{"id":22421,"date":"2022-05-10T14:39:39","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T18:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=22421"},"modified":"2022-05-10T14:39:41","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T18:39:41","slug":"afc-north-draft-grades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/afc-north-draft-grades\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC NORTH DRAFT GRADES"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After going through the AFC East<\/a>, we now move down the bracket a single spot and pull out the grade book and red pen and mark up the AFC North\u2019s NFL Draft papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AFC\u2019s Super Bowl representative came from this division and, as such, can\u2019t be expected to do too well in the grading category. After all, when you pick at the bottom of every round, barring trades, there\u2019s only so many elite players you can target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to that the fact that another AFC North team traded away all its primary picks for a new quarterback and we have a division that will need to grade on a curve. And I, being the toughest Draft Grading Professor out there, refuse to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a reminder, here are the ground rules I use to approach each team\u2019s preliminary grade;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. No team sans a first round pick can get an \u201cA.\u201d  A team can absolutely kill the draft without a first rounder as the Los Angeles Rams have done routinely since Sean McVay has entered the building. They have not possessed a single first rounder in his tenure, but have made the Super Bowl twice and won it once. But, the final draft grades don\u2019t come out for at least three years. These grades are all based on what we know and can see today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. The Draft Grade I will deliver here (and not three years in the imaginary future. I mean, who knows what kind of planet we\u2019ll inhabit and global pandemics we will be attempting to live through at that point) will primarily be based on who a team selects in Rounds 1-3. Those rounds should all be starters or potential starters. Anyone that takes the field regularly after that is considered a steal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BALTIMORE<\/strong> RAVENS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selections:<\/strong> No. 14: Kyle Hamilton, Safety. Notre Dame \u2014 No. 25: Tyler Linderbaum, Center, Iowa \u2014 No. 45: David Ojabo, Edge, Michigan \u2014 No. 76: Travis Jones, DT, Connecticut \u2014 No. 110: Daniel Faalele, OT, Minnesota \u2014 No. 119: Jalyn Armour- Davis, Alabama \u2014 No. 128: Charlie Kotar, TE, Iowa State \u2014 No. 130: Joran Stout, Punter, Penn State \u2014 No. 139: Isaiah Likely, TE, Coastal Carolina \u2014 No. 141: Damarion Williams, CB, Houston \u2014 No. 196: Tyler Badie, RB, Missouri<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ravens are consistently one of the best teams in the league at this whole draft process which is why they\u2019ve been continually good over the last two decades and won a couple of Super Bowls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to trading away Marquise Brown to the suddenly wide receiver needy Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore had two first round picks and used them both on day one starters. They took the best safety in the draft, then took one of the best interior offensive lineman. With the Pop Warner offense that Greg Roman runs, a premier center will have much better value to the Ravens than a top flight wide receiver who actually wants to catch the football and make plays. Roman has no place for a guy like that on his depth chart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking up Ojabo, a double digit sack producer for Michigan in Round Two all but seals the deal for Baltimore, but they cruised through the rest of the amateur player selection meeting, primarily targeting guys who produced for Power Five schools. It\u2019s crazy how often that strategy works out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CINCINNATI<\/strong> BENGALS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selections:<\/strong> No. 31: Daxton Hill, Safety, Michigan \u2014 No. 60: Cam Taylor Britt, CB, Nebraska \u2014 No. 95: Zachary Carter, DE, Florida \u2014 No. 136: Cordell Volson, OG, North Dakota State \u2014 No. 166: Tycen Anderson, Safety, Toledo \u2014 No. 252: Jeffrey Gunter, Edge, Coastal Carolina<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cincinnati came in the draft with pretty much zero needs after robbing the free agent market of three of its best offensive linemen. Because of that, they could sit back and take the best players available on their boards and maybe take care of some future contract problems in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daxton Hill is listed as a safety, but he\u2019ll play more of a star position, I\u2019d think. Something like Tyrann Mathieu did with the Kansas City Chiefs. He should be a day one starter in that position and give the team some breathing room if they can\u2019t re-sign both their starting safeties over the next couple of seasons. Cam Taylor Britt has put up consistent solid performances against a Big Ten Schedule and had the best year of his life in 2021. Zachary Carter had 7.5 sacks in the SEC and put up better numbers on the year than George Karlaftis, a guy taken in the first round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PITTSBURGH<\/strong> STEELERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selections:<\/strong> No. 20: Kenny Pickett, QB, Pittsburgh \u2014 No. 52: George Pickens, WR, Georgia \u2014No. 84:  DeMarvin Leal, DT, Texas A&M \u2014 No. 138: Calvin Austin, WR, Memphis \u2014 No. 208: Conner Heyward, TE, Michigan State \u2014 No, 225: Mark Robinson, LB, Mississippi \u2014 No.241: Chris Oladokun, QB, South Dakota State<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When your second round pick is significantly better than your first rounder, it\u2019s going to affect your grade. Pickett might have been the best QB out of this draft class. I don\u2019t know. What I do know is that Charles Davis reported that a GM told him that not a single QB in the draft had better than a third round grade on his board. How the rest of the guys \u201cfell\u201d probably backs that up with most of the league\u2019s draft rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickett was the hometown guy and ordained to go the Steelers from the start. If Pickens hadn\u2019t been hurt last year, he would not have been there in the second so that\u2019s a solid pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There seems to be some thought out there that Pickett will come in and beat out Mitchell Trubisky. It\u2019s not going to happen. The \u201ccompetition\u201d will not be close. If Pickett turns out to be the guy, it\u2019ll be two years from now when he gets the shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLEVELAND<\/strong> BROWNS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Selected:<\/strong> No. 68: Martin Emerson, CB, Mississippi State \u2014 No. 78: Alex Wright, DE, UAB \u2014 No. 99: David Bell, WR, Purdue \u2014 No. 108: Perrion Winfrey, DT, Oklahoma \u2014 No. 124: Cade York, Kicker, LSU \u2014 No. 156: Jerome Ford, RB, Cincinnati \u2014 No. 202: Mike Woods, WR, Oklahoma \u2014No. 223: Isaiah Thomas, Edge, Oklahoma \u2014No. 246: Dawson Deaton, Center. Texas Tech<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of trading a ton of draft capital for Deshaun Watson, Cleveland still managed to keep three third round picks. With two of them, I think they might have found potential starters. I like Emerson at corner, who flourished in the SEC and David Bell is probably a sneaky potential No. 2 receiver. His college production in the Big Ten was huge. It\u2019s Alex Wright I don\u2019t like. If you play in Conference USA and only manage 7.5 sacks in your best season, you don\u2019t look like a Day Two pick to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cade York will probably be the Browns\u2019 kicker this season and if he\u2019s NFL caliber at all, he\u2019s worth the pick. Kickers are seriously undervalued until you don\u2019t have one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect with us our socials on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE After going through the AFC East, we now move down the bracket a single spot and pull…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":8071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22421"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22424,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22421\/revisions\/22424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}