Jp's Xs & Os Blog

Draft Day’s Biggest Winners And Loser! 

As we all know, the draft process has finally come to an end with every team doing most of their signings and paperwork. While most teams now pivot to rookie training camp and various OTA workouts, we’re going to focus now on the biggest draft day winners and the biggest loser, so stay tuned.

First, this draft was one of the craziest people have seen thus far. Many surprising picks occurred in the first round, with many players taken where they weren’t expected to be. Ultimately, this year, I believe there were more winners than losers. Of course we won’t know exactly if these teams are winners or losers until the season commences, but what we do know is what teams needed in this year’s draft. Our first winner of the draft has to be the Chicago Bears. We knew before the offseason that the Bears needed to address their issues on offense. They did exactly that by prioritizing young offensive talent like center Logan Jones and Sam Roush. These picks alone made the Bears’ draft choices look organized and planned. 

The second winner in this draft is a team that historically doesn’t do very well during this time, and that’s the New York Jets. With the Jets receiving so many first-round picks this year, there was only so much that could go wrong. If you look at the Jets team as a whole, they had many gaps to fill throughout their team, and they addressed that well early in the draft by picking players like David Bailey, Kenyon Sadiq, and Omar Cooper, all players with tremendous numbers in college. David Bailey alone led the nation in sacks with 14 on an outstanding Texas Tech defense. Grabbing a super productive player like him allows for an organization to build a puzzle around him. Overall I give the Jets an A+ draft grade for this year. 

Lastly, let’s talk about the most significant loser of the draft being the New York Giants. With the coaching change that they had, I was assuming going into the draft that they’d address immediate needs first, and I didn’t really see that. I do believe that they chose exceptional athletes in the first few rounds, but I don’t believe they addressed the right issue selecting Arvell Reese. Arvell is a phenomenal edge rusher out of Ohio State, but the Giants already have great edge rushers in Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, and Kayvon Thibodeaux, which is odd. Where they truly needed help was at wide receiver and offensive line, and looking at the players that they could’ve chosen early in the draft confuses me. I see they must’ve been looking for a receiver later in the draft, but giving a gunslinger quarterback like Jaxson Dart more deep ball threats should’ve been addressed almost immediately. 

With all that being said, I appreciate everyone for tuning in for another blog week, and make sure to check back in next week for our interview section.