I will be taking a look at a few teams each week and how
they drafted this year and also a few other changes the team may have made in
the offseason.
Arizona Cardinals: They did not do much to give me hope as this
does not look to be a good season for the Cards. HC Bruce Arians is gone and
replaced by Steve Wilks. QB Carson Palmer has departed as well. Sam Bradford
and Josh Rosen will be under center. The Cardinals drafted Rosen, who is a top
prospect, but Bradford will be under center as long as he stays healthy. Rosen is a big QB at 6’4” and 226, but he does
bring some off-field baggage with him. I
give the Cardinals a “B+” in their draft.
John Brown and Tyrann Mathieu are gone from last year’s edition. The
Cardinals did add Justin Pugh to the offensive line and he will give them a big
boost. Still, even with their decent draft, I see the Cardinals at the bottom
of this division.
Atlanta Falcons: Another team that showed me nothing in the
offseason. They didn’t draft until the 26th pick and took WR Calvin
Ridley. Ridley is there to take some of
the pressure off Julio Jones. This team will regress in 2018, since it seems to
me their window began to close ever since they blew that big halftime lead in
the Super Bowl. I look for that slide to
continue this season.
Baltimore Ravens: I believe the Ravens will show improvement
this season. They drafted 25th and took TE Hayden Hurst. They rebuilt the wide receiver core, adding
Crabtree, Brown and Snead. The addition
of Hurst to those new wide outs will boost Joe Flacco. They also added Lamar
Jackson with the last pick of the first round at QB, as the heir replacement to Flacco. I do look
for Flacco to improve this season with the addition of the talent at wide out.
And, that will make this Baltimore team better in 2018.
Buffalo Bills: The
Bills drafted Wyoming QB Josh Allen with the 7th pick. I like Allen,
he’s big and strong and has a very good arm.
However, it will take some time before this team improves overall. There
are just too many question marks up and down the roster. While I give their
draft an “A-“, I give the team a “D”.
Chicago Bears: The Bears had the 8th pick in the
first round and took LB Roquan Smith of Georgia. The Bears have had three
straight losing seasons after a 5-11 mark last year. John Fox was replaced as
the head coach by former Chiefs OC Matt Nagy.
Smith is a fine fit to this Bears defense, though he’s a bit
undersized. Mitch Trubisky got thrown in
at QB last year in the fourth game, but the Bears still finished last in the
NFL in passing yards. They added wide receivers Allen Robinson from
Jacksonville and Taylor Gabriel to give Trubisky more targets. The addition of
Smith at LB will also help. The Bears really have nowhere to go but up. I don’t
think they will be all that improved, but should be better than their five wins
last year.
Cleveland Browns: The team with the biggest picks in this
year’s draft was the Cleveland Browns. The Browns took QB Baker Mayfield with
the first overall pick and CB Denzel Ward with the fourth overall pick. Mayfield is by no means a sure thing.
Remember Tim Couch, the Browns 1st pick in 1999? Not many people do. Since Couch, this Brown’s team has had 29
starters at quarterback. The one
drawback to Mayfield is his size, at just over six-feet tall he’s one of the
smallest QB’s in the draft. Mayfield isn’t without controversy either, off
field public intoxication issues and that crotch grabbing incident vs
Kansas. Only time will tell if this was
the right move by Cleveland. If history is any indication, they may be in for
trouble.
Denver Broncos: Not sure what is going on in the Mile High
City. Maybe the high altitude and thin air is getting to John Elway. I expected a QB to go to Denver, but they
drafted Bradley Chubb, DE from NC State with the 5th pick. Chubb is very good, a very physical player to
compliment the Broncos DE Von Miller. I
thought long term QB was a goal here, but they added Case Keenum from the
Vikings and while he’s good, he’s not the future. QB Josh Allen was available
and I thought he would be a very good fit for this Broncos team. The defense will once again be very good, but
you have to score points to win. I give
the Broncos a “A” for a very good defensive draft, but a “C” for an offense
that still has questions.
Next
week I will have part two of my series as I look at more teams, their draft and
their off season moves.
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