Biggest winners from the 2023 NFL Draft
The 2023 NFL Draft is in the books and it’s time to break down everything that happened over the weekend. Obviously, everybody got better by adding young talent, but some teams used their draft capital better than others – whether that’s just the players they picked or their overall strategy.
In this article, I will lay out my five biggest winners from the weekend. This could be a specific team that did really well in terms of how they used their assets, individual prospects, position groups or NFL veterans, due to how they will be affected.
One name I considered a winner here was Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson since he signed a contract that, in terms of average annual value is the largest in NFL history before his team got him a new stud receiver in the first round.
However, I didn’t want the first half of this equation to factor in too much here, even though in terms of Thursday, nobody had a better 24 hours than him.
Howie Roseman & the Bulldogs graduate program
Early on Day 3, I tweeted out that this has to be a bit at this point, because of the absurd amount of Georgia players joining the Eagles recently.
Last year, they traded up a couple of spots for big defensive tackle Jordan Davis in the first round and then were able to take advantage of some medical concerns around Nakobe Dean, who I thought purely based on tape, was worthy of a Day 1 selection. Now this time around, they spent both of their first-rounders on two more members from that historic 2022 Bulldogs defense.
Jalen Carter was my number one overall prospect, purely based on tape, and swapped spots with the Bears at number nine in exchange for a 2024 fourth-rounder.
While I personally had Nolan Smith as my number six edge rusher right in the range he was selected at, I don’t think anybody thought he’d be available at 30th overall. They came back on Day 3 and picked cornerback Kelee Ringo at 105th overall, who was mocked in the first round a couple of months ago, and I had him as my CB6.
Because they didn’t feel like any Georgia guys they liked were still on the board, they called the Lions, who just shocked everybody by taking a running back 12th overall, and traded a 2025 fourth-rounder for a still very talented (when healthy) player in D’Andre Swift.
While it’s certainly not always the soundest strategy to pick the guys from the best programs in the country, those were all among the best names available at the times when Philly was on the clock and we can all appreciate them not overthinking things and potentially reaching on some smaller names that they feel in love with on tape.
That’s obviously also great for the Georgia program, to have this pipeline to the NFL, where more kids coming out of high school want to commit to Kirby Smart, because they know he can ultimately get them to the pros.
I also really liked the Eagles’ four other selections, Alabama tackle Tyler Steen (65th overall) as somebody whose only weakness at this point is the way he can absorb power effectively. Illinois’ Sydney Brown (66th) was my number two safety and somebody I believe has the potential to be a Brian Dawkins-like player if he becomes a more reliable tackler.
Tanner McKee (188th) is a bit curious because of how drastically different his profile is to Jalen Hurts but he was my QB8. Finally, Texas’ Moro Ojomo (249th) could have easily gone in the early 100s as a powerful athlete with alignment versatility along the D-line.