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Forget all the immediate draft grades, even if I do them. The reality is they mean nothing. It’s too soon. Wait three years. You have to let the picks and decisions marinate before truly giving them a real grade.
That’s what I do here with the 2021 NFL Draft. I am regrading every team, but also regrading myself as I do so by highlighting the moves I liked and didn’t like — some of which make me look foolish now.
In this regrade, two teams killed it. One is the Detroit Lions, which we should understand after last season’s push to brink of the Super Bowl with this 2021 class as the foundation for that team. The Lions landed five starters in the 2021 draft, which is why they earned one of my A+ grades in the regrading.
The only other A+ grade goes to the Denver Broncos, a true lesson in how even a good foundation won’t work if the quarterback position is a problem. The Broncos killed the 2021 draft, yet it hasn’t translated to on-field success in large part because Russell Wilson was a flop in Denver.
That 2021 Broncos class landed the team six players who will head into training camp this year as starters, headlined by first-round pick Patrick Surtain II, one of the best in the game. Yet Denver has 20 victories in three seasons since those picks were made. Ouch.
That’s lesson No. 4,993 on the value of the quarterback position.
I gave out one F in the regrade, which goes to the Seattle Seahawks. They traded their first- and third-round picks in that draft — along with another first-round pick in 2022 — for box safety Jamal Adams, who was let go earlier this year. The rest of the draft didn’t produce a starter. That’s terrible.
There are some other bad grades — like the New York Jets earning a D- in the Zach Wilson draft — but the Seahawks were the worst.
Regrading drafts can be humbling for those of us who do immediate grades. But it’s also fun to look back and see how wrong…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/regrading-2021-nfl-draft-lions-broncos-hauls-look-even-greater-jets-bears-miss-big-on-franchise-qbs/
Author : Pete Prisco
Publish date : 2024-05-14 16:10:17
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