A Reminder About Draft Grades
The grading of the NFL Draft is a useless exercise - and everyone knows it - yet every year people need to do it.
By PackerAaron
Longtime readers of Cheesehead TV know how I feel about the practice of grading drafts immediately after they conclude.
However, as CHTV has grown in readership over the years, I find myself being asked via email and Twitter to grade not only the Packers' draft but to give my "Winners & Losers".
Here goes.
The only losers are the guys and gals whose editors demand they provide draft grades and "Winners and Losers" the day after the draft.
From my original post on the subject:
Why is it that people feel compelled to 'grade' the draft less than 24 hours after it's completion? It is such an amazing exercise in futility, I simply can't believe people A) Write them and B) Read them.
My favorite is the "I don't like to give out grades, but if I HAD to..." which is truly the worst of the whole grading phenomenon. Look, you're wasting time as it is, but at least grab the bull by the horns and declare "THIS IS MY GRADE FOR THE PACKERS DRAFT!"
Man up and admit you're dying to give a grade, despite the fact you KNOW it's complete bullshit. That's right, bullshit.
Come on, people. We're smarter than this. Grades are for the fools at the draft who boo Thompson and the idiots who watch SportsCenter. It's time to evolve...
I understand - it's football. We are programmed to expect a winner and a loser. We want to know our team improved over the course of the last three days.
But there simply is no way of knowing how any of these guys are going to pan out until we let the next few years unfold. Draft classes that look weak now could end up being goldmines of talent. Draft day hauls being praised by Mel Kiper today can turn out to be the worst class a team has ever had.
The grading of the draft is simply an exercise in futility.
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Comments (30)
May 01, 2011 at 08:44 am
Which underscores why it's foolish to proclaim the Lions a playoff contender without knowing whether Matthew Stafford can stay healthy for a season, Nick Fairley isn't the second coming of Shaun Rogers and Detroit can overcome a losing mentality. They may be better, and may rise up in some games as they did against the Packers last year, but I'm not buying in until I see it on the field.
PackerAaron
May 01, 2011 at 10:07 am
See it on the field? I did - when Suh and company kicked the Packers o-line, tight ends and backs asses all over the field and then when they went down to Tampa Bay and kept them out of the playoffs.
They are a team on the rise. But as you state - they'll only go as far as Stafford's shoulder allows them to go.
May 01, 2011 at 03:53 pm
Perhaps I wasn't as concise in my comment as I should have been. I agree that the Lions will be improved and are on the right track. The point I was trying to make is that I don't think their rise to prominence is as imminent as many seem to fear/believe.
Having said that, maybe they'll be better than I anticipate. I'm just not ready to proclaim them contenders based on a couple of games in which they performed well. That doesn't mean they can't give the Packers fits when they play them as we saw last season. The 'Any Given Sunday' concept still applies in the NFL.
May 01, 2011 at 04:30 pm
Completely agreed.
Improved/though team to beat =/= playoff contender.
Everybody talks as if Stafford will be able to guide them to the playoffs, but they seem to forget that the guy hasn't completed 60% of his passes, while his YPC has never been more than 6.0, and has had only one triple digit rating game