There are always good players, some great players in any draft class. But the inner circle of 32 GM’s didn’t hide their contempt for this 2023 draft group. These GMs farted in a general direction.
A few years ago only the analytics community and a handful of GM’s appreciated positional value. Now most all the teams get it. RBs, TEs, LBs and Safety talent is discounted, as even good players at those positions rarely move the needle as much in wins and losses. They get it. Hell, most serious fans get it now.
Yet this year?
-Two RBs taken in first 12 picks.
-Nine (!) tight ends taken in first 3 rounds
This only happened because this draft was an island of misfit toys. And these GMs with terabytes of videos and spreadsheets…knew it well. Painfully, even disdainfully.
Ironically, the freshman GM of the Cardinals, Monti Ossenfort, best understood the lay of the land. He played Rugby with pick allotments and got good immediate talent while focusing on the 2024 class, where he stashed a 1st and 3rd pick from the Texans and a Titans 3rd rounder. The freshman aced the exam and will be sitting pretty next April.
But then this: The mighty 49er franchise selected a FG kicker at the end of the third round with one of their compensatory picks. The brass at SF says “not that into you” to an entire draft class.
How did the Lions handle it, looking at a half-barren fridge? That’s next.
I agree partly but everyone knew it was a deep class at TE an RB an the numbers showed, It was a strange draft an I think most GMs saw what was coming. He was not only GM he was at a prime spot in draft am they didn’t need a QB. Helped him get couple picks for 2024. Draft will have some very good players it will depend on who really gets lucky.
They didn’t spat the value just overall was not in this draft. The media looks bad because many GMs ignored there ranking an they know better than any media type what there team needs. They will attempt to twist why they missed so badly but the good ones will admit this was a shotgun draft every team looked at players different.
Brad and The Lions Front Office chose an interesting path in the face of a talent drought:
“Let’s focus on good, not great players. Let’s sweep the floor.” Which I say with praise in this case. The goal: Secure multiple high floor players from a broken draft class, a dry and barren land.
The Lions avoided players that are un-coachable, impossibly small, or hellbent on killing themselves and others. They avoided players who won Pajama Olympics but never produced. They avoided the 170 lb CBs and WRs, the 212 LB Linebackers.
They stayed true to players either with elite RAS, other-worldly production, or a good measure of both.
No one can argue the Lions got 4 good talented football players, with football fire, plus a low-risk promising QB. I concede I know nothing about Martin.
For better or worse, all my writing. Working to expunge the inevitable angst of creating 300 mock drafts and spending hours watching prospects…see it all slide by so fast.
The way I see it we got 3-4 immediate/early impact players who can potentially be part of our future core. I think we did well this year all things considered
Lol yeah I saw the patriots drafted a kicker and a punter… that was something. But hey, the patriots always do whatever the hell they wanna do anyway! But very good observation.