Fantasy Football Daily - NFC North and AFC North Draft Grades | On the Clock! NFL Draft Podcast

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Chris Wecht (@ChrisWechtFF) grade the 2023 NFL Draft classes of the NFC North and AFC South... including Brett's Detroit Lions. They also discuss the Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers. BRETT WHITEFIELD'S 2023 NFL DRAFT PROSPECT GUIDE IS FREE TO READ WITH A NO-CHARGE LOGIN AT FANTASY POINTS. Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. Use our code FANTASYPTS to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle. From numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. We are back with another episode of On the Clock. I'm your host, Brett Whitefield, and I'm once again joined by Chris Wecht, my partner in crime, to discuss draft results. Today we are breaking out the AFC North and the NFC North. Those northern teams we're going to be looking at their draft classes. We're switching up the format today.

Chris, we're going to go, instead of kind of going over every pick, we're going to try to expedite and give you more valuable content for certain players. We're going to go with the best pick, a worst pick, a surprise pick, and then a great, not a surprise pick from, I guess you can take whatever approach you want, Chris. But I'm going with surprise as in pick that I think could surprise people. And then we'll go with a grade. We'll grade the drafts. Sound cool?

Yeah, sounds good. Sweet. Let's just kick it off with the NFC North. Actually, there's a funny tale. I felt like the NFC North was like a bunch of mediocre drafts. And then AFC North had kind of some polar opposites, like a couple really good drafts and then a couple bad ones. So it's kind of interesting to see how each division lives on its own.

But because ultimately, I don't know if you've ever. heard this, but I've had scouts tell me that you, when you're drafting sometimes, you do draft for your division a lot. Yeah, I've definitely heard that. You have to play those in a year. Yeah, it's like, shoot, you know, New England is a good example, and we'll get to them what tomorrow, but, you know, they play in a murderer's row of receivers. So it's like they have to make sure they have cornerbacks that can play. And they took Christian Gonzalez. It kind of makes sense. Dallas, it's Mazzie Smith for, to, you know, Eagles have one of the best running games in the league, stuff like that. Yeah, Giants run the ball, Eagles run the ball, Washington runs the ball.

They take Mazi Smith. Makes perfect sense. All right. Let's do it. Let's start with, let's go alphabetical. So we'll start with the Chicago Bears. This draft was interesting because I think our model didn't like it very much. But like when you look at it and you see that they're like a rebuilding team.

team and then you factor in the fact that they traded back and got some draft capital and a player like you have to include DJ more in this conversation you have to include the future draft capital they got as well which is a first round pick next year so from that standpoint you you end up really liking the draft but when you look at the players they selected it's like eh it's okay yeah it's okay I think their best pick for me was darnel right I threw in rochon johnson as like a one B as well just because I think they got great value on him in the I think he legitimately is a guy who could be there starting running back. And they got him in the fourth round.

And that's, you know, from our vantage point, Chris, that's what we always talk about. Like, that's where you want to find your running back. Third, fourth round. Those are, those are where the dudes are. You can still find talent there. You just have to have a good scouting process. And it seems like they did. David Montgomery was my comp for Roshan Johnson.

And voila. David Montgomery leaves. They replace him with David Montgomery 2.0. It seems like the kind of a perfect landing spot for him. So anyways, what are your thoughts on best pick here? Yeah, that's the direction I was going to go. Darnell Wright, I think is the best pick. Really, the best pick is the trade down that they moved in the hall that they got.

Sure. In terms of picking a player, it's got to be Darnell Wright. Second offensive tackle off your board, they get him a pick 10. He'll be immediate day one starter. Build around Justin Fields. That's what we've been saying all offseason. And they did that. And you mentioned Roshan.

Roshan was going to be my surprise pick as a guy that, like, he could be the leadback in that backfield by year's end. I think he can do. I think they view clear Herbert as more of their Tony Pollard, explosive guy. They don't want him getting the ball a ton. Roshan can be that David Montgomery grinder that is more viewed as the RB1 on the team. Yeah, I said this on Hanson's show yesterday on the Sirius XM, guru in the morning. It seems like Chicago doesn't actually like Khalil Herbert that much. So Montgomery got banged up a few times over the last two years.

