It was a solid B of a draft. Not bad, nowhere close to great. Where the Grade adjusts from there remains to be seen.
There is one glaring fact to this draft, Berry and his buddy with the laptop were drafting scared. Very scared. They wasted a Top 5 pick on an undersized run blocking Undertackle too small to bulk up to a beast NT. As they said in the draft, an incredibly safe pick as he has a high floor, low ceiling. What you see is what you get. Problem is, that's the type of player you grab in rounds 3-5, not in the Top 5. Run stopping DT's are a dime a dozen. D.
Schweisinger was a solid A pick. Again, it was the safe pick. His floor is as a quietly solid MLB. Ceiling is James Laurenaitis.
Judkins will be a beast, A+ pick, also a safe safe safe pick.
Fannin- B+ pick. Pretty safe pick, should end up a solid TE. At this point Berry was looking like a brand new GM trying to build a roster from scratch, not the guy who has been GM for years now and should have had all of these spots fleshed out already. Could grow into an A, and WOULD be an A had Berry addressed the WR position.
Gabriel- F. There's no getting around it. This is when Berry quickly started going off the rails. An undersized, noodle armed career back up with a 7th round projection in the 3rd, while there were still a lot of high end WR's available. Had we grabbed a WR? A, maybe A+ pick while also bumping Fannin- into the solid A category.
Sampson- C. The kid reportedly drops a lot of passes, however if you can get that corrected and coach it out you have a nice RB rotation.
Sanders- Solid B+. As I had said during the off-season, Sanders was a mixed bag. At #2 overall? It was definitely risky. Even with his dad's bullshit, the fact he fell from being a Top 5 prospect into the 5th round is alarming. Even still, it is a solid A pick. You got a QB who was looked at as having wat round talent for a bag of stale peanuts and a ballpark dawg with stadium mustard. Using a 5th rounder presents zero risk with potentially HUGE rewards.
By far my favorite pick since JOK and one of my favorite picks since the return. Not because I have a Shep(miss ya, you silly old man!) sized hard on for Sanders, but because of the excitement of the what if and the possibility it presents. Could be a bust, could be a Russell Wilson sized steal.
All in all, it was a solid draft.... For a GM that was hired to come in and rebuild a team from the bottom up. Berry isn't that guy, and he is at the point of "shit or get off the pot." It remains to be seen how this all plays out moving forward.
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