Draft grades of a different sort
It is super common to see draft grades for individual 1st round picks...or maybe team by team (mostly based on the first round) from A to F.
This article is decidedly not that.
I don't want to discourage anyone from writing that article...and the top of the draft deserves extra attention. But the weakness of that sort of article is that only rarely does anyone get beyond the first round. In this one I'm going to find those picks I like or don't like throughout the draft.
The limits will be my own stamina, biases, and in some ways the work I put into my own draft board. Hopefully it is still enjoyable to all.
1.11 - MLB Pat Angerer
1.18 - FS Eric Berry
1.26 - OLB Navorro Bowman
The picks that get A+ in the articles I'm talking about come one of two ways. Either a perfect cross-section of talent + need (usually oversold as a perfect pick when in fact there is often a better player available)...or a team that waited all the way to their pick and grabbed the best player available.
San Diego ignored all of the heat and discussions about this guy and thought he would fall...OR...AC did a great job of trusting his board and waiting to see which of the best ones fell to him. Angerer is basically Ray Lewis reincarnated. Speed, strength, hands, tackle...the total package and legitimately would have been a good pick at 1.2-1.4.
Eric Berry was one of three great safeties, but felt like the best of the three. Ended up drafted after Nate Allen (who had a tremendous skew) but Berry was both the most ready and the most complete against the pass and the run of all of them. Legitimately may have gone to me at 1.4 if I didn't get rid of the pick.
Disliked:
1.16 - CB Joe Haden
1.30 - WR Demaryius Thomas
Haden is actually a guy I really had my eye on. His ability to catch is special, and he's a decent athlete. But in a draft and a league (and especially division) where 95+ SPD and often 6'2"+ is where the game is played, Haden has to be a nickleback in too any games to be 1.16 in this draft. I like him more at 2.16 (my opinion).
That said, the CB alternatives really don't have much on those deep threats either other than perhaps A. Varner.
Demaryius though, exactly the opposite. Thomas was somewhere in the middle of a WR lode of 6'2"-6-3" athletes at WR...one that didn't run out until late in the 3rd round. If one team should avoid a position (or several positions) it's the Cardinals. If a guy can't crack the primary backup position on your roster...there better be some thought on clearing space for that player in the next 1-2 years.
There's no indication the Cardinals want to downgrade from any of their top 2 WRs. There were enough developmental studs at OL or LB left that the Cards could have taken that I can't love this pick, even if this player is good.
1.11 - OT Shawn Lauvao
2.27 - MLB Sean Lee
2.28 - CB Dominique Franks
4.5 - Frank Zombo
Lauvao was in a really nice group of athletes, but even in that group he stood out. In the league, there are only 9 players with 65 SPD, 95 STR, 75 AGI, and 75 ACC. Next season he'll be the first (second if Det's Fulton makes it) of that group to have 70 SPD. Just an incredible athlete with equal ability to stonewall a DT and fly down the field into the second level to pancake any LB that exists.
Lee and Zombo are part of a unique MLB class with more AWR than pretty much any position group I've ever seen. Both have great speed and skills to go with it, and the fact that they fell to late 2nd and late 4th respectively is outstanding for the Bears and Colts.
I thought Lee might be the 3rd or 4th MLB and had a chance to go at the end of the 1st or top of the 2nd round. As complete at Spikes, the final slot would be skew-dependent but his ability to be a complete pro bowl starter is unquestioned.
Zombo is a far more unique case, but with his speed/hands combination is a 6'3" version of the Buster Davis experiment going so well in Atlanta. Zombo is not everyone's cup of tea and could end up sitting...but his special skills combo at 6'3" with speed, awareness, and catch makes him weirdly closer to Urlacher coming out of college than any other pro prospect I can think of. Brian Urlacher filled out and became a terror at every facet of the game...where Zombo may stay more speed/coverage oriented.
Franks is one that I had overlooked myself due to speed...but the 6'0" CB with 76 catch skewed up to 92 SPD, making him roughly equal to all of the first round CBs other than Murphey...as they all worked out at 92-93 SPD. Very interested to see his career and the impact he makes in the AFC South.
Disliked:
2.3 - OLB Jason Pierre-Paul
2.8 - DT Tyson Alualu
The DL was pretty bad in this draft. Objectively.
Jason Pierre-Paul came out of college with questions about his fit at 4-3 DE vs 3-4 OLB, but the NYG drafted him to be a DE. As often goes, he was called both during and after the draft...and leaves the Dolphins with a choice.
The only position he can play in this engine is 3-4 OLB...with perhaps some ability to play ROLB in a 4-3 but with large issues keeping contain. I've tried, and never got this profile to succeed at playing the run well at all...and speed linebackers do better in space in the 3-4 than bigger slower types. This early, it's a miss I think.
As the draft goes on, the "can't miss value dries up, and so this will be the last "don't like" pick of the draft for me.
Tylson Alualu is an interesting athlete and projects to be a fun tweener at the DE/DT divide. 4-3, can play all four positions, and can play 3-4 DE as well.
But not well.
Too little strength (will need a lot of work to catch up) to play inside very well...too little speed to play outside really well. Love the player, just don't love using a top-40 pick on the player when clearly impactful players are still being drafted into the 3rd round.
5.8 - OT Ramon Harwood
5.26 - WR Tim Toone
6.30 - DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim
Getting tougher back here, but after disliking a Saints pick earlier gotta highlight Harwood's athleticism and blocking. Fast, great agility/acceleration, and savvy blocking fill out an otherwise ordinary strength/awareness profile. Can legitimately develop and start his whole career...and would make an above-average LG or RT with development.
Tim Toone is an incredible find this late. A KR specialist that is also tall and fast enough to fill in or develop as a deep threat starter (think Meacham in NO Saints role IRL)...this is a very good find.
The Cardinals very surprisingly find a decent athlete near the back of the 6th despite the shallow DL draft The Washington DE has pretty good speed and acceleration, and could develop into a 2nd DT or a run-stopping DE given the right amount of experience.