He even missed some games. And Khalil Herbert, like, yeah, he had good workload in that game. But the second Montgomery was back in the lineup, his workload went down to nothing. Five carries, six carries. It's like, when you look at the efficiency metrics, you're like, that doesn't make any sense. It seemed like they'd want him getting the ball more. So some of them might come down to the fact that I don't think Herbert does

the the gritty things. He doesn't do the, you know, the dog pound type stuff. He's not a good pass blocker. He's, you know, I think he leaves some of those plays on the field. And, you know, that's where they want a guy like Roshan who kind of does the dirty work. He does everything. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's just a volume thing. They don't want Herbert getting the ball a ton. I think they like his explosiveness, but they don't trust that to sustain itself over the course of his season if he's getting 15 plus touches a game. Yep, exactly. And as far as right goes, like this dude is nasty. He's a he's a run blocker first and foremost. I mean, just a road grader if we want to get cliche here. And it's pretty clear the Chicago Bears want to

run the football. Sometimes with Justin Field, sometimes with that stable of running backs. They now have three competent running backs and Rochon, Herbert, and Donta Foreman. So I love this pick. I think Darnell Wright just kind of elevates the whole offensive line. It allows you to put your, what their first round pick from a couple of years ago at right guard now, Tevin Jenkins. So there's a win there. It seems like they found their left tackle from last year's draft in the fifth round, which that's a great score of the Ohio State kid. So Darnell Wright really elevates an entire offensive line.

And I just kind of like what the bears have done surrounding fields with more talent, both on offensive line and at the skill player position. So their worst pick for me, I went with Zach Pickens, D-Tackle, South Carolina. This is a premium pick, Chris. This was a top 65 pick, 64th overall in the draft. They had already taken Gervyn Dexter, and I know they needed help on the interior D-line. It just seemed completely unnecessary. Those guys are virtually the same player.

Pickens is a little bit bigger, a little more nose-tackly. I think Dexter can probably become a better pass rusher than Pickens, but I just I did love them double tapping a non-premium position with guys who I just saw as developmental and me neither one of them do anything extraordinarily well the model agreed with me too right they didn't like the pick and pick no they didn't yeah 50 just over 50% that's one of the lower scores yeah that I had a hard time with that one yeah I thought about I thought about going this route but they're and then I thought back man they got just absolutely killed on the run every single week last week and while you know yeah I don't love putting so much capital into non-premium positions they legit like couldn't get their defense off the field most weeks because of how bad their run defense was um so I'm willing to let it slide I still don't love the picks by any means but but they clearly noticed a weakness on their team

team and said we just can't do this again because our offense can't even be on the field to put up points if we can't stop the run at all. Yeah, I just look at some of the guys that went off the board after him too. Sidney Brown, DB from Illinois, Drew Sanders, linebacker hybrid guy from Arkansas. Tank Dell, I think could have helped that team. Kendra Miller, you know, obviously they end up with Rochon. So in hindsight, that looks like the right choice. but Garrett Williams,

corner went to the Cardinals. I would have loved that pick for them. Jalen Hyatt, Cedric Tillman. There's a lot of dudes there that would have helped that team a lot. I just think Pickens is a nothing burger. Like Puna Ford was on the market.

He's every bit as good as, you know, he's a run-stuffing nose tackle. So. Yeah, yeah, Diabi even. Would have been a better pick, even though our model would have hated it. But,

Anyways, that's all. I just think they, you know, but we've been saying that, though, big guys come off the board quicker than everyone realizes. So, yeah. So who'd you go with for worst pick then? I'm going to go with Tyreek Stevenson. I think getting him in the second round was a little bit of a reach for what,

you know, what talent of cute cornerback he is. Plus, I think they like their corners. And, yeah, mostly their corners. kind of a lot jalen johnson kiler gordon jaylin jones i know they weren't awesome last year but they definitely showed flashes at times and i just don't know how adding a meh corner in the second round really helps their team right now i think they could be you know like keep building on you know the o line or keep building on the d line or like edge and whatnot but yeah don't don't

love the tyrant stevenson pick so they also trade it up for that for stevenson right I don't remember if they did. So I really, the reason I went with, with Pickens over Stevenson, Stevenson at least plays a premium position. True. And he's got a ton of developmental upside. This is like a really physical athletic corner that I think could develop into a really, really good starter.

Now, there's a lot of work to do with him for sure. But you did mention the guys they already have. And it's like, it was a good environment to get him into because he's not going to have to play right away necessarily. So I didn't kill him for that. I know the model didn't like it. But it was a little early. It was a little early.

I saw Stevenson Moore as a third round guy for sure. And then you look at the board too and then you see like DJ Turner come off the board a few picks later. And that kind of stings a little bit. You know, Garrett Stevenson was or yeah, the Syracuse Corner was still on the board. Garrett Williams. All the names are blending from me at this point. Garrett Williams is still on the board. So, you know, I think that definitely.

makes it that makes it hard to swallow there were better corners available in my opinion but yeah for surprise pick I went I'm sure you can guess who I went with yeah I figured you would Tyler Scott wide receiver Cincinnati

this is one of my dudes now obviously he fell to what the fourth round or something fifth round not sure why really puzzling why he fell that far But regardless of that, guy's skill set is legit.

