The first three rounds of the 2016 NFL Draft have come and gone. This means we're under 24 hours away from the raft of draft grades that flood the Internet after the conclusion of the seventh round, and purport to scry players' entire careers at a moment when few have even seen the NFL jerseys they will don.
NFL Draft grades 2016: Jaguars among winners, Jets lead losers after Day 2
The Jaguars drafted two brand names and got praised for doing so.
Obviously, that efforts a bit of a fool’s errand. Everyone’s just taking their best guesses at what’s going to shake out from each NFL Draft, including SB Nation’s Dan Kadar and his Day 2 pick-by-pick grades. But what we can learn from the first couple days of the draft and the analysis of it, is how most feel about certain teams’ hauls and approaches.
And even if all the judgments are wrong, that means there are winners to be celebrated and losers to be scrutinized. Here are some of each after Day 2 of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Winners
As is usually the case when teams take universally well-regarded players in bunches, the Jaguars are being praised far and wide for a two-man haul that includes Florida State defensive dynamo Jalen Ramsey and UCLA stud Myles Jack. Ramsey is arguably the draft’s most talented player regardless of position, and Jack should have a claim to that same title if he recovers fully from a season-ending injury suffered last fall.
Dan Kadar gave the Jaguars a B+ for Day 2, saying they “came away from the draft with two of the three best defensive players” in it, while Yahoo’s Eric Edholm awarded the Jags his only A for a second-round pick for their selection of Jack. SI.com’s Doug Farrar was more skeptical, giving the Jack pick a C, but he’s out on an island here.
The Vikings have quietly rebuilt themselves as NFC North contenders — they did win the division over Aaron Rodgers and the vaunted Packers in 2015 — and a lot of that has to do with savvy drafting. They appear to have pulled together another excellent draft class, nabbing Ole Miss playmaker Laquon Treadwell in the first round and Clemson corner Mackensie Alexander in the second.
Kadar awarded the Vikes an A for their selection of Alexander, saying he “fell too far,” and Pro Football Focus handed out an A for the pick, too, noting that Alexander was more than 30 spots higher than his draft position on their pre-draft big board. Farrar loved the pick, giving it an A+, and Walter Cherepinsky of Walter Football concurred with that grade, beginning his analysis with, simply, “What a steal.”
Noah Spence
The former Ohio State defensive end could have been part of the Buckeyes’ incredible draft, but drug abuse issues sent him packing from Columbus before his playing days were done. After a remarkable rehabilitation at Eastern Kentucky, Spence was thought of as a mild risk, but maybe too big a risk for the early second round.
Yet, that's where he went, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the No. 39 pick, and everyone loves the fit. Kadar says Spence "can be a superstar," and compares him to Super Bowl MVP Von Miller, while Farrar awards the pick an A+ and makes a comparison to the other side of the Broncos' formidable pass rush, DeMarcus Ware. It's impossible to find someone who doesn't like the Bucs' pick here, and that's probably a good sign for Spence.
Losers
New York Jets / Christian Hackenberg
Another time-honored draft grades tradition? Trashing the team that deigns to take a ballyhooed quarterback who might be more hype than substances. This year, that team is the Jets, which spent a second-round pick on Christian Hackenberg to throw him into a QB situation even messier than the Internet trying to figure out who “Becky with the good hair” from LEMONADE is.
Kadar gave the Jets a C- for Day 2 despite writing that they “stole” Jordan Jenkins in the third round. Pro Football Focus delivered a D- verdict for the pick, and Farrar didn’t hold back with an F. It’s bad when the C that Walter Football threw out is the best look for a given pick. At least Hackenberg has room to be a pleasant surprise?
While it will be very interesting to see how NFL scribes react to the Browns and their new Moneyball-adjacent front office of former baseball personnel executives over the long-term, the team's first run at extracting value from the NFL Draft isn't getting great reviews. The Browns traded out of the No. 2 spot because they didn't see a need to grab Carson Wentz with Robert Griffin III in hand, and went back to a well that has proved poisoned over the star-crossed career of Josh Gordon, Baylor wide receivers, to nab Corey Coleman in the first round.
Then, on Day 2, Cleveland eschewed players like Myles Jack and Jaylon Smith to take Oklahoma State’s talented but unimpressively inconsistent Emmanuel Ogbah at the top of the second round, before adding Penn State DE Carl Nassib and reaching for Auburn lineman Shon Coleman and USC quarterback Cody Kessler in the third round. The Ogbah pick earned a B+ from PFF, but no other site thought it was worth more than a B, and of the trio of third-rounders, only Nassib generated praise.
Connor Cook
This is technically an off-the-board pick, but Kessler’s selection (and that of NC State quarterback Jacoby Brissett) at the end of Day 2 helped assure that Cook would slide to Day 3. This, after Cook began the 2016 draft cycle with hype comparable to that of eventual No. 1 pick Jared Goff, is a shock to the system that expects name-brand college players to be valued by front offices the way they are by fans.
Only Edholm made Cook’s shadow part of his Day 2 analysis. The fact that Cook can lead a headline about Day 2 takeaways — when he, er, wasn’t one — and took a broadside from USA TODAY Sports writer Tom Pelissero for his churlish response to criticism from the NFL, speaks to the gap between the layman’s and NFL GM’s perspectives on the Michigan State passer. And it’s only going to get worse if he continues to fall.
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