The draft is finally over and fans are talking about their team's picks across the country. Even though every team walks away feeling good about their picks, some teams should feel better than others. So I'm gonna grade every team in the NFL, starting with the NFC North.
NFC North
Detroit Lions
Erd's Grade: A
The Lions took another step towards prominence in the NFC North this weekend. Possibly the most explosive defensive lineman in the draft, Nick Fairley, fell to the Lions at pick 13. They now have the best interior defense in the entire league. We all know that if you can stop the run, you have a good chance of winning games. Along with Fairley, Detroit picked up Titus Young in the second round to line up across from Calvin Johnson and Mikel Leshoure in the third to compliment Jahvid Best. They finished off by getting some depth at LB and OT. The main area of need for the Lions going forward is to improve their secondary. With Aaron Rodgers leading the top team in the division, the Lions will likely try to fill this hole in free agency. If they could land a shutdown corner like Nnamdi Asomugha, they could be a playoff team this season.
Green Bay Packers
Erd's Grade: A-
The defending super bowl champions had no glaring weak spots, but yet managed to impress with their draft class. The Packers have one of the deepest teams in the NFL. This was apparent last year as they managed to win it all with 15 players on IR, as well as losing Woodson and Driver in the super bowl and with Aaron Rodgers sidelined for a couple games during the season. They addressed their biggest need in round 1 by grabbing Derek Sherrod to help protect Rodgers. Randall Cobb is going to become the Packers return man immediately, an area of concern going into this season. Their 3rd and 4th round picks, Alex Green and Davon House, are a between-the-tackles runner and an aggressive bump-and-run style corner respectively, both perfect fits for the Packers. The rest of their draft simply improved on their depth, something Ted Thompson has done well throughout the years.
Chicago Bears
Erd's Grade: B
The Bears only had five picks in this year's draft, but still managed to get great value. Their first selection was offensive tackle Gabe Carimi. I may be biased because he hails from my Alma mater, but Carimi has the size and strength to come in and be great in the NFL right away. He's not as dominant as a Joe Thomas, but he comes out of a college program that breeds talented lineman. Chicago then addressed their defensive line by getting Stephen Paea to plug up the middle. Many thought he had a chance to sneak into the first round, so the Bears were obviously satisfied to get him late in the second. Chicago rounded out their draft by getting a couple defensive players and QB Nathan Enderle out of Idaho. Enderle will likely ended up being a solid backup at best, but the pick does raise further questions Jay Cutler in Chicago.
Minnesota Vikings
Erd's Grade: C+
Despite my dislike of the Vikings, I will be the first to defend them on their Christian Ponder pick. Hall of Fame quarterbacks Brett Favre, Joe Montana, and Tom Brady were taken in rounds 2, 3, and 6 respectively. Like Aaron Rodgers, HOF'er Dan Marino fell to the 27th pick. Likely HOF'er Kurt Warner wasn't even drafted at all. Yeah, the Vikings could have likely gotten Ponder with their second pick, but if they weren't certain, you can't blame them for taking him. His addition will likely help the Vikings, since they will get back to pounding it out with Adrian Peterson more frequently. If you still want to mock Ponder, you can check the Vikings second pick. They took Kyle Rudolph, my STEAL of the draft, who should have gone in round one. If the Vikings would've taken Rudolph in round 1 and Ponder in round 2, there would be no questioning it. They spent the rest of the draft getting depth at O-line and on defense. All-in-all, they got the positions they were looking to get, unfortunately they were hoping to have Jake Locker instead of Ponder.
Lions - B+ Don't get me wrong, I think the Fairley pick is a straight A+. Him and Suh will put together the best roadblock in the league for years to come. I also like Titus Young to take some of the pressure off Megatron, but I don't put him as a #2 guy. Mikel Leshoure is good, put taking him tells me 2 things. A. They don't trust Jahvid Best, or B. They really, really, really want to run the ball. Either choice is not optimal, considering they don't yet have the line to pound it out on the ground. I can't argue their picks, I just don't think that they made moves to advance from a team on the verge into a contender.
ReplyDeletePackers - A. The Packers biggest needs are, ummm, ummm, well, nothing. They just won the Super Bowl with 11 backups in starting roles. Consider this, your World Champions return virtually the same roster...try to find the most recent super bowl defending champs with this many returning players... (mid-90s Cowboys). Oh yeah, the Pack also return a promising safety who will start, arguably the best offensive weapon in Finley, and their starting running back. The Packers could have passed on their draft picks and earned a higher grade than most NFL teams. Oh yeah, they picked up their future 10 year left tackle, the most versatile player in the draft, a running back whos college team changed their entire pass 95% of the time offense to allow him to rush for 1k yards, and a TE who was a contender's #1 weapon. Yikes.
Bears - B. Again, I like the first rounder. Carimi will keep Cutler off his back, but what about the other 10 defensive players driving him into the turf? I also like the addition of Paea, a great value for where they got him. A definite addition to an already solid defense, but it doesn't matter how good your D is if your offense can't score. I still like the odds of most opposing defense's ability to outscore the Bears offense. The Bears are struggling to hold on as a contender this year, and its about time to reload.
Vikings - C-. They did end up snagging my favorite secret in Kyle Rudolph. The kid can play, and the Vikes will pair him with AP, Percy, and Sidney Rice. A very nice tool to add to the arsenal of.... Christian Ponder? Ouch. This pick kills their draft. Up to re-evaluation in 5 years, but I don't see anyone supporting this pick. My take is that they saw their target Locker and second option Gabbort go off the board, and they freaked out. They reached, and I don't think they got the guy they truly wanted.
Only time will tell, but I think the winner is the Pack, trending quickly are the Lions, the Bears and Vikings are sliding into the depths of top 10 picks in the 2012 draft.