Draft Grades (AFC East)

The NFL Draft is officially over. Day 2, as usual, was much less interesting than Day 1. Suzy Kolber is attractive. Mike Golic is allright at times. But, it's not the same as Chris Berman, Tom Jackson, and Michael Irvin. Love or hate the guy, taking Irvin out of any equation makes it a lot less entertaining. It was like the B-Team out there yesterday, kind of like what ESPN 2 is to ESPN. But, the draft is over. Mel Kiper has made his grades, with his best being a B+ to Houston and San Francisco. The lowest he gave was a C grade to several teams. I think I saw more C's than any other grade. Well, I will hand out my own grades and I imagine my grades will be spread out more than Mel's, all across the grading scale, from A to potentially an F. Here we go...

Buffalo Bills- Buffalo confused me some with their early picks. They grabbed safety Donte Whitner with the 8th overall pick, a safety from Ohio State. It makes sense for them to draft a safety to replace veteran pro-bowler Lawyer Milloy, but they could've just as easily traded down a few slots, gotten Whitner, along with picking up another couple players. They then took defensive tackle John McCargo out of NC State with the 26th overall selection. He was slated by some going in the 3rd or 4th round. Buffalo made up for themselves some with their third and fourth picks, by taking Ohio State corner Ashton Youboty in the 3rd round and South Carolina safety Ko Simpson in the 4th. Their first five picks were all on defense and six of their nine picks overall were on defense. They grabbed two tackles and a guard on offense. This was a very average draft for Buffalo. While they upgraded their secondary tremendously, it'll be some time before we decide if they upgraded their front seven or offensive line at all with this draft. Grade- C

Miami Dolphins- With the 16th overall pick in the draft, Miami took Tennessee safety Jason Allen. Allen's stock dropped some due to an injury, but could've been a top 10-15 pick otherwise. Other than that, Miami tried to add depth to their receiving corps by drafting wideouts Derek Hagan of Arizona State and Devin Aromashodu of Auburn. While I don't fully understand them drafting two players at one of their strength positions on offense with Marty Booker and Chris Chambers, I can understand it some with the loss of Ricky Williams to the running game and with the addition of Daunte Culpepper in the passing game. Grade- C+

New England Patriots- While some "experts" are claiming the Patriots as having one of the better drafts, I disagree. New England's strength last year was on offense, especially in the passing game. Tailback Corey Dillon was as effective as usual, but the Patriots' setback was their defense. They ranked in the bottom third in the NFL in about every defensive statistical category, yet, in the draft, 7 of their 10 picks were for offensive players. Their first pick of tailback Laurence Maroney out of Minnesota makes sense, although, I honestly don't know that he's the back they were looking for. They then drafted receiver Chad Jackson out of Florida, tight end David Thomas out of Texas, and fullback Garret Mills of Tulsa. Chad Jackson may add a vertical element to their game, but didn't they already have that with Tom Brady? Also, nothing against Florida receivers, but there have been many more busts with Gator receivers at the pro level than ones that lived up to their billing. David Thomas was a solid pick, but only to add depth to that position. Garret Mills is an interesting player, because at Tulsa, he played a little bit of everything, including tight end. He's much too small to play that at the pro level, but it'll be interesting to see if the Pats utilize his catching abilities if he is to play at fullback. Grade- C+

New York Jets- The Jets traded the best first round player that anybody received, in Jonathan Abraham, but he didn't want to be in New York anyway, so it was for the best. But, they sure had a good draft day, showing up their in-division rivals. The Jets played atrociously on offense last year, especially up front with the big uglies. They made note of that in their first couple of picks, drafting tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson of Virginia and center Nick Mangold of Ohio State. They then took a sleeper with quarterback Kellen Clemens of Oregon, who, in my book, is a better NFL prospect than both Vince Young and Matt Leinart. Later on, they drafted a project in receiver Brad Smith of Missouri. He played quarterback in college. They also tried adding some depth to the running game in picking up Florida State tailback Leon Washington. I won't say that they had the best draft, but they had one of the best drafts, picking up arguably the best tackle and best center available and adding depth to aging positions at tailback, receiver, and quarterback (aging in terms of health). Grade- B+