Six weeks (and five games) in, let's grade the 2018 draft

[tiger7_88]

1. WR D.J. Moore

Scary bad 1st half in Game 5.  In the same game, came back with a good 2nd half.  Has flashed in very few opportunities provided hiim in Games 1-4.  Potential, but still only that.  Might end up being a great pick, but the jury is still out.  P.S. I thought he looked bad returning punts in pre-season so, of course, Ron "Special Teams Genius" Rivera has him on special teams.

2. CB Donte Jackson

Best of the seven draft picks through Week 6.  Has played pretty good to extremely good in every game except for Game 4 vs. NYG.  Leads the team in interceptions.  Great pick.

3. S Rashaan Gaulden

Invisible.  Has been on the game-day roster for all five games, but still hasn't played much.  Hasn't flashed or shown much potential when he has played.  Poor pick.

4. TE Ian Thomas

Started the season extremely well.  And, to use that word again, "flashed" some potential in Games 1-3.  His only visibility in Games 4 and 5 have been bad though.  Directly contributed to 2 interceptions in Game 4 vs. the NYG.  Upon Greg Olsen's return, his head coach seems to have preferred the 2 TE combo of Olsen-Manhertz over Olsen-Thomas (be honest... raise your hand if you are surprised that Ron "I love my washed-up veterans" Rivera would prefer Manhertz).  Has shown enough to look like he has a bright future (unless Rivera continues to have him watch Manhertz from the sideline).  Good pick.

4. "DE" Marquis Haynes

5. LB Jermaine Carter

One total tackle in 5 games.  An utter non-contributor.  I would otherwise ignore a 5th rounder and not expect anything, but he *is* on the Panther's roster so, in that case, poor pick.

7. LB Andre Smith

1/2 total tackles in 1 game active.  An utter non-contributor.  Same as above, but he'd get the 7th round "who cares?" from me except that Rivera/Hurney have seen fit for him to occupy a roster spot.  So, poor pick.

7. DT Kendrick Norton

No games.  No stats.  An utter non-contributor.   7th round practice squad player, so no grade.

[LinvilleGorge]

Way too early. Let's talk in two years.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

I think Gaulden is doing what he was expected to do.  Patience is needed with this pick IMO.  I think Thomas has done a couple things better than I expected but has growing to do.  That said I think in a couple years he will end up being the steal of the draft.  

Just my wishful thinking. 

 

[Definitely Not Trolling]

1 hour ago, tiger7_88 said:

1. WR D.J. Moore

Scary bad 1st half in Game 5.  In the same game, came back with a good 2nd half.  Has flashed in very few opportunities provided hiim in Games 1-4.  Potential, but still only that.  Might end up being a great pick, but the jury is still out.  P.S. I thought he looked bad returning punts in pre-season so, of course, Ron "Special Teams Genius" Rivera has him on special teams.

2. CB Donte Jackson

Best of the seven draft picks through Week 6.  Has played pretty good to extremely good in every game except for Game 4 vs. NYG.  Leads the team in interceptions.  Great pick.

3. S Rashaan Gaulden

Invisible.  Has been on the game-day roster for all five games, but still hasn't played much.  Hasn't flashed or shown much potential when he has played.  Poor pick.

4. TE Ian Thomas

Started the season extremely well.  And, to use that word again, "flashed" some potential in Games 1-3.  His only visibility in Games 4 and 5 have been bad though.  Directly contributed to 2 interceptions in Game 4 vs. the NYG.  Upon Greg Olsen's return, his head coach seems to have preferred the 2 TE combo of Olsen-Manhertz over Olsen-Thomas (be honest... raise your hand if you are surprised that Ron "I love my washed-up veterans" Rivera would prefer Manhertz).  Has shown enough to look like he has a bright future (unless Rivera continues to have him watch Manhertz from the sideline).  Good pick.

4. "DE" Marquis Haynes

5. LB Jermaine Carter

One total tackle in 5 games.  An utter non-contributor.  I would otherwise ignore a 5th rounder and not expect anything, but he *is* on the Panther's roster so, in that case, poor pick.

7. LB Andre Smith

1/2 total tackles in 1 game active.  An utter non-contributor.  Same as above, but he'd get the 7th round "who cares?" from me except that Rivera/Hurney have seen fit for him to occupy a roster spot.  So, poor pick.

7. DT Kendrick Norton

No games.  No stats.  An utter non-contributor.   7th round practice squad player, so no grade.

1 descent player in a whole draft class, sounds like hurney. Same ole Same ole

 

[Eazy-E]

I don’t have a problem with the draft I just don’t like the fact that we drafted a bunch of projects when we should be in “win now” mode.

[iamhubby1]

    Nothing screams, "I need something negative to throw at Hurndog", like bringing up the draft 5 games in. 

 

    Yup. It's appears the vocal minority is in full rebuild mode. Fire everybody. Except those Auburn kids that is.

[top dawg]

@tiger7_88, you are better than this...aren't you? 

[Bartin]

Gaulden has been fine. He has been splitting series with Reid the last two weeks and like Reid while he hasn’t done anything great he also hasn’t done anything bad. I think he will end up as an average starter which is totally fine.

[MillionDollarCam]

Grading 5th through 7th round draft picks 5 games into their careers is dumb as hell.

Those players rarely start games or see significant time. Also Andre Smith has been hurt, do some research.

Hell, Josh Norman was considered a fringe NFL player for the first three years of his career.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Definitely too early, look at the hate on the 2017 draft class. I hope Samuel gets healthy and playing time, but CMC, Moton, Samuel and Butler would have been a very solid draft but it looked a lot worse before this year.

That said, this class was lauded way too much in preseason. Gaulden was the worst pick IMHO., with Haynes not much behind. Those two were talked about as if they’d solve the safety and DE issues based on practice drills but in preseason games looked like I feared. A guy out of place and a way too small NFL 4-3 DE. The picks after Thomas are shots in the dark and, especially with Carter, I think there’s some promise. 

Hurney has a pretty bad track record with drafting undersized DEs.

Drafts can trend the other way too. Remember how great the 2014 draft looked early on? In 2018, Trai Turner is the only player from that draft class still on the roster.

[tiger7_88]

22 minutes ago, stbugs said:

Definitely too early, look at the hate on the 2017 draft class.

Somebody finally gets it.

[Mr. Scot]

3 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Way too early. Let's talk in two years.

Or three to five...

[Mr. Scot]

2 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Hurney has a pretty bad track record with drafting undersized DEs.

Drafts can trend the other way too. Remember how great the 2014 draft looked early on? In 2018, Trai Turner is the only player from that draft class still on the roster.

Hurney drafts "undersized" at a lot of spots. Ditto free agents.

I remember during one of our recent games, the broadcast crew put up a graphic saying that we had the highest number of players under six feet tall of any team in the league. That's a pretty big switch from Gettleman. I remember at one point under him, we had maybe four guys that were under six feet (and that was counting the practice squad).

[Krovvy]

I mean yeah, Hurney has drafted some smaller defensive ends. He also drafted Charles Johnson with a late third round pick, and Greg Hardy with a sixth.