I think if Field is ever going to get that deep ball where he wants it to be, he's going to need guys like Tyler Scott on that team. So, I mean, like we're talking about Fields getting more accurate and trusting what he sees at a higher level. Like, Claypool is not going to help with that. Claypool is a contested catch guy. Yeah, occasionally he will crush a corner off a line of scrimmage that's playing press and beat him with physicality.

And he's got good speed. but ultimately he's a jump ball kind of guy. Tyler Scott will just flat out burn corners. So if you want to really give Justin Fields confidence in delivering that deep ball, I think Tyler Scott's going to go a long way for them. And I think he could surprise some people, maybe not this year, but in years. This feels kind of repetitive to what they, you know, Darnel Mooney could theoretically play that role.

They draft Vilas Jones in the third round last. I mean, it just makes me hate the Vilas Jones pick more than I dislike the Tyler Scott pick. but I just just feels like a little repetitive for what they've been already have on their roster. Yeah, Mooney, Mooney's such a jag to me though. I've never really liked Mooney. Did not have a high draft grade on him. I was surprised at his breakout was that year two.

Really surprised by that. Their moves suggest they don't necessarily love that either. But I don't know. Scott's, Scott is a just a pure burner. his vertical skill set is so much better than Mooney's in my opinion.

I think Mooney's should be kind of limited to slot duties and working the short parts of the field. Overall, I gave this draft an A because of the tradeback

getting D.J. B plus, but the tradeback is a huge part of that. Tradeback scores big for me, man. Getting a first next year is clutch,

especially for a team. that, you know, they're not going to, they're not going to be bottom five, but they're probably going to be somewhere between that like six and 15 range. So you're going to get a really premium asset there. And, you know, you're not going to be good yourself. So you're going to have likely two top 15-ish picks. I think it's top 10 for sure. I think it's a, you think there's 10 better teams than the Cardinals or Panthers next year. That division sucks. Yeah, they're going to fall into some wins. If Bryce Young, you know, hits like hot, like if he comes out hot, I think they could win some games, man.

Shoot, they won some games last year, unexpectedly. Like they, you know, they win seven games? Yeah, I don't know, their division probably got better overall,

and they still were a top 10 pick last year. The Falcons were a top 10 pick. The Saints were a top 10 pick. So I think it's a good chance that it's a top 10 pick again next year. Well, that would be even better than for the Bears. Yeah. Yeah, all right.

Let's go to the beloved team here on the podcast. That's the Detroit Lions. We've talked a lot about the Lions. We have talked a lot about it. Let's not spend a ton of time here. Best picks. I think they're obvious because we have talked about it. I went Brian Branch 1A,

Hendon Hooker 1B. Really emphasized the Branch pick, though, because I think for what they're trying to do on defense, he's just such a slam dunk pick. It kind of redeemed some of the position value they lost on the Campbell pick. You know, like if you want to do the reverse drafting thing, if they took Branch at 18 and Campbell at 45, no one bats an eye. It's like, oh, what a fantastic draft.

Now, I don't live in that alternative world, so I'm still going to criticize them for the Campbell pick. Because I'm looking at it like, oh, you could have Miles Murphy and Brian Branch. Yep, exactly. But why settle for Jack Campbell when you could get other players? But anyways, Brian Branch, fantastic pick. team-wise, he just matches up so well. Obviously, they have Chauncey Gardner Johnson. This is another example.

I've been saying this, because my player comps were so freaking spot on. He was my comp for Brian Branch. They end up on the same team. Go figure. It's just pretty crazy. And then Hendon Hooker gives them, you know, I would say, the potential for an elite backup at worst. And at best, he challenges golf for that starting job.

And maybe after the year, they decide, you know what? Hooker has impressed. us, we're going to move on with him and Goff, we're not paying you $50 million a year. Did you see the reports about their, they talked to Goff about an extension? Yeah, I have seen those reports. And the comment that was actually made was pretty vague. It wasn't like, oh, we're trying to get a deal done with Goff. It's like, yeah, we called his agent, or we've talked to his agent about an extension.

We have no idea who initiated that call. We have no idea who, you know, are they talking four years? they talk in two years. Like what's, there's so many, so many variables here that, in player, but I still love the,

like I always will like dart throws at quarterbacks, especially super duper talented quarterbacks, and Hooker is definitely that. So I like that. What, would you go for best pick? I'm going to go with Hooker because I want to believe that he does take over for golf at some point,

because if he doesn't, I just think it keeps, it's going to put this lines in a weird, purgatory, QB purgatory situation. And I don't want that to happen. I want the, this team deserves to be good. They've got good coaches. They just had a little bit of an iffy draft and Hooker being good could resolve everything.

The same way, Jalen Hertz being good, even though that was a ridiculed pick in the second round, fixed everything for the Eagles. Yeah. So I just, I want to believe that Hooker can be a legit NFL starter. They got him at a good value. Maybe he just needs a year. Yeah, I am here for it, man. If that happens, that'd be great.

