Thor's NFL Draft Snap Grades

Arizona Cardinals | Snap grade: A-

The Cardinals crushed every pick from Byron Murphy through to Mr. Irrelevant Caleb Wilson. A monster Day 3 effort began by absolutely stealing Hakeem Butler and Deionte Thompson. For the Day 2-3 treasure chest, I give Arizona an A++. Butler is my favorite pick in the entire draft. Monster value. Butler's absolute floor is as a one-tricky pony downfield coinflip guy who can get higher than any defensive back in NFL history.

He's got the athleticism to do it, he's got all-time dimensions and length, and he won big that way in college, where he was the nation's best downfield receiver by all stats last year despite playing in an otherwise poor passing offense (noodle-armed true freshman QB, terrible OL, no other WR, vanilla offense) and despite the high drop rate that folks fixated on in order to disconnect critical faculty and move on to the next prospect's tape. I explain the context behind Hakeem's late-breakout age and why you can't judge him like some other late-bloomers in my WR deep-dive column if you're interested in those circumstances as well. 

If Butler fixes the drop rate thing -- which I believe he can -- watch out. If he doesn't, he's still worth the slot he went in. He still has value as exactly what he is. The NFL gave the Cardinals a risk-free opportunity at Butler's Plaxico Burress ceiling.

But for a team with a Swiss-cheese roster and multiple needs, I disagreed with the decision to draft QB Kyler Murray at 1.1 and sell low on QB Josh Rosen to facilitate it. I also disagreed with the decision not to address the offensive line until Round 6. 

Kyler Murray's placement wasn't top-notch at Oklahoma, and it's not going to improve in the NFL if he's running around like a pinted-size Tecmo Bo back there because the Cardinals couldn't be bothered to take an offensive linemen until they'd first taken three receivers and 178 players had already been selected. This was a draft like I recruit in NCAA 2014. That's a compliment and an indictment all rolled into one. Kyler Murray had better pan out.

Atlanta Falcons | Snap grade: D+

I’m a fan of Lindstrom and McGary, and good for the Falcons for moving aggressively to fortify the OL, but I have minor quibbles with the value range on each. The rest of the class is an odd assortment of more extreme overdrafts, from boom-or-bust SPARQ stars (Sheffield, Cominsky) to low-probability moving-in-quicksand guys (last three picks).

Carolina Panthers | Snap grade: C

Burns was an awesome pick and a value bonanza. The Packers picked Rashan Gary ahead of this guy! Burns is gonna be a sick pass rusher, guarenteed. We know he can do one thing (and that one thing only). But that's one more thing than Rashan Gary can do right now, and Gary will never do one thing as good as Brian Burns can rush the passer. I loved the Grier pick at 4.100.

The teams with QB needs had either filled their quota or were sleeping on the wheel with Grier's eval, so the Panthers figured "screw it." Grier's floor is Case Keenum. Easy value approximation stick: Where does Keenum go in the re-draft of his class? He goes above 100. Choosing Greg Little over Cody Ford will come back to haunt, and I thought Scarlett and Godwin were throwaway picks. 

Chicago Bears | Snap grade: C

I absolutely loved the David Montgomery pick in Round 3 — I think he’s the best back in the class — and I thought Denmark and Whyte were worthwhile lottery tickets at 7.222 and 7.238, respectively. But I can't rate the class higher than average because they took a value bath on 40% of their picks in a five-man class by going off grid on the pint-sized, unathletic Shelley and chasing Riley Ridley's mythical ceiling.

Riley Ridley's a 6-foot-1, 199-pounder with 15th-percentile athleticism who only once caught more than five balls in a game in college, only exceeded 80 receiving yards in a game three times, and produced 1,015 receiving yards in 28 games over three seasons, or 36.25 per game. Ridley had seven games with 57 or more receiving yards. Three of the seven came over the first four games he played as a true freshman in 2016.

He only topped 50 yards in a game once as a sophomore, and that was the time he exceeded five catches in a game, with six. It happened to come in the 2017 title game against Alabama.

His genetic association with the opponent's WR1 that game, Calvin, plus the insane luck of having the best performance of his 28-game career on the big stage while upstaging his Round 1 NFL WR brother in front of the nation, flattered his eval throughout with circumstantial bias. The other 27 games... weren't like that.

Dallas Cowboys | Snap grade: F

I didn’t get it. And I like Trysten Hill more than most! But that pick started an over-draft party that Dallas was unable to turn the music down on (with the exception of the Round 5 Miami kids).

Detroit Lions | Snap grade: C+

I’ll repeat what I’ve been saying since January: Hockenson is the best TE prospect to enter the league since Vernon Davis, and if I was forced to bet my life on one player from this class making the Hall of Fame, it’d be him. Loved that pick. The rest of the class didn't do much for me, with the exception of getting Oruwariye at 5.146, a nice value. 

