Which Team Made The Best Picks?

The most maddening part of the post-draft process is the constant need to grade every draft. All too often, evaluators pontificate that teams should draft the best player available regardless of need, but they their grades based on if a team filled enough holes. A draft really shouldn’t be graded until three years down the road because it’s almost impossible to know which players are going to work out or not.

With that being said, it is possible to see what teams appeared to get the best values based on their pre-draft evaluations. This year, the Jacksonville Jaguars appear to have received the most value out of their picks.

First of all, they got two of the top-five players in this draft class, Jalen Ramsey and Myles Jack, in the first and second round respectively. Jack fell because of a knee injury that might require microfracture knee surgery in the future, but even saying that Jack is an incredible talent and a fantastic value in the second round.

Yannick Ngakoue was the only pick that looked like a reach; however, he fills a role and will make an impact on their team as a pass-rusher. Sheldon Day and Tyrone Holmes were both perfect scheme fits who were also great values. They will both give the Jaguars young and athletic penetrators on the defensive line. Brandon Allen’s upside is a good backup, but that is exactly what you are looking for in a sixth round quarterback.

Overall, the Jaguars did a great job of addressing needs while getting great value at each of their picks, which is why they had the best draft.

Dallas Cowboys Take A Huge Risk

The most surprising pick in the 2016 NFL draft was when the Cowboys selected Jaylon Smith with the 34th overall pick. Now, Smith is a big-time talent who may be the best linebacker to come out of the draft since Luke Kuechly; however, his knee injury and resulting nerve issue had most analysts thinking he wouldn’t get picked until day three.

The Cowboys were in a unique situation because their team doctor was also the doctor who operated on Smith’s knee, which means they had intimate knowledge of the surgery and recovery process.

This pick was extremely risky because the Cowboys invested a high pick into a player who will likely not play in 2016 and it is unclear if or when he will return back to his old self. If Smith does return to the player he was, the Cowboys might have the steal of the draft; however, if he doesn’t the Cowboys will be mocked for making a terrible investment.

Tunsil Takes A Fall

Laremy Tunsil was widely viewed as the top prospect in the NFL draft; however, he fell all the way to the Miami Dolphins at the 13th overall pick because of circumstances that haven’t been seen in the history of the draft.

Last year, La’el Collins fell out of the draft because he was linked to a murder investigation despite the fact that he was thought to be a sure-fire top-15 pick. Tunsil didn’t fall that far, but he did take a tumble because someone hacked his Twitter account and posted a video of Tunsil taking a bong hit out of a gas mask.

It ended up being a positive for the Dolphins as they got one of, if not, the best player in the draft, but it was a huge negative to Tunsil who was visibly frustrated by the whole situation. While other prospect cried tears of joy and hugged their loved ones, Tunsil had a natural look of disgust as he lost millions of dollars to something that was out of his control.

The worse aspect of this situation is that teams shouldn’t have been scared off by the Tunsil video. If they did their homework in the pre-draft process, they should have been aware of Tunsil’s proclivity for marijuana in the past. The fact that they were scared off by something they already knew existed showed how cowardly some teams are when making these types of decisions.