Biggest Winners: Indianapolis Colts
No folks, this is not a typo. New general manager Chris Ballard brought sensibility back to the Colts war room after Ryan Grigson's tumultuous 5-year tenure as the head of the team's front office with a terrific draft haul that addressed a majority of the team's top needs. The Colts were able get to acquire 3 immediate defensive starters in safety Malik Hooker, cornerback Quincy Wilson and edge rusher Tarrel Basham within the first 80 picks of the draft without having to sacrifice any future assets in the process. After adding a trio of nice defensive pieces in the first 3 rounds, Ballard spent the final day of the draft adding depth to the offense (tackle Zach Banner, running back Marlon Mack) and taking smart gambles on accomplished college players who didn't have the athletic upside to go earlier in the draft (inside linebacker Anthony Walker Jr., cornerback Nate Hairston). It's clearly too early to tell if these players are going to being able to help push this currently middling Colts team back into the playoff hunt, but on paper, the Ballard-era is off to a very promising.
Honorable Mentions: Cleveland Browns, Los Angeles Chargers, New Orleans Saints
Biggest Losers: Chicago Bears
After winning 9 games in the last 2 seasons, there's clearly a lot of pressure for the Bears front office and coaching staff to right the ship in 2017. The pressure of being on the hot seat forced Bears general manager Ryan Pace to make some of the most desperate picks I've seen in my decade or so of closely following the NFL Draft. The Bears quickly became the laughing stock of Round 1 after they traded up from #3 to #2 to select North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky, just 2 months after signing former Buccaneers backup Mike Glennon to a 3-year/$45 million deal in free agency. The Trubisky disaster was followed-up by the equally head-scratching selection of Ashland tight end Adam Sheehan,an insanely raw player who has no experience playing against top-level competition, in round 2. Pace redeemed himself a bit on day 3 with the addition of an underrated safety prospect in Eddie Jackson and a much-needed pass-catching back in Tarik Cohen, but it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the absurd reaches he made in the early rounds and failure to address the team's abundance of issues on the defensive side of the ball.
Dishonorable Mentions: Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, New York Jets
Best Overall Pick: Marshon Lattimore to the Saints (11th overall)
Thanks to some quarterback overdrafting and a run on receivers in the top 10, top corner prospect Marshon Lattimore fell into the Saints lap at #11. With his combination of top-notch ball skills, freakish athleticism and relentless physicality, Lattimore has a great chance of giving the Saints secondary the top corner they've lacked for the majority of the Drew Brees-era.
Honorable Mentions: David Njoku to the Browns (29th overall), Jonathan Allen to the Redskins (17th overall), Malik Hooker to the Colts (15th overall)
Worst Overall Pick: Mitch Trubisky to the Bears (2nd overall)
While I thought Mitch Trubisky was the best quarterback available in this draft class, there's no universe where he deserved to be a top-5 pick. With just 1 year of starting experience at North Carolina and a skill set that needs to be greatly refined before he can have any degree of success at the professional level, Trubisky is far too much of a project to justify taking a gamble on with such a high draft pick. The pick makes even less sense when you consider that the Bears just handed $16 mil in guaranteed money to veteran Mike Glennon in free agency this offseason. This move isn't fair to either of these guys and could end up creating the type of massive divide in the locker room that a team in the middle of a rebuild can't afford to have. Barring some kind of unforeseen miracle, the Bears decision to select Trubisky is on track to go down as one of the most misguided, franchise-damaging picks in the history of the NFL Draft.
Dishonorable Mentions: Patrick Mahomes to the Chiefs (10th overall), DeShaun Watson to the Texans (12th overall), Garret Bolles to the Broncos (20th overall)
5 Biggest Potential Sleepers:
1.Corn Elder, cornerback (Selected 152nd overall by the Carolina Panthers)
2.George Kittle, tight end (Selected 146th overall by the San Francisco 49ers)
3.Desmond King, cornerback/safety (Selected 151st overall by the Los Angeles Chargers)
4.Blair Brown, inside linebacker (Selected 148th overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars)
5.Marlon Mack, running back (Selected 143rd overall by the Indianapolis Colts)
5 Biggest Potential Busts:
1.DeShaun Watson, quarterback (Selected 12th overall by the Houston Texans)
2.Garret Bolles, tackle (Selected 20th overall by the Denver Broncos)
3.Jabrill Peppers, safety/inside linebacker (Selected 25th overall by the Cleveland Browns)
4.Marlon Humphery, cornerback (Selected 16th overall by the Baltimore Ravens)
5.Reuben Foster, inside linebacker (Selected 31st overall by the San Francisco 49ers)
Overall Grades (full draft classes for all 32 teams can be found here: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000804541/article/2017-nfl-draft-quicksnap-grades-for-all-32-teams
Atlanta Falcons: B
Arizona Cardinals: B
Baltimore Ravens: B+
Buffalo Bills: B+
Carolina Panthers: A-
Chicago Bears: D+
Cincinnati Bengals: A-
Cleveland Browns: A-
Dallas Cowboys: A-
Denver Broncos: C
Detroit Lions: C+
Green Bay Packers: B
Houston Texans: B
Indianapolis Colts: A
Jacksonville Jaguars: A-
Kansas City Chiefs: B
Los Angeles Chargers: A-
Los Angeles Rams: B
Miami Dolphins: B
Minnesota Vikings: B+
New England Patriots: B+
New Orleans Saints: A-
New York Giants: B+
New York Jets: B-
Oakland Raiders: B+
Philadelphia Eagles: A-
Pittsburgh Steelers: B
San Francisco 49ers: B+
Seattle Seahawks: B+
Tampa Bay Buccaneers: A-
Tennessee Titans: B
Washington Redskins: B+
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