If they resign golf to a crazy extension, like 45 plus in like four years, it's going to really put a ceiling, I think, on what this team can accomplish. I still think they'll be competitive. They'll be in the playoff mix every year. But ultimately, like, the goal is not to be in the playoff mix every year. The goal is to win Super Bowls. And I don't think they're going to get that done with a golf extension. Exactly.

Exactly. Worst pick, pretty obvious. You may have went Gibbs. I went Jack Campbell. I've come to terms on the Gibbs pick. The Jet Campbell pick still sticks out as just woefully terrible. And I like Jack Campbell. This is the problem with their draft, Chris.

I like Jemir Gibbs. I like Jack Campbell. I just hate the process here. So I already mentioned the guy I would have taken ahead of him. That was Miles Murphy. So, but there's also, there's corners on the board, offensive linemen. There's a million other ways that could have gone to keep building this team. It didn't have to do this at 18.

The Campbell's the worst pick. I mean, Gibbs is definitely in contention, but I, you just, linebacker is probably even less important than running back at times. Unless the linebacker can do something like a Luke Keeckley used to do for the Panthers. There's three of those guys in the NFL right. now that do that stuff. Fred Warner, Levante David, and Bobby Wagner. Jack Campbell, ain't those guys. Yeah. They just don't

matter. They all suck. They all get burned in coverage and you just kind of have to learn how to minimize it if you're a good team. Yep. So that's got to be my least favorite pick because you're just not going to see really any kind of impact from him in a major way. Whereas Gibbs

there is a world where he is actually making an impact now. Is it being overpaid for, probably, but he can actually make an impact in helping them win games. Yep. I fully agree there. If Campbell was like a savant in coverage, it would be a different story, right? But he's not. And I don't think he ever will be.

He's 250 pounds, doesn't move. You know, he tested as a great athlete, but doesn't move that well on tape. the mental processing from run game to past game is entirely different he's got insanely fast mental processing in the run game slows way down on the past game

I don't know if he doesn't trust his feet or what it is but I don't know that's like it's not even so the past the past defense was the issue for the lions the past few years it's not even like the bear like we said the bears are terrible against the run

they wanted to add you know they used to have Roquan Smith who helped them stop the run they wanted to add another linebacker. At least there's like some kind of narrative you can spin. The lines run defense, well, not awesome, has not been the issue. It's been their past defense and you just fail to add an elite pass rusher or an elite coverage defender. And you add an offball linebacker instead.

That's, yeah. Yep. Agreed. All right. For surprise pick, I went with Antoine Green, wide receiver, North Carolina. seventh round guy he's a guy I didn't get around to scoring but I did watch him

this dude has a legitimate vertical skill set now he doesn't do much more than that because he runs slants and go routes that's it that's that North Carolina offense though he's not dissimilar to Josh Downs in that way he's just doing it from

an outside alignment versus a slot alignment but he is tall he has good weight physical, very physical player, really good release package. And he's got speed and ball tracking skills. So like he just, I think he gives that offense kind of what they're going to be missing with the DJ Chark departure. Like Marvin Jones isn't really that guy anymore.

So I think Green could potentially surprise people if he gets an opportunity to step into that role. Obviously, they want JMO to be that guy too, but JMO is going to be more of the Z receiver that's, you know, not lined up on the line of scrimmage. They're going to hide him a little bit more and try to get. you know, easy releases for him where I think Green can go up there and beat press coverage to what degree we'll have to see. There's a reason, obviously he was a seventh

round pick, but I think he could surprise him folks. I'm going to go with I'm going to go with Sam Leporta as I think he could be the put up the biggest numbers of any rookie tight end this year. I know Dalton KKK is probably the only one that can really compete with him in Buffalo, but I think Kincaid is going to have target

issues just because of all the other targets and Josh Allen using his legs and whatnot. Laporta, the Lions tight ends were awesome last year, even after Hawkinson was traded. You're telling me now that this, a guy that was profiled as a guy that can catch the ball very well, he can line up any all over the field for Iowa. Like Iowa had nothing else. And he lined up everywhere and still put up numbers on a terrible offense. I think Leporter could be quickly looked at one of the possibly the best tight end from this class just because of landing spot and how his talent fits in this team.

I think he is going to be a big part of the offense quickly. Agreed. I do agree with that. All right. I went with B plus for this draft. I went back in for us. I wanted to hurt him for the Campbell pick. But here's a thing.

I looked back at the other grades I've given. Every team with less than a B drafted bad players. The lines didn't draft a single bad player. I liked all of these guys. They just drafted them in weird spots. And then the tradeback from 6 to 12 influenced my decision as well,

getting the quarterback and getting a defensive back at super valuable spots really boosted their grade for me. So I went B plus. I have to go with a D plus. There's just too much opportunity cost given up while, yeah, they're good players. It's just you really had a chance to just build it, really take the next step on a team building aspect and where this team could go in a very weak NFC. And they kind of just chose the safe route, which you don't win. You don't win Super Bowl's being safe.