Green Bay Packers | Snap grade: C-

Bizarre Day 1, as Green Bay over-drafted the heck out of Rashan Gary, who never developed at Michigan with an NFL coaching staff led by Jim Harbaugh, and then used a second-first rounder on Darnell Savage when guys like Amani Hooker, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Deionte Thompson were available on Day 3. Liked the rest of the haul, though. Sternberger is going to do real damage with Aaron Rogers. 

Los Angeles Rams | Snap grade: B+

Strong, workmanlike draft. The Rams didn’t have a ton of draft capital but made their limited dollars stretch far by snapping up several value propositions. Les Snead and Sean McVay plucked criminally underrated CB David Long and Last Chance U star Dakota Allen, an undersized, rangy kid who gets after it in run defense.

The most fascinating pick of the class is Darrell Henderson, the only skill-position prospect the Rams selected. Are the Rams more concerned about the health of Todd Gurley than they're letting on? 

Minnesota Vikings | Snap grade: B+

Bradbury was a slam-dunk pick (I would have taken Dillard, but Bradbury is a perfect fit and was a fine value at 1.18). I also thought the Vikings absolutely pillaged on Day 3, consistently getting tremendous value all the way into Round 7. But I can’t go higher than a B+ because I thought the Purple had a disastrous Friday.

Irv Smith is a tweener at a position that wasn’t of pressing need. I liked Mattison more than most, but you can’t take him with the last pick of R3 over superior talents Hakeem Butler, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Anthony Nelson and Julian Love, all of whom were snapped up immediately when the draft re-opened on Saturday.

New Orleans Saints | Snap grade: B

Not much to judge here, but I thought the Saints got really good value from the slots they were in.

New York Giants | Snap grade: D

Loved the Julian Love pick, didn't dig the rest of it. And this is coming from one of the guys who’s highest on Daniel Jones in the industry (No. 32 overall in my rankings). But taking Jones No. 6 is just reading your opponents incorrectly at the poker table. If he's your guy, fine. But you need to drop back 10 slots and pick up something real nice along the way, like a 2020 first-rounder. And if somebody snipes you on Jones in your new slot, who cares?

Daniel Jones isn't a unicorn prospect, he's a Tier 2 QB in a bad class. And the Giants already have a 2019 starter on the roster. Next year's QB class is way better, and in a hilarious twist after Gettleman passed on Sam Darnold for Saquon Barkley last year, the Giants are now hurtling toward another high draft pick in a 2020 draft that will be stacked with quarterbacks -- but they've now frozen themselves out of a chance at Justin Herbert or Tua Tagovailoa.

And they did that because Gettleman wanted to show us media nerds that he could let his freak flag fly by impulse buying Jones over elite prospects like Josh Allen, TJ Hockenson, Ed Oliver and Jonah Williams. He showed us! Even Jones' most ardent supporters don't believe he has superstar ability. It's not about Jones, I think he's an NFL starter, that's why I graded him as a first-rounder. It's about the slot. You don't take a value bath up high like that.

Philadelphia Eagles | Snap grade: A-

Getting Andre Dillard at 1.22 was highway robbery. I was stunned he fell -- I think he was the offensive linemen in this class, and a top-6 overall talent. The Eagles continued to build up on offense in Day 2 with second-round RB Miles Sanders and WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. 

Arcega-Whiteside provides a sturdy red-zone target for Carson Wentz even if he never develops much beyond that, while Sanders is going to be a major player if he hits his ceiling. 

San Francisco 49ers | Snap grade: C

I preferred Josh Allen to Bosa, but I have no issues with that pick. I have more issues with the slight overdraft of Deebo Samuel (especially considering DK Metcalf went at the end of the round and Hakeem Butler went with the first pick in the fourth).

I loved the Jalen Hurd pick. Super underrated prospect whose floor is way higher than the draft media has implied because we know he'll at minimum be a usable big slot who can also grind out yards in short-yardage situations out of the I-formation. I thought the 49ers snoozed through Day 3.

Seattle Seahawks | Snap grade: D+

I laughed out loud when the LJ Collier pick was announced. I fully expected a defensive John Schneider to try to spin to the media that another team wanted to trade for Collier after the pick was made, as he did after the horrifying Rashaad Penny selection. Metcalf and Burr-Kirven were good values. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Snap grade: C-

Devin White was a no-brainer, and Anthony Nelson was great value shopping. The rest of the class was meh for me.

Washington Redskins | Snap grade: A+

It feels weird to love a Redskins class, but Washington crushed it this year. Haskins at 1.15 was such a coup, as was Sweat at 1.26. Also loved the dart-throw on Love, and scooping up possession WR Kelvin Harmon at a clearance price.