How Would You Grade the 2023 Draft Now?

[Jackie Lee]

3 minutes ago, strato said:

And if there were a second he wouldn’t get in that either after what he did on the field.

He might be worth a 5th round flyer. He's basically Stetson Bennet, without the 2 national championships as a starter

[cardiackat88.]

Name your top three players drafted since Tepper bought the team.....

[Panthero]

9 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I can appreciate a positive outlook but it's unlikely he is in the NFL longer than the average NFL player's career.

Yeah. I'll just go fvck myself then. Lol.

[hepcat]

19 hours ago, rayzor said:

check back after next year with a coaching staff that isn't spending more time/energy fighting each other than working with the team.

until we see them with a not so dysfunctional coaching staff i think most grades are going to be incomplete at this point. 

There’s high chance this staff is equally dysfunctional in the very likely case Evero’s defense continues to make the offense look developmentally challenged. Many players probably privately think Evero should just be the head coach. Obviously a bright guy who will be getting a shot at the top job at some point. 

[RumHam]

F-

[Panthero]

[kungfoodude]

5 hours ago, Panthero said:

Yeah. I'll just go fvck myself then. Lol.

He was always going to be one of those outlier of outliers. 

Those low production but super high end athletes rarely pan out because of multiple reasons. That's why they weren't that productive in college.

Very luckily for the NFL evaluators, the current era of basically "free agency" in college football exposes a lot of that as guys move around and either show themselves to be high caliber or show they were not worthy of whatever ranking/hype/etc. You get to see a lot more players at multiple programs and in various settings and systems.

[Panthero]

1 hour ago, kungfoodude said:

He was always going to be one of those outlier of outliers. 

Those low production but super high end athletes rarely pan out because of multiple reasons. That's why they weren't that productive in college.

Very luckily for the NFL evaluators, the current era of basically "free agency" in college football exposes a lot of that as guys move around and either show themselves to be high caliber or show they were not worthy of whatever ranking/hype/etc. You get to see a lot more players at multiple programs and in various settings and systems.

astute point. i was also thinking about this from another angle the other day. Seems like the "market" of moving around will allow for positions of scarcity (re: QB) to add a bit of supply. the logic being, you dont sit for 2 years behind an all-american anymore. you go play at another school so scouts get more film and more guys (that are quality) get more reps and make themselves higher caliber players before they enter the league. 

[JawnyBlaze]

F ***** minus. The only pick that’s not an F so far is Mingo. I’d give him a C-.  Didn’t see enough to completely trash the pick, effort seemed to be there, just no opportunities with the JV backup throwing him the ball. 

[TheSpecialJuan]

The worst draft in the history of this earth 

[JawnyBlaze]

17 hours ago, Carolina Cajun said:

It was bad, no way around it, but I will say, lets wait and see with some of the guys.  Bryce obviously will get another shot with hopefully a decent offensive staff.  Mingo showed some small flashes, even smitty pointed those out.  I think its unfair to consider DJ Johnson an F when he was literally never supposed to legitimately play a part on our team in year one, he was always supposed to be backup and learn from the bench.  Zavala and Jammie, well we'll see, but early returns not good.  Just remember Josh Norman was absolute trash early, he actually was in the doghouse after busted coverage in 2013 again the bills.  Things can change and players can develop, especially raw players.  We'll know more after next season.

Yea Norman actually wasn’t trash. Many of us were yelling at Ron “it’s my personal duty to defend older veterans at all costs” Rivera for benching him off one busted coverage. He was still solid his first year and quite good his second. 

[SOJA]

I think it's too early to grade but I am not optimistic it will end up being good. Kind of like when you start a book and think..."this isn't very good, but maybe it will get better"

Sometimes it does and sometimes you finish the book and think "wow, that was a total waste of time"

For me the biggest thing is missing on Bryce if he doesn't pan out. Now critics will say we traded away too much. I disagree. I still believe it was a fair trade, and if we end up taking Stroud no one gives a fug what you gave up. I just think we probably picked the worst of the top 3 guys 

 

That being said our wagon is hitched to Bryce for at least one more if not two more seasons so I'm praying he does turn it around 

Edited February 24 by SOJA

[Pejorative Miscreant]

On 2/22/2024 at 10:36 AM, Jon Snow said:

Incomplete but its looking like our typical shitty draft.

Me thinks this is the best approach.  To early to tell how everything shakes out but there is a hell of a lot of foreshadowing that says it doesn’t look good. 

[33inNC]

On 2/22/2024 at 10:23 AM, Hoenheim said:

How would you grade the players we drafted individually and as a whole? 1 year is a short time but it's also a good enough sample size to have some concrete thoughts.  Also you can compare it to your thoughts right after the draft vs right after the season ended. You can also talk about if you expect them to improve or not.

 

R1: Bryce Young 

> He showed some flashes in 2 game winning drives against Atlanta and Houston, had one complete "good" game vs the Packers. Otherwise, Bryce had an extemely underwhelming rookie campaign considering the capital we gave up to get him. I witnessed a ton of errant balls, 4 pick sixes, questionable deep ball accuracy in particular, and my main gripe holding on to the ball way too long given how crappy the o line was. He was unexpectedly good at running the ball while scrambling and managed to stay healthy when that may have been the key concern from his most major detractors. I was tempted to give an F but I saw at least some signs of life on a few throws this year and one good game. It's quite possible Canales may turn him around significantly but that's pure speculation right now.

Grade: D 

R2: Jonathan Mingo

 Definitely not great, especially when we were seeing players many of us wanted in mocks like Tank Dell Josh Downs and Rashee Rice have very impressive rookie years in comparison. Not great at separating, route running, and had the dropsies at times. He onmy caught half of his targets for 418 receiving yards with 0 TDs.   I'm really hoping he doesn't just turn into yet another WR bust like the Panthers are accustomed to drafting in R2. 

Grade: D

R3: DJ Johnson

Some of you may have to help me with this one. I didn't notice him that much this season. Did he make any sort of significant impact on defense? If he did I wasn't particularly aware of it in games. A lot of people were not a fan of this pick when it was made it seemed like a bizzare choice and I know he didn't make much of an impact sack/pressure rate wise, especially given how badly we seemed to need it crucial times in games.  

Grade: F

R4: Chandler Zavala 

Far and away the worst player from this class. Even among all the turmoil and rotating players we had on the interior offensive line in the 2023 season, he was the worst one. Absolutely got worked by anyone and everyone who lined up across from him, calling him a turnstile would be too kind. Maybe it was a red flag when he texted the staff to draft him. As bad as Ikem Ekwonu regressed this year, Zavala was much worse.

Grade: F 

R5: Jammie Robinson

Another pick I may not be super qualified to rank considering I didn't notice him much if he was playing. But that in of itself could be an indictment on how little of an impact he had on the team. You don't really expect 5th rounders to be crucial players on your team but I'm not sure he contributed much of anything. 

Grade: F    

 

Overall  I'd have to give this draft an F grade.  Until proven otherwise.  I'm hopeful Canales and Morgan can turn this ship around but truthfully speaking I'm salty about the state of this franchise. I'll believe in change when I see it.

I'm with you, straight F. Considering the price we paid for Bryce, unless he wins a Super Bowl, he is an F.