Some team is going to hit it big this season and ride the wave of rookie stardom into the playoffs—like the Bengals did last year, going from 4-11-1 all the way to the Super Bowl.
We already ran through this exercise after the hectic opening of free agency , but now is truly the perfect time to reevaluate where franchises stand and where they could be in a matter of months.
I’ll count myself as one of those folks last year, who overthought the momentary slowdown of the Chiefs and assumed Patrick Mahomes might settle into an early-career period that made him look something closer to human.
The run on first-round wide receivers happened early, which allowed the Packers to hang back and net a combination of Georgia defenders that will make the team less singularly reliant on stellar linebacking play and a little bit beefier against the run.
The Rams targeted interior offensive line play as a critical need during draft season and came away with the versatile Logan Bruss out of Wisconsin.
While my initial grade on the Bills draft—a B minus—felt conservative at the time, it is looking more and more like the team made some serious and timely upgrades despite picking at the end of the first round.
Each season is a testament to both team-building and luck, with the Bengals being unique in that so many of their biggest breaks last year came from dogging out tough games and hanging around when other teams could not.
Continuously pegging the Chargers as an it team, which I’ve seemingly done each year since the hiring of former head coach Anthony Lynn, is getting exhausting.
People are going to complain about a lack of help at the wide receiver position, though I’d argue that if wide receiver was a position central to their near-future plans, they would not have let Hollywood Brown go.
Who knows whether that is ultimately good enough for this particular franchise, to perpetually make it to the postseason and then thrust themselves into a too-close game that gives their fan base the ability to blame losses on the officiating crew.
Internally, the Broncos were over the moon about their draft class, and I think part of that has to do with understanding how deeply creative their coaching staff is.
The Colts remind me a bit of my youthful obsession with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which led to my buying and obsessing over their records far longer than I should have.
It probably never ceases to amaze Bill Belichick that people don’t understand his desire to draft a certain kind of person over a certain kind of pedigree, which obviously leads to some significant misses and head-scratching choices .
The last few years have been a stellar run for Mike Vrabel, and there will be good times in the future, but could this season get a bit rocky? On the plus side, we’ll get to see the development of receiver Treylon Burks, who should be considered a possible Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate in that system.
The 49ers kept Deebo Samuel and will eventually trade Jimmy Garoppolo, leaving us with only a foggy idea of what their offense looks like over the long term.
The defense could be among the best in the NFC, with interior line pressure rivaling that of any team in the league.
Josh McDaniels chose one of the most chaotic offseasons in NFL history to become a head coach again, which means many of his decisions have avoided the kind of microscope they might have if McDaniels was the story of the offseason.
After disagreeing with the sentiment that the Saints are a win-now team in my draft grades post, which earned me some kind overtures on social media , I’ve chosen to hedge that statement just a little bit.
If we’re doing this power rankings exercise, in part, to show how much better a team got between free agency and the draft, I can’t depict the Cardinals as a team that transformed itself in any meaningful way.
Looking at Patrick Mahomes’s fan base inside NFL scouting departments versus after his rookie season is like seeing the crowd at Neutral Milk Hotel in some collegiate dorm room in the late 1990s versus Metallica on the East Stage at Woodstock.
Rant time: Paul DePodesta has had six years now as the team’s “director of strategy.” While he’s not the de facto general manager, imagine a GM whose track record was as follows: hired Hue Jackson, who compiled a record so egregious the team triggered an eventual tanking investigation; replaced Jackson with Freddie Kitchens, who lasted one season; rubber-stamped the Odell Beckham Jr.
Anyway, the Browns had what appeared to be a good draft and, outside of the edge position opposite Garrett and the wide receiver spot, look to be one of the most complete rosters in football.
While we came away surprised there weren’t any distinguishing offensive draft picks that tipped us off as to where McDaniel was leaning, the Dolphins should be an interesting outside-zone team with more intermediate, quick-strike opportunities for Tua Tagovailoa.
Large-scale pick accrual is tricky business right now, and without the time to establish an edge elsewhere, Kwesi Adofo-Mensah opted to move back and try to manipulate the board in his favor.
I can’t be the only one who would prefer Ryan Fitzpatrick over Carson Wentz here, or even another round of Taylor Heinicke.
With their cup running over at wide receiver and two consistent, pressure players at the edge spots, this team feels so much more complete than it was a year ago.
Joe Douglas came as close as any GM to winning this draft, netting the Jets some shutdown cornerback talent and a receiver whose run-after-the-catch ability will help Wilson tremendously.
A team that ran press-man coverage fewer than all but seven teams in the NFL last year, the Texans will almost certainly have to change their identity to accommodate a player who is infinitely better when he can get his hands on a defender, much like Lovie Smith tried to accommodate Darrelle Revis while coaching in Tampa Bay.
This team still has the feeling of an adrift franchise, but getting Trevor Lawrence into a somewhat controlled situation, with a handful of veteran, athletic weapons can’t be the worst thing for his career.
The relationship between Russell Wilson, Pete Carroll and John Schneider brought a bit of stagnancy to a once creative and forward-thinking franchise that was stuck in a particular mode of being for too long.
No team is going to call what it’s doing a rebuild at this point, especially with the Brian Flores investigation happening and the Hue Jackson investigation recently in the NFL’s rearview mirror.
Corral is going to get rid of the ball before most teams have time to set up their coverage and, while his quarterback rating tends to dip significantly under pressure, he may find himself under less pressure.
Bears fans may feel otherwise, but how did this draft assuage any of our concerns about their young quarterback’s surrounding talent? A majority of Chicago’s picks were in the sixth or seventh round.
