By Justin Vadenais

The draft has now come and gone and the sports world goes back to a halt under the current conditions of the coronavirus pandemic. With nothing else to talk about and still a lot of time before training camps, let’s overreact and give my winners and losers of the NFL draft.

Winners

Indianapolis Colts

I thought the Colts had an amazing draft. Prior to the draft, they traded their first round pick to the 49ers for defensive end DeForest Buckner. A quality pass rusher and just 25 years old, the talent of a proven commodity recouped back for the 13th overall pick may very well be worth it for the Colts in the near future. Then in the second round, the Colts grabbed two offensive weapons for great values based on where they were on the board, WR Michael Pittman Jr. from USC at 34 overall and Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor at 41 overall. Pittman was someone I was interested in my hometown New England Patriots drafting and just a few picks before the Patriots, the colts nabbed him. Philip Rivers is the new starting QB in Indy and has had success with big body receivers. Standing at 6’4 and 224 pounds, Pittman Jr. should make an immediate impact for a wider receiver group that was lacking outside of TY Hilton last year, especially in the redzone. Jonathan Taylor’s impact may not be as sudden as Pittman’s as he will likely start the year behind Marlon Mack on the depth chart. However, Mack is in a contract year and if his price tag is higher than what the Colts want to pay, they can safely move on from him and have a few more years of Taylor under team control. The Colts also grabbed a backup QB to groom under Rivers for the next year or two in Jacob Eason from Washington. Although he is far from a surefire starting QB, his potential is hard to pass on in the fourth round.

Denver Broncos

The Broncos already had a solid defense, which has been their identity for quite a few years now. In this draft, the Broncos LOADED up on offensive weapons. They started by picking Alabama WR Jerry Jeudy 15th overall in the first round. Although Henry Ruggs III went to Oakland as the first receiver off the board, many scouts had Jeudy as the most talented receiver in the class. Getting him at 15 feels like a steal to me. In the second round, they grabbed another receiver in KJ Hamler from Penn State at 46th overall. He will work primarily out of the slot, complimenting Jeudy and Sutton on the outside. In the 3rd round, C Lloyd Cushenberry III (bonus points from me for the name) from LSU was added to bolster their offensive line. Lastly, I loved the pick of TE Albert Okwuegbunam from Missouri in the 4th round. He was drafted after some tight ends I thought would go way after him (cough cough Patriots). These players all have the potential to make impacts early in their career to help Drew Locke, newly signed Melvin Gordon and the rest of the Broncos create a consistent offense, with Jeudy’s size and playmaking ability, Hamler’s speed out of the slot and Cusheberry’s blocking in the trenches.

Cincinnati Bengals

As with every team, but specifically the Bengals in this draft, we shall have to wait and see if it pans out. But for right now, how can you not have the Cincinnati Bengals as a winner? They reportedly never thought about any trade offers and got their man, the Heisman and national championship winning quarterback Joe Burrow from LSU. Burrow was the consensus number 1 QB in the draft and time will ultimately tell, but the new era is here in Cincy. To start of round 2, the Bengals took Clemson WR Tee Higgins who has a big body, is an above average route runner, and has an excellent catch radius which could give Burrow an excellent option to throw up some 50/50 balls and have success doing so. With Burrow and Higgins added, along with AJ Green hopefully returning to the fold, the Bengals offense could role as they already had Tyler Boyd, John Ross III, and Joe Mixon as talented pieces in place. To follow grabbing their offensive weapons, the Bengals added some much needed linebacker depth drafting Wyoming’s Logan Wilson and Appalachian State’s Akeem Davis-Gaither in the 3rd and 4th round respectively.

Losers

Aaron Rodgers

Oof. After going on Pat McAfee’s podcast Thursday morning and saying, “We haven’t drafted a skill position player in 15 years so that would be nice”, the Packers must have listened as they did draft a skill position player. HIS REPLACEMENT! I don’t mind the pick of Jordan Love at 23 for the Packers organization as I believe he could be a talented starting QB in this league and I like him better than Justin Herbert. However for Rodgers, I have to say HAHAHAHAHA! Probably from my years of hearing fans and pundits say he is the GOAT over Brady, I am not a fan of Rodgers and this was honestly hilarious to me, he must be PISSED! Then in the 2nd round the packers drafted Boston College RB AJ Dillon. I don’t mind the player and Aaron Jones is in a contract year, so it could make sense for the Packers’ future, but Rodgers must not have been a fan of this pick either with a win now mindset.

Oakland Raiders

Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock march to the beat of their own drum and I respect that. But besides his flat out speed, I am not sure why you would take Henry Ruggs III as the first receiver off the board in a draft class with Jerry Jeudy and CeeDee Lamb. The Raiders definitely needed to draft a receiver, probably in the first round, but if Ruggs was really their guy they probably could have traded down a few spots and gotten another asset in doing so. Although it fills another position of need, many analysts had CB Damon Arnette as a 2nd round graded player so the Raiders may have reached twice in round 1. Then with back to back picks in the third round, the Raiders took 2 more wide receivers in Lynn Bowden Jr. and Bryan Edwards. Again, the Raiders definitely did need major receiver help, but using 3 out of their first 4 picks on one position is questionable nonetheless.

Philadelphia Eagles

I get Carson Wentz has had injury problems, but at 53 even though I see the upside, I still feel that is a bit of a reach for Jalen Hurts. The Jalen Reagor pick didn’t bother me as much, although I personally had Justin Jefferson higher and he went the pick right after to the Vikings. Their picks in the later rounds added solid depth pieces who could develop into starters at positions of need, particularly linebacker (Davion Taylor and Shaun Bradley), but because of the Hurts pick I still had to put them in the losers section. Maybe the Eagles move on from Wentz and Hurts becomes Mike Vick 2.0 in Philly, he is a freak athlete. In that case, I’ll happily take all the shit I deserve, but unless his injuries continue to pile up I think the Eagles stay with Wentz for the long haul and I’m not sure what they do with Hurts in that case.