You don't, but you don't win Super Bowl drafting bad players either. Yeah, but it's a, it's a risk tolerance thing. You got to take some risks. Yeah, I don't disagree. I don't disagree with needing to take. They should have taken more risks, but I can't kill a team that, like, what's a comparable situation? Like, Houston got a C plus from me,

despite an awful trade up and juice Scrugg's pick in the second round. I mean, I can't, Detroit can't be lower than them. That was an egregious decision on multiple avenues there. Yeah, I don't disagree with that if that's what you'd, Houston. I don't remember what I said for Houston when we talked about. I think I was right around I think you said C plus. Because I usually make a note.

The problem is at least Houston put, I know they made a terrible trade up, but they took premium positions in the right spots. If you remove the trade up, they at least are taking, you know, they're going to be getting value on guys if they hit wherever they were picked. Yeah. All right, Green Bay. Best pick, I went with Luke Musgrave. And then I want to do worse pick right away too because they play the same position.

And that was Tucker Kraft. Now, our model likes Tucker Craft, the Tucker Craft pick more, actually. But the Tucker Craft pick is freaking stupid, Chris. When you draft tight-in with a top 50 pick, why then would you draft another one? 12, whatever picks later it was, 20 picks later. I don't understand. And I like Tucker Kraft a lot. I really do.

But I like Musgrave more as a player. And good God, they, there's no way they knock this draft out of the park because there's no way Musgrave and Kraft are both elite players. Just on volume alone. Right, exactly. It could both be elite, but you would never know because they're going to get 100 targets a year.

Yeah. So they said, I've heard arguments of, yeah, take multiple QBs in a draft because, you know, nailing that position is so important. Doing that for a non-premium position to make sure you get a good tight end is, yeah, it's not great. A non-premium position with premium picks too,

was the problem. Yeah. Like if they went tight end, they went Musgrave like in round two and then like, Will Mallory in the fifth or sixth round? That's different. And that's basic. Tucker Kraft is very similar to Will Mallory.

That's a totally different conversation. I can't get on board with a second and a 40 second pick and what the 75th pick overall or something. Yeah. So would you have rather than pass on Musgrave at 42 and take, I don't know. No, I think Musgrave has elite potential. Even though Kraft was a fool over around cheaper? Yeah. Yes.

Yeah, because like Musgrave is the highest ceiling tight end in this class for me. Like if you're if you're chasing unicorns and you want to hit on a Rob Grankowski type, I think Musgrave was a guy to bet on in fair. But yeah, that's a it's tough for me and best, I think it's got to be Musgrave or Jaden Reed. I really like Jaden Reed.

I think he, I don't know how in love they are with Romeo dubs. I know they definitely like him, but I don't know if they view him as, you know, a guy they want to be getting a tons of targets a year. I think Jaden Reed plus Christian Watson is an awesome pairing. Yeah.

Yeah, and what he can do for them in the return game is always nice when you have that extra bonus from a receiver that can actually play well as a receiver as well. Yeah, so I'd have to go with Musgrave or Reed. It's tough to pick between the two. Yeah, a secondary candidate for worst pick for me was Sean Clifford. That is by far the worst pick. Yeah, I just didn't like Kraft because they literally spent two premium picks on tight ends. but um but

Sean Clifford is not in the NFL quarterback. Yeah, Sean Clifford may not have had his phone with him. And he may not have even been expecting a call on that day. But hey, he beat out Will Levis. He did. Um,

all right, surprise pick for me was Carl Brooks. They list him as linebacker on NFL.com, Bowling Green. That is what he played, but he's 300 pounds. Green Bay loves these dudes, man.

They love these. enormously sized athletic freaks that can line up anywhere on the D-line. Like this could easily be your Dean Lowry replacement. You know, he kind of reminds me of Rishan Gary a little bit, but like, I think you can play three tech next to, you know, their big nose tackle there. Yep. So I think you could surprise me. Sixth round pick, not normally betting on those guys to do well, obviously,

but that's why it's a surprise. I think he could surprise people there. So it won't be right away, though. He's definitely raw coming from us. small school, et cetera. I'm going to go with Charlotte wide receiver, Grant Debut. I think he actually had a really good senior week when we were down there in Mobile quietly is one of the small school guys.

I think he actually has a chance to at least make the roster and potentially work his way into playing time, similar to what we saw with Romeo Dubs last year. It's a lot. It's a young wide receiver room. He can do, you know, he's built like a prototypical, uh, ex wide receiver. that can do it all, just not at a super high level. But if he can continue to develop, I think he's got a shot to be an impact player for them

at some level at some point in his career. Yep. I went with B minus on this draft. Yeah, C plus B minus. Yeah, that feels right. All right. Minnesota, we got to scoot a little bit too. We're like 30 in and haven't even touched the AFC North yet.

