And just like that, the 2022 NFL Draft is behind us. Twelve months of preparation gave way to 12 or so hours of entertainment. Draft winners and losers, like grades, are best determined three years from now, but who are we kidding? This is the internet, baby. Let’s get wild.
2022 NFL Draft Winners
Each of the 262 drafted players is a winner. Because they all have the opportunity to make an NFL roster. Sure, some like Malik Willis and Nakobe Dean went later than expected. But the important thing is they went.
We love what the Jets did, landing four likely starters — cornerback Ahmad “Sauce” Gardner, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, defensive end Jermaine Johnson II, and running back Breece Hall — with their first four picks.
The Jaguars should have a much-improved defense, stacking three more front-seven defenders in the draft’s first 70 picks (DE Travon Walker, LB Devin Lloyd, and LB Chad Muma) on top of an already productive offseason.
And the Falcons absolutely crushed it, landing three potential first-rounders — wide receiver Drake London, edge defender Arnold Ebiketie, and quarterback Desmond Ridder — with just one first-round pick.
Beyond that, here are four players who benefitted the most from the 2022 NFL Draft.
Jets QB Zach Wilson
We mentioned the job Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh did this week, but let’s mention it a second time. Wilson didn’t have nearly enough help in 2021. He has a lot more help in 2022.
After adding guard Laken Tomlinson and tight ends C.J. Uzomah and Tyler Conklin in free agency, the Jets drafted Wilson, Hall, and Ohio State tight end Jeremy Ruckert in the first two days.
Combined, that trio scored 39 offensive touchdowns in 2021. The Jets collectively scored 34 a year ago.
Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald
The Ravens’ DC alumni association is impressive. Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan, Rex Ryan, and Chuck Pagano all held the job before going on to become NFL head coaches. Is Macdonald, 34, the next rising star?
He’s certainly been set up to succeed.
Eric DeCosta went out and got Baltimore’s first-year defensive coordinator Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton (the No. 1 player on the PFN Top 300 Consensus Big Board), EDGE David Ojabo, and UConn defensive DT Travis Jones in Days 1 and 2. He then used two of the Ravens’ six fourth-round picks on cornerbacks Jalyn Armour-Davis and Damarion Williams.
The AFC is as good as it’s ever been, and the revamped Ravens are a big reason why.
Any kid that decides to play wide receiver
Some advice to today’s youth — if you’re big, fast, and can catch, don’t play soccer. Forget baseball. And certainly don’t become a running back.
Do everything you can to become a really good wide receiver. You’ll be rewarded for it.
The league has gone bananas in its pursuit of wideouts. They’re now paid like quarterbacks. And teams that decided not to spend at that level went crazy trying to get their star pass catchers in the draft.
Six went in the first round. Seven more in the second. In all, 28 wide receivers came off the board this weekend — a full 10.7% of the entire draft class.
2022 NFL Draft Losers
Every fanbase will wake up Sunday with some degree of hope, if not for 2022, then 2023 and beyond. But here’s the truth — half of the first-round picks won’t pan out, and that’s the high-water mark for the draft. Day 3 picks are basically lotto tickets.
We won’t know who the busts will be for some time, but make no mistake, there are busts in this draft. But what do we know now? The following four didn’t have things go their way this weekend.
(Editor’s note: We didn’t include Baker Mayfield because, at this point, it would just be piling on.)
Amateur quarterback evaluators
Look, we all make mistakes. No one is perfect. But the collective whiff nearly all of Draft Media took on this year’s quarterback class deserves some scrutiny. Yes, we knew the class was bad. But somehow, despite all of the doom and gloom, it was still overrated.
One QB went in the first round (Kenny Pickett). None went in the second. Just five total were taken through the first four.
The over/under for Malik Willis on some books was as high as pick No. 10.5. One ratings service had Willis as the No. 1 prospect in the entire draft. He went 86th. The evaluation of this year’s QB class was so far off base that even political pollsters said it was embarrassing.
Chicago Bears QB Justin Fields
What have the Bears done to build around their QB1? Free agency saw the departure of Allen Robinson and Jakeem Grant, and the guys that replaced them — Byron Pringle and Equanimeous St. Brown — weren’t upgrades.
The draft didn’t bring much help either. The Bears didn’t have a first-rounder and used their two Round 2 picks on defensive backs (Kyler Gordon and Jaquan Brisker). Yes, they did take Velus Jones Jr. at 71, but he was the 14th wide receiver off the board.
Best of luck this fall, Justin.
Running backs who want guaranteed contracts
For the first time since 2014, there was no running back taken in the first round. And from a business standpoint, it’s smart. It’s simply not a premium position. The way the league is structured, it doesn’t make any financial sense to take one in Round 1, either.
The Raiders admitted their 2019 mistake this week by declining to pick up the fifth-year option of Josh Jacobs, who was the only first-round RB of his draft class.
Jacobs is a decent back — he’s averaged more than 1,000 yards in his first three NFL seasons — but not worth the $8 million fully guaranteed he would have been owed in 2023 had the Raiders picked up that option.
If you’re not willing to pay a running back in Year 5, what’s the point in taking him in Round 1?
Patriots Director of Player Personnel Matt Groh
There’s only one of two ways to interpret the Patriots taking offensive lineman Cole Strange at 29 and wide receiver Tyquan Thornton at 50 — players who ranked 114th and 128th, respectively, on the PFN Top 300 Consensus Big Board.
1) He made massive reaches for players that probably would have been available a round after the Patriots took them OR 2) He and his staff did tens of thousands of hours of work on prospect evaluation, but Bill Belichick went rogue.
Either way, yeesh.