Draft Day Recap: NFL Draft: Rounds 4-7 Recap
The first two nights of the NFL draft carry the luster, but teams are often defined by the picks they make in the latter rounds. This year was no exception. With plenty of big-name quarterbacks, top-rated prospects and impact skill positions players left on the board after Day 2, there are plenty of players who came off the board on Saturday who will make an impact on NFL fields this season.
O Captain! My Cap….Wait. Why Aren’t You a Captain?
The long national nightmare of Connor Cook’s draft slide came to an end early on Day 3, with the Raiders trading up to select the battered and bruised signal caller with the second pick of the fourth round. After having his character impugned at every turn for four months, Cook likely will welcome the solitude that comes with backing up Derek Carr – although he will have to beat out Matt McGloin and his second-round tender for the honor.
With Carr firmly entrenched atop the depth chart, the question is not as much how Cook fits with Oakland as it is why is he on the team in the first place? Not only did the Raiders “waste” a fourth-round pick on a player they hope never sees the field after spending a second-round tender on another backup they hope never has to play, they traded up for the opportunity to do so, giving up a fifth-round pick to move up 14 spots. GM Reggie McKenzie sprouted from the Ron Wolf tree, who espoused the virtues of drafting a quarterback most years even if you already have an entrenched starter, but giving up valuable picks to select that backup is not a wise allocation of resources.
The good news is McKenzie has done a good enough job building his roster over the last two years to let this minor transgression slide. Once the laughing stock of the league and on the brink of losing his job, McKenzie has drafted a franchise quarterback, a franchise pass rusher and a franchise wide receiver in the last two drafts and filled in his defense and offensive line with a strong showing in free agency. Making that many good moves in a row gives you the freedom to take some chances, and if their upside picks of S Karl Joseph in the first round and DE Jihad Ward in the second pay off, they are looking at a serious contender. Even if they don’t, the Raiders are set up as well as any team in the AFC West to make a playoff run.
Cook was not the only quarterback to come off the board on Day 3. The Cowboys found their developmental backup for Tony Romo in Dak Prescott (No. 135), the Bills found someone to groom behind Tyrod Taylor in big-armed enigma Cardale Jones (No. 139), and the 49ers landed an interesting upside option in Jeff Driskel (No. 207), who started his career at Florida before putting up big numbers with Louisiana Tech last season. All three quarterbacks face an uphill climb to a starting job in the NFL, but all three have the upside to lead a team someday.
The Times They Are a-Changin’
The biggest draft slide of anyone not named Connor Cook belonged to Andrew Billings, who was thought to be a first-round talent by some analysts but lasted all the way until the Bengals’ selection at No. 122 overall. A rumored knee injury may be partially to blame for the fall, but the real culprit is the league’s ever-shifting landscape. A two-down run stuffer with questionable pocket-pushing prowess, players like Billings are no longer as valuable in a league which employs sub packages more than 60 percent of the time. That said, he is still a quality prospect who should fit perfectly as a one-technique in the Bengals 4-3, a spot currently occupied by aging veteran Domata Peko. Billings will be the seamless replacement for Peko when the time comes, and he has the upside to be a bigger pass-rush threat than he has been given credit for. This was an absolute steal by Cincinnati.
All Your Wide Receivers Are Belong To Us
With what ended up being 14 picks overall in the draft, the Browns were in a position to do really whatever they wanted this weekend, and it appears as if one of their main goals was upgrading the Death Valley known as their receiving depth chart. Along with Corey Coleman in the first round, Cleveland selected Ricardo Louis (No. 114), Jordan Payton (No. 154) and Rashard Higgins (No. 172) in the first five rounds. It was a given the Browns needed to upgrade the receiver room, but the players they have chosen for the task are an interesting mixture.
On the one hand, they have selected highly-athletic projects in Coleman and Louis. The best weight-adjusted athlete at the receiver position at the Combine, Louis is a very raw prospect with hands bad enough that some teams asked him to work out at corner during the pre-draft process. Good with the ball in his hands, Louis is the type of player who will likely need touches schemed for him early, but he has the upside to make those touches count. You could not say the same for Coleman – he is not a finished project by any means but he should be able to acquit himself well as the primary passing-game threat – but he still carries an air of excitement as a player whose upside is unimaginable even if it is currently unrealized.
On the other hand, they ended up with two less athletic – and in the case of Higgins, unathletic – prospects with relatively high floors. A physical receiver with strong hands, Payton is unlikely to be anything more than a possession receiver, but he has a chance to be good in that role. Higgins might be the best route-runner in the class, but his athletic limitations mean he is highly unlikely to ever been an impact weapon. That said, not all receivers can be game breakers, and every team needs a No. 2 and a No. 3 receiver to make big catches and take pressure off the main target. One could argue Cleveland already has a player like that on the roster in Brian Hartline, but if the wallpaper in the den is going, it makes sense to rip it out of the study as well.
Overall, what the Browns did makes sense. If Robert Griffin III is to ever have any success – we can dispense with the fiction of third-round pick Cody Kessler as a starting option – he will need someone to throw to. Cleveland went out and got him a wide array of options, and along with Gary Barnidge, this quartet should provide a solid weapons cache for Griffin to launch his weekly defensive assault. As an aside, the cache would get a serious upgrade from solid if that Josh Gordon fellow could get his act together.
Color Me Intrigued
Despite their best efforts, the Browns did not draft every receiver, and there were plenty of interesting running backs who graced the third day. The three most interesting were Devontae Booker, Kenneth Dixon, and Paul Perkins.
Dixon was the first of the trio to come off the board, heading to the Ravens with the No. 134 overall pick. A third-down back with some early-down value as well, Dixon heads into a running back room which is bursting at the seams. With Justin Forsett and Lorenzo Taliaferro set to come back healthy, the relatively new additions of Terrance West and Trent Richardson, and Buck Allen entering his second year, the Ravens now have more backs than they can feasibly use. That means someone will have to go. The most likely options are Richardson, West, and injury-prone Taliaferro, but that does not mean Forsett and Allen are safe. Forsett will turn 31 in October and was having an up-and-down season before breaking his arm last year, and Allen was nothing special in his run as starter. Dixon has the skill set to steal passing-down work from Allen as well as early-down work from Forsett, and his presence makes picking a Baltimore back a risky proposition.