Minnesota, Jordan Addison was my best pick. They didn't really have a lot of high impact picks in general, or high premium picks. So I went with Jordan Addis is the best pick. I think this is pretty self-explanatory, and I think we've hit it also. Yeah, that would be my best pick as well. All right.

Worst pick I went, Mackay Blackman. He's a really raw corner. He was so raw when I watched him, I didn't even get around to scoring him, correct? No, you have a score. No, yeah, you're right. You do not at a score. Sorry, wrong guy. I didn't think I did. I don't know how this guy was a second row pick.

This is mind-blowing to me, especially when you look at the other corners on the board. I like the idea that they drafted a premium position. They just did it with a really weird player. And Blackman was, he was used a variety of ways as well. So was their next pick or their other corner pick, which was my surprise pick for them was Jay Ward, LSUDB.

I like that pick way more than Blackman. Like I don't and I still don't even like it. I don't think it's a good pick but I think it could he could surprise people. He's a fourth round guy. He played just about every position in the LSU defense, play a little box, played a little nickel, played a little outside corner, was down senior bowl week, played you know, first two days he was on the outside, then went to the slot and then got cooked in the senior bowl game playing like box safety. It was kind of funny. He was all over the place. but just his versatility, I think, is attractive to me. And, you know, a good athlete that can play a lot of positions is never a bad thing.

I'd have to go with shocker here. The Jaron Hall pick is the worst pick because it's a waste of a pick. You might as well just light it on fire and walk away. He's not going to be the Kirk Cousins replacement. He's also not very good. He's, yeah, go take some other defensive position or something. Just do anything else that can actually make an impact for your team. I knew you were going to say Jaron Hall because you've hated the man since we first watched him back in January.

There are legitimately a lot of Jaron Hall truthers. There is, and I don't know why. He's got some mobility to him. I mean, I guess there's that. So mobility and he's got a cannon. Yeah. So people like- Can't hit anything with it, though.

Does not play on schedule at all. Does not throw a timing or anticipation. Can't really layer the ball. I don't know. I agree it's kind of a wasted pick. If he develops a little and turns into a good backup, is it really a wasted pick, though? Would they get him in the fifth round?

It's a wasted pick. He's not going to even be a backup one. I mean, he'll be the backup for as long as his rookie contract says, and then they'll move on. He has the perfect skill set to just absolutely annihilate preseason football. Yeah, sure. And then never turn into anything.

Yeah. Because he's got the athleticism and then like a can't, like, The DTR is the same thing. DTR is going to eat. Oh, yes. I'm excited to watch. Week three preseason, bro, or week four preseason when it's just like him in the second half versus a bunch of scrubs, he's just going to dominate. So, Jaron Hall could do the same kind of thing, though.

I went C plus for this grade, mostly just lack of premium picks and, you know, the ones they did have, I felt like they kind of wasted. Yeah, C plus. All right. AFC North, can we, I don't know that we actually have enough time to do this. We can try. This new format was supposed to speed things up, but it did not. It was supposed to expedite conversation about players we shouldn't really be talking about. Two of these teams have barely any picks.

Okay. We'll go quickly. AFC North, Baltimore, I'll just run through my best worst and surprise, especially because they didn't have really many picks. My best pick didn't register on our model because it was a fifth round pick and we're trying not to do that. But Cayu Blue Kelly is a Baltimore. Ravens cornerback. He likes to come up to play press. He can play a little off zone.

Did a lot of different things in college, which I think Baltimore looks for in their DBs. So I do like the value there. He's a guy that I liked his tape, and I'm surprised he's a fifth round pick. Worst pick was Trenton Simpson to me. They got him roughly at value to. You know, it was what they get him.

I think his big board rank and his actual draft slot were the same, if I remember right, or close to it. Yeah, very close. So you wouldn't think that was a worst pick. but I just Baltimore falls for this trap all the time, whether it's the guy he's going to be replacing Patrick Queen. They're like the same player.

