4th QB taken. In a draft without a premium on QBs I think he is closer to a mid second rounder talent wise but you just never know with QBs. If they get it right the rest of the draft doesn't even really matter. 

I think a team like them should be trying to stack some young talent akin to what the Bears, Lions, and Packers have done in their own division but instead they draft like they are in a win now mode which I don't understand. They trade a lot for a pass rusher that in a stronger pass rush draft class probably would have been a mid 1st round pick. The pass rush upside is extremely evident but I see a guy who is probably going to get pushed around in the run game. 

For some reason Kwesi adores his stiff corners. Jackson, Blackmon, and Booth are all corners I disliked. I don't get what they see with their CB drafting. 

If I was the Vikings I would be trading down and trying to collect as much young talent as possible. There offense is good enough to see what you have in JJ but throw the wins away this year and build to compete 2025 +. 

[MikeT14]

The Vikings are probably exactly where I think they should be, taking my 5th ranked QB at 10th overall. I like Turner a lot, but they gave up a heck of a lot to get him. 

[INbengalfan]

2 hours ago, THE DUKE said:

Looking forward to seeing where the Bengals rank here.  Took a deep dive into the old GFW reviews last year and other than the odd minor miss here and there, he did a great job seeing into the future post draft.

This, plus the dallas ranking, means we may not be far away.  I think were had a great trenches draft, with a few playmakers thrown in.  Where we land will be interesting.

[Sad People]

1 hour ago, minutemancl said:

It'd be very disingenuous to rank the JJ and Turner picks as the value at just 10 and 17 without factoring in the trades required to get them. Like, the Vikings didn't spend pick 17 on Dallas Turner. They spent picks 42, 167, 188, 2025 2nd, 2025 3rd, and 2025 4th on Dallas Turner.

I might not using this term correctly but I think there’s a bit of a “sunk cost fallacy” in there. Just because we already used draft capital to move up to #23 shouldn’t deter us from moving on up and getting a player we never thought we would be in a position to get. That original capital is already gone. And when the original plan of using #23 to get a QB fell through their plan pivoted. 
 

Im personally not going to lose sleep over a bunch of day 3 picks. We are also getting a 3rd round comp pick next year so that 3rd we gave up was a wash perse. When you list the picks like does it look like a lot? Yes. But it also doesn’t tell the entire story of the situation either. 

Slick Rick loved his day 3 picks and it never got us anything except Stefan Diggs off the top of my head. 
 

 

[goldfishwars]

21. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

This Class In One Sentence:

One for the purists

Pre-Draft Needs (According to https://www.nflmockdraftdatabase.com/team-needs-2024)

EDGE, CB, IOL, WR, LB, OT, RB

Selections

26. Graham Barton | OL | Duke

57. Chris Braswell | EDGE | Alabama

89. Tykee Smith | S | Georgia

92. Jalen McMillan | WR | Washington

125. Bucky Irving | RB | Oregon

220. Elijah Klein | OL | UTEP

246. Devin Culp | TE | Washington

Best Pick

I mean, it’s Graham Barton one of my favorite players in the class. He’s a high-floor, versatile lineman who’s always in phase and always well-balanced. He gets after guys in the run game and consistently showed up against the best opponents. There will be an adjustment to life inside in the NFL at guard or center but he has a top-tier athletic profile to lean into it.

Worst Pick

I kind of feel mean for saying this, Tykee Smith isn’t someone I saw in that day two range. And I feel really mean saying this, but check out his picture on NFL.com – I could not believe it, a real sniper’s dream  https://www.nfl.com/prospects/tykee-smith/3200534d-4976-5745-c6d9-98123ebbe683

He does play the game with a real physical edge against the run – but he’s neither big or loose, which is unusual for Buccaneers DB picks and not a great combination overall. 

Overall

It’s a pretty decent haul, without any real fireworks. Tampa’s unexpected playoff appearance during a reset year has given Licht a few quandaries about where to take a Super Bowl winning roster whose better players are getting up there in age. Outside of Barton, who is pencilled in at center, I’d have liked to have seen another interior player. I like the Braswell addition in the 2nd at another obvious spot of need. He has a deadly bull-rush and generates pop in contact. He’s a complimentary piece, a little more workmanlike than sack artiste, but it's a good baseline power profile that see him hang around the league for a while. 

I do like Jalen McMillan at 92. He’s been out of the spotlight with a troublesome knee injury, but was quietly one of the best route runners in this class and was outstanding in 2022. Bucky Irving had drew some wildly varying opinions and Licht seems to have developed a preference for these lighter backs that do a bit of everything. And while it’s good to be sceptical of slow and small, it’s difficult to ignore his production and abilities as a receiver. 

[jofos]

13 hours ago, Hunter2_1 said:

@jofos thoughts on the above?

It is what it is but to call it "fact" is crazy. A source tells someone something doesn't make it fact. Is it possible? Of course, but remember when all the sources were this team was going to draft this guy or trade for that guy but they didn't. That's why they are unnamed sources. My stance on McCarthy hasn't changed. 

[PossibleCabbage]

8 hours ago, Sad People said:

Im personally not going to lose sleep over a bunch of day 3 picks. We are also getting a 3rd round comp pick next year so that 3rd we gave up was a wash perse. When you list the picks like does it look like a lot? Yes. But it also doesn’t tell the entire story of the situation either. 

Slick Rick loved his day 3 picks and it never got us anything except Stefan Diggs off the top of my head. 

I think this is the wrong way to think about day 3 picks.  Every team has to deal with "we need to roster 53 NFL players" and "we only have so much money to spend." Obviously some players are stars and you will pay whatever it takes to acquire/retain them, but everybody else is on a "we're happy to have you on the team as long as you don't cost too much" scale.  So to fill out the bottom of your roster you're either using cheap free agents, or you're using your draft picks because you simply can't afford to have really good players at every position.  The thing about day 3 draft picks is that they're almost always a better option to fill out the back of your roster not only because rarely one of them will turn into a star player, but they're also much, much cheaper than even the cheapest options in free agency because the minimum contract for a veteran is based on how many years he has played in the NFL and those cheap free agents are almost never going to turn into stars.  So a day 3 pick either saves you on a contract for a backup player compared to a street agent, which is money you can use to sign a better player somewhere else, or you get lucky and they're a star.

The Vikings usually do pretty well the undrafted guys they sign after the draft, but generally players you draft are better options than players who were not drafted.

Edited May 2 by PossibleCabbage

[goldfishwars]

44 minutes ago, jofos said:

It is what it is but to call it "fact" is crazy. A source tells someone something doesn't make it fact. Is it possible? Of course, but remember when all the sources were this team was going to draft this guy or trade for that guy but they didn't. That's why they are unnamed sources. My stance on McCarthy hasn't changed. 

Wait, are you saying the Giants passing on McCarthy and the Falcons preferring Penix aren’t facts? Or that neither the Broncos or Raiders liked him enough (or at all) to move up a few spots to get him? I don't think we have to get into the realms of unnamed sources here.