Winners and losers: Day 2 of the NFL Draft
As we prefaced with a disclaimer when we reviewed the first round, naming winners and losers the day after the draft is an exercise in futility, but hey, it's fun, so here goes, Day 2 version...
Winners
The 49ers owned Day 2. They made four picks and traded out of the back of the 3rd round with their 5th pick. Here's who they drafted:
• Carlos Hyde, RB, Ohio State: 6'0, 230 pound physical runner built for the brutal NFC West
• Marcus Martin, C, USC: Thought by some as the best center in the draft who was getting first round buzz. Great value pick in the 3rd round.
• Chris Borland, LB, Wisconsin: Tackle machine, and one of the most fun players to watch in this entire class.
• Brandon Thomas, OT/OG, Clemson: Was thought of as a 2nd round talent before tearing his ACL while working out for the Saints. With so many picks, the 49ers can afford to put Thomas on the shelf for a season, and treat him like a 2015 pick.
Scott Crichton was very good value in the 3rd round, and I love the move to pair Georgia Southern's Jerick McKinnon with Adrian Peterson. McKinnon is a hard runner who can continue to batter defenses when AP needs a rest. Dual hard runners seem to be a rarity in the NFL these days, and the Peterson-McKinnon combo could be a tough one for opposing defenses to deal with.
The Rams took my favorite player in college football, a day after landing Aaron Donald and Greg Robinson. And then in the 3rd round, they got a hard-running Tre Mason to add another physical presence in the run game. The Rams are destroying.
The Jags got outstanding value in Marqise Lee early in the 2nd and Allen Robinson late in the 2nd. Blake Bortles can grow with his two new rookie teammates. They also got Bortles some extra protection in OG Brandon Linder.
Below, you'll see where I criticized the Bears for taking a run stuffing specialist in the 2nd round. I think the Texans got the right value taking Louis Nix where they got him late in the 3rd round. Otherwise, the Texans got themselves a Day 1 starter at OG in Xavier Su'a-Filo in the 2nd round, and C.J. Fiedorowicz in the 3rd. A bunch of immediate contributors.
Losers
The Cowboys were one of my Day 1 winners. This time, they're a Day 2 loser. The Cowboys traded up from 47 to 34 to select Demarcus Lawrence. I'm sure the player is fine and good, but the cost the Cowboys paid to go up and get him was absurd. The trade details:
• Redskins get: 47th overall (430) + 78th overall (200) = 630.
• Cowboys get: 34th overall = 560.
Meh. I mean... it's not like the Cowboys have all kinds of holes up and down their roster where they can afford to give up a 3rd round pick to move up 13 spots in the 2nd round, but whatever. Jerry gonna Jerry.
Like the Cowboys, the Titans got really bad value on a trade. All draft long, teams trading back have been getting great value. Not the Titans. They traded back with the Eagles, and got pretty crappy compensation:
Eagles get 42nd overall pick = 480 pts.
Titans get 54th overall pick (360 pts) + 122nd overall pick (50 pts) = 410 pts.
They also drafted Bishop Sankey in the 2nd round, with arguably better RBs on the board.
It's risky business criticizing the Seahawks and their picks. They've already proven critics of their drafts wrong in the past, but what the hell... I'll take my chances. There were plenty of better WRs available when Seattle drafted Paul Richardson, and I'd be a liar if I said I did my homework on Missouri OT Justin Britt, who might be the only guy drafted so far that I didn't know existed. So I look forward to you making me look foolish in 2 years, Seahawks.
The Dolphins made the loser list for the second straight day. They drafted Jarvis Landry, a player I really like, but not in the second round. As a disclaimer, I had Landry in the second round of an Eagles-only mock draft a few months ago, which makes me look like a hypocrite, but that was before the Combine, where Landry really struggled. And then they drafted North Dakota State OT Billy Turner, a player I actually did watch, who did not dominate against lesser competition, in my opinion.
The Bears were abysmal against the run in 2013, which makes it understandable why they would want to beef up their DL. But it's a bad use of resources, frankly, to spend a 2nd round pick on a run stuffer like Ego Ferguson who will come off the field in passing situations. Ultimately, the NFL is a passing league and the Bears are drafting to fix specific weaknesses from the previous season, which is a bad practice.
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