They keep doing this though over and over. They've made swing backers that don't matter. They drafted one from Oklahoma a couple years ago too that was just like Trenton Simpson and just turned out to be nothing. I just don't, I don't know why they keep, they're not coming off their type and their type doesn't work. So anyways, worst pick, surprise pick, for me, Andrew Voorhees. He was a seventh rounder. This guy tore his ACL at the combine running his 40 and then finished his workout, which is insane. But that's why he's, that's why he fell to the

seventh round because he's virtually going to miss the entire season, which you never, never really want to do. He's an older rookie too. Older rookie missing an entire year. But the dude can play. His tape is sound and he's fits that Baltimore identity. Sorry. He's going to be, uh, interior offensive linemen for them that can, you know, win at the point of attack and the run scheme needs work on his past pro, but whatever, it's a seventh-th round pick. So I think you could surprise some fellas. Yeah, you, I'm not even going to add much. You basically nailed the order that I would have named these guys. Yeah, Simpson is just a terrible pick because they continue to add resources to linebacker despite trading for Roquan Smith, drafting Patrick Queen early

when they drafted him. Just doesn't really do a whole lot for their defense. It should have gone elsewhere. And then, yeah, I had the same surprise and best picks as well. Nice. I went C for this grade. I'd go C minus. C minus. You're a harsh writer.

We're both harsh compared to consensus, by the way. PFF gave out like 11 A's. Well, that's what people want to feel good. I know. It's not realistic. If everyone is getting A's and Bs, then, like, the whole league is collectively getting better together. Yep.

I don't know. Whatever. Cincinnati is next. They probably had one of my favorite drafts of the entire weekend. So like we literally could talk about all their picks, but we won't. Best pick for me, Miles Murphy. Insane value. I love the upside swing here because he is such a freak athlete, has so much raw power and length,

but he doesn't have to play right away. We've all talked about how this is kind of a developmental guy. He's a little raw, needs a better pastures plan, needs more consistency, he's ending it's well cool he gets to go sit behind trey hendrickson and sam hubbard that's like a perfect scenario for him work his way onto the field love the value they got out of that um they also like dj turner great pick in the second round

jordan's got my best pick yeah yeah jrner's your best pick yeah yeah like they killed you could pick any of these picks and i wouldn't argue that you've made a bad best pick exactly charlie jones and the fourth that's my surprise by the way charlie jordan's or chase brown are my surprise picks Yep, exactly the same. They could legit be impact players for them this year. Right.

And they got them at low cost. If they want to save some money on Tyler Boyd, Charlie Jones could start right now for you. Yeah, I don't know what Boyd's contract is, but if it helps them pay Higgins and let Boyd walk and Charlie Jones could be their guy. No more Trent and Irwin or whatever that was last year. And Chase Brown, I'm not going to say this is a guy who's going to replace Joe Mixen immediately. But when you're looking at the ideal landing spots for Chase Brown, Cincinnati was. on that short list of teams we talked about Miami, San Francisco, the Jets, the Rams, and Cincinnati. So he lands in Csency.

Mixon's got legal troubles. Like he could really surprise some people for sure. He's a better runner than P-Rine for sure, too. They didn't really have like a horrible pick either. Even like their seventh round pick, they throw a dart at a DB from a Power 5 school. That's never a bad plan. You're probably just getting a special teams player, but like whatever. Their sixth round pick though, Brad Robin.

punter from Michigan. It's like it's hard to kill them for that when they absolutely murdered their first six picks. Yeah. Oh, finally at pick seven, you reached a little for a punter, but they needed a punter, I guess. So whatever. You live with it, you know? Yeah, that's by default the worst pick, but it's not even that bad.

Right. Right. I went A plus for this draft. Yeah. This draft plus. Yeah, A plus. Cool. Cleveland Browns. Now, obviously, they didn't have a first or start.

round pick because Deshawn Watson is their first and second round pick. But we're not going to let them off the hook, though. They still got to do well with the picks they had. For my best pick, my best pick and surprise pick were the same. And I didn't necessarily want to do that. I just didn't have another way to go. And that's Edge from Missouri, Isaiah McGuire. Got them in the fourth round.

We crushed yesterday on the pod. See, what were the teams? The Falcons for taking Zach Harrison. when they did. The Bucks were taking Yaya Diabi for when they did. The Panthers were taking DJ Johnson where they did. The Saints were taking Foskey where they did. They got so the the Browns get an edge rusher in that tier of players. They're in that same tier on my board and Isaiah McGuire. But they took them like 40 picks later than all those guys. So cool. Like that's where I thought those guys would go. McGuire goes in that range. So I think he's their best pick.

They didn't have much to work with here. and then surprised because he's a fourth rounder and I think he could play a little bit. Yeah, I think that was a good pick. I really liked the Cedric Tillman pick in the third round. I mean, he, these 10, both him and Hyatt got killed for their offense that they came from. And well, I think there's definitely some merit to that. Taking them in the third round, both guys that could, you know, be legit NFL starting wide receivers for you.

On a team that really doesn't have much outside of Mari Cooper that you can count on. They did trade for Elijah Moore, but he had a pretty bad year last year. so who knows really what that is. Tillman can give them immediate value in being a third round pick, I think is a solid pick. Yeah. My worst pick was Dewan Jones.

