The 2022 NFL Draft has finally come to a conclusion and what an exciting three days it was for all football fans. There were an incredible 38 trades across those three days around the league. From Marquise “Hollywood” Brown being traded to the Arizona Cardinals to reunite with his college quarterback Kyler Murray to A.J. Brown being traded to the Philadelphia Eagles, a lot of craziness happened. Everyone likes to have their opinion on how certain teams did in their respective drafts, let’s take a look on my “winners” and “losers” of this years draft.
Winners
New York Jets
I mean it would be a pretty hard task to not win with three first-round draft picks. However, that’s not even where the winning stopped for the “New Jersey Jets” as Shaheen Holloway might say. The Jets followed up their first-round glory by picking up arguably the best running back in the draft in Breece Hall and then followed that up with an incredible blocking/pass-catching tight end in Jeremy Ruckert out of Ohio State. Hall is a guy that might even come in and start immediately for the Jets and Ruckert will be serve as a solid backup to new additions C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin. I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again. Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh are building something over there in East Rutherford.
Kansas City Chiefs
It pains me to say it as a die-hard New England Patriots fan, but that’s two straight incredible drafts for the Kansas City Chiefs. Also they picked a Greek in George Karlaftis so by default it’s a win. Obviously you’re not going to be able to immediately replace a receiver like Tyreek Hill, but by drafting Skyy Moore they’re on the right track. Moore finished last year with 95 catches for 1,292 yards and 10 touchdowns. Pairing him with Juju Smith-Schuster and Travis Kelce will hopefully see him get the same amount of targets as he did at Western Michigan. The Chiefs also addressed their big need at cornerback by trading with the New England Patriots by drafting Washington’s Trent McDuffie. I had McDuffie going to the Eagles at #15, so I definitely loved the pick for Kansas City. A couple other highlights from their class was LB Leo Chenal out of Wisconsin and CB Joshua Williams from Division II Fayetteville State. In a now ultra competitive AFC West the Chiefs needed to have a near perfect draft, and they went out and did just that.
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Philadelphia Eagles
What a draft week for the Eagles. Trading for A.J. Brown was huge but drafting both Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean, that almost might be more impressive. Davis was arguably the best interior lineman in the draft and to have him alongside Fletcher Cox is going to be great for his development. Taking center Cam Jurgens out of Nebraska in the second round is another case where the rook can learn from a great veteran in Jason Kelce. Nakobe Dean was my second best linebacker in the draft and because of injury concerns he fell all the way to round three. Dean fills a massive void at the linebacker position for Philadelphia. The Eagles came in and addressed their needs while acquiring a Pro Bowl wideout to pair alongside their Heisman winner star DeVonta Smith. Just a reminder that Smith had almost 2K receiving yards and 23 touchdowns in 13 games at Alabama. Ridiculous. Howie Roseman and the Eagles will look to make it a second straight playoff appearance this year.
Baltimore Ravens
A typical Ravens draft. Drafting to their needs while picking the big names that other teams were afraid to take chances on. They did it with Lamar Jackson in the 2018 draft and now they did it with both Kyle Hamilton and David Ojabo. Now it may be two different reasonings with these sets of players, but usually it pays off for the men in purple. Tyler Linderbaum is a great selection for a team that dealt with several injuries on the offensive line last year and 6’8″ giant Daniel Faalele will have a shot at starting immediately at tackle as well. Just an all-around great draft for this Ravens team. Travis Jones out of UConn is also another possible immediate starter as well. The Ravens have definitely found some gems in this one. It’s sad to see Hollywood Brown and Lamar now on separate teams, but this will be a year that Lamar reminds everyone of how good he truly is.
Losers
Las Vegas Raiders
You got Davante Adams I guess. In all seriousness, Davante Adams is an incredible addition to this offense but nothing else screams “special” about this years Raiders draft class. Zamir White is a pick I can get behind, especially after they declined the fifth-year option to Josh Jacobs, but besides that it’s looking pretty bleak.
New Orleans Saints
Now before I say anything else, I just want to say that I think Chris Olave is a great receiver and can form a great duo with former Buckeye Michael Thomas. I actually had Olave going to New Orleans in my mock draft as well. However, I am not a big fan of the rest of the draft for Dennis Allen & Co. Trevor Penning has been known to be reckless with penalties and will need a lot of coaching, and I don’t know if the core of this Saints team has the time to sit and wait for a rebuild. A lot of the players like Cam Jordan, Demario Davis and Alvin Kamara are in win-now mode. They’ve been along for the Brees years and I’m assuming none of them want to wait it out for another playoff-less year. It’s going to be a weird transition without Sean Payton at the helm, only time will tell.
San Francisco 49ers
They didn’t have a first-round pick and Deebo Samuel still wants to leave, how can that be a winner? How are you going to go into the year with your 2021 first-round pick at quarterback with uncertainty with his best weapon? I don’t know what the 49ers organization even did for Deebo to even get mad at them I the first place, but strictly off of that, they are losers.
Miami Dolphins
This is basically the same situation as the Raiders. You gave up a lot of your picks for a top target at the receiver position and now you have to wait and see if it is going to work out in your favor. Their first pick came at round three with Georgia linebacker Channing Tindall and it wasn’t followed by anything special. This Dolphins team still has the ability to make some noise this year, but I can’t give them a good grade for their draft week.
With the draft coming to a close, and the NBA playoffs in full spin, this will be the last NFL-related article I write until season predictions come around. There’s a lot to be excited for this year, unless you’re DeAndre Hopkins unfortunately. This is YSN, until next time, signing out.
