The NFL draft is complete. And while we wait for actual game evidence to provide the basis for our second-guesses and doubts, we will fill the void with evidence-free second-guesses and doubts.
In reality, I thought there were fewer teams in 2023 that were obviously flailing. There are more teams embracing alternative building strategies, and, at least on a surface level, more teams clinging to quantifiable measures of next-level success. Sure, a few running backs were taken in the first round, but as I wrote on the night of Round 1, I find the moves defensible at the moment. While I am more willing than most to give people the benefit of the doubt at this point, it wasn’t as hard to try to understand what the Lions, for example, were trying to do, even if many of us would have given them one of the worst day-after grades.
So, at this point, we’ll parse out the winners and losers column with surprisingly little animus. Even the Cardinals, who can’t seem to go four minutes without triggering an NFL investigation, had a fairly nice weekend. That, and more, below …