I know the model loved the pick, 100th percentile, because he fell from fringe first round territory to the fourth round. But I just, I don't like burning picks on guys that are 390 pounds. And you're showing up to team meetings,

or sorry, team interview, basically interview, job interviews at 393 pounds. I don't have a good feeling about that pick. I don't think it's going to work out for them. You want to talk about burning picks? How about drafting a quarterback in the fifth round that is never going to do anything for your team?

I should have guessed that you were going to get. At least DeWan Jones can lose some weight. Dorian Tom and Robinson. Well, yeah, I kind of like him as a QB. It just doesn't matter. It's never going to do anything. You burned a fifth round pick on him. Get him in the sixth or seventh round if you're going to do this.

But, yeah. They didn't have a backup quarterback, Chris. Then go guys. There's guys everywhere. There's quarterbacks. They're going to pay Dorian Thompson $700,000 for the next four years. Okay.

So there was undrafted free agent QBs that we'll do the same amount that DTR will do for this team and their careers. Watson ever gets hurt. I'd rather have DTR than one of those guys. You're dead anyway. The backup quarterback conversation is like the biggest conundrum because it's like, yeah. If you lose your starting quarterback for an extended period of time,

you're dead. And the road event, you have a backup that can play. We've had some, like, a good lucky streak with Nick Foles, with Brock Purdy experience, these guys that have come in and led teams to playoff runs. Cooper Rush. Yes. Yeah, I know. But we don't know if he had to take over for the whole year what that would have led to.

I'm assuming the wheels would have fallen off at some point. or I went C Great, I'm guessing you went F Nah, I'll go D I'll go D plus There's a couple of picks in there that are good enough Okay Last but not least, Pittsburgh

This was another team that I thought had a fantastic draft And they needed this draft Because their last few have just been weird they kind of seem to start losing that identity, but then they just crushed it. Like I love their one, two, three, four. I liked every pick they made. Their first six especially though,

but for Best Pick I went Joey Porter Jr. Everyone was walking Porter Jr. To them at pick, what, 17? They end up giving them at 32. Don't want to call it a steal, but it feels like a steal. It's good value nonetheless. And they get a guy who fits their scheme really well.

obviously the culture, the identity, the, you know, the bloodlines. It's all, it all just feels good. Yeah, I was stuck between that and Broderick Jones, but I think I'll, I want to go to the porter route for the narrative of it, you know, the bloodline, like you said, I think that's awesome. But I think surrounding Kenny Pickett with more past protections is also extremely important. I'm glad they valued that as well. Yeah. I don't think I really have a worst pick for this team. I'm having a hard time picking one. I didn't I didn't I literally put three dash marks there wasn't a bad pick yeah I don't I don't have a yeah there wasn't one it this is this draft is virtually spotless I even went back and looked at

each pick to see if there was a guy I liked better like you could argue the Benton pick they reached a little bit on but like Benton's a baller and again if we restacked a board just for Pittsburgh Benton would be way higher on that board because he does what they do this is like he is a Cam Hayward type player. These are the type of interior guys they like, and he's going to develop with some pasture skills. Like, I love that pick. Darnow Washington in the third, like late third.

I like. Maybe that's like the only downside I can think of is like, if Washington is only a blocker for them for his entire career, then that's probably not a great spot to pick because they're blocking tight ends are everywhere. But we don't know. We don't know how they plan to use them or whatnot. True.

For surprise pick, I went Nick Herbig. Yep, that's a good one. Yeah, I just, like, he's going to be productive for them, whether he's off the ball or on the edge or playing some hybrid role. Like, he's just a perfect fit for them. Stewards love these guys, yeah. Yeah, they've done this time and time again. So he's the new Alex Highsmith.

Yep. Yeah, I think that's a great surprise. Corey Trice, cornerback all the way in the seventh round is also a decent surprise. It's a seventh round pick. Yeah. Got to wonder why he fell. I think maybe teams viewed him as too big, like six. six three with really long legs like he can get a little leggy and his you know hip flips and stuff like right

yeah it's a lot of mass to move it one it's hard to track smaller shiftier guys right he just can't so right it's like you if you're playing a team like say the arizona cardinals that are trotting out three uh five nineers yeah corey tricent going to be able to cover ronel morr'll take five steps before he finishes his second step yeah exactly so mirroring those guys would be very difficult but I went A plus for this draft class though. Yep that's that's the grade. Nice. We did it. We did it. We did that that division in 13 minutes. We did the other one in 32. So this was if you're in AISC Northland, we're terribly sorry for for ruining your your listen here. They were mostly good drafts minus the brands. They were in short too. We had two abbreviated

drafts and then two really good ones. All right. That's going to do it. We'll be back tomorrow with, I think we're going to do the AFC East and the NFC East. Yeah. Let's do it. We won't talk about the Eagles, though, because I just want to spite Chris. Just kidding. All right. We'll be back tomorrow.

Thanks for listening. We are out. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.