What do you grade this draft?

[Camp Fodder]

23 hours ago, Jackie Lee said:

I'll go B since Morgan got our 2nd rounder back for next year and we got Sanders at 101. Don't worry about these cowards taking the fun out of early grading the draft on a message board

This

 

23 hours ago, kungfoodude said:

I gave it a C because I really only maybe two of these guys making a second contract here(Brooks and Sanders). 

Seemed very similar to recent previous drafts to my eyes.

this.  Loved the trade down to get our second back next year  and our 4th round pick   I also liked the move to get to 32 but would have went with Ladd. I believe we reached a bit on our 2nd and third round picks, especially with Brooks injury.

 

[Panthers Rhule]

I'm going to give my 2 cents after a long hiatus. I'm not going to focus on the player's ability as I can now admit that I don't really know so much about that. I will focus on the way the draft was run based on said objectives and how those objectives were obtained. It's not based on what I wanted but what they said they wanted. Whether or not that's a good thing remains to be seen but Dan Morgan was a bad ass on the field and I'm happy with the idea of looking for badasses moving forward. I know the key word is dawgs but I have to deal with key words in my work all the time and they make me sick so I'll just use old terms like badass. 

I wasn't high on Legette, I wanted another but he was gone so it doesn't matter. I understand why they wanted him and they got him. More importantly to me is the way they got him. People like to say it was for the 5th year option but I doubt that was the main reason because if he's really good they will want to sign him long term and not use that tag as it's expensive anyway. It's more of an emergency thing and usually not a good sign of a healthy relationship. It was more likely because someone else wanted him and we knew it so we used our connections to move up and take him from another team. Yes, we traded up but it cost us practically nothing overall. A (We got our target)

Next, I would like to include the part of the draft that impressed me most. Whether or not the pick was right or wrong I have know idea yet and neither does anyone else but these moves were brilliant. Morgan traded pick 39 for 52 and 155 PLUS a 2nd next season. I know people say a second next year has a 3rd year value this year and that's true but next year it has a 2nd round value and for a team without a 2nd round pick that's huge even if it's likely later in the round. For a team rebuilding that's great. 

Even better, is they then traded up at a low cost, once again increasing draft value to get their 2nd target and it worked. Again, I'm not judging the pick but the execution. It appears that they had targets early in this draft and they got both of them and at the same time improved next season draft and put themselves in position on the board to grab other targets even if from this point on it's not the primary target necessarily at that pick but someone they are ok with but they got their first 2.  A (drafted first 2 primary targets and improved this year's draft and next years) 

At this point, I assume it becomes more difficult to pinpoint specific targets as they did in rounds 1 and 2. However, it looks to me like once again they worked this out well overall. The next trade back may have cost them their 3rd target and they may have had to take the back-up pick here. I don't know how they valued the LBs but I think it's possible that they selected their 2nd choice here but, because of what they get next from that trade , it was worth it to them. Instead of 1 player they wanted as a primary target, they got the back-up 3rd pick target and still got their 4th primary target. Meaning they got their 2nd LB target but still got their primary TE target instead of getting only one primary target at one position. IMO, this is when we can really see how each trade was well thought out to give the Panthers the best chance to improve the roster with their guys. Again, it's not an evaluation of the players themselves but what they wanted. Although this time I will say that I LOVE the Sanders pick personally and the fact that they could get him and a much needed LB in this part of the draft is better than I had hoped for. B+ (I don't think they got their first target at LB but got their 2nd and yet still got their first target at TE and)

The last 3 picks are usually anyone's guess and I think the last 2 are just that. Throw a hail mary and maybe you score a TD. But I think the 5th pick is from the 25 yard line instead of the 50. It's still a long shot but possible which is why we ran a play to get us here for 1 shot instead of 2 from further away. I can understand both lines of thought but I'm partial to percentages and therefore I agree with the process that got us the pick here as I think this player has a chance. Could we have got a player with a better chance of being our long-term nickle in draft?  Probably. Would I take that player over either of our previous 2 picks? Absolutely not. LB and TE are more important to me than nickle db. It's a 5th rounder so if he looks bad we can try again but if he shows promise, which I think is possible in this defense then day 3 is at least a FG. The last 2 picks are throws from the 40 or 45 after a penalty but if either one hits the board then day 3 was a TD.  B- (I upped the score because the trades that improved day 2 hurt day 3 but overall I think the moves were good value so I increased the day 3 rating from a C to a B-) 

Overall, A-. I think Morgan did a masterful job targeting specific players, which I approve of, and manipulating trades to acquire those players. I'm actually very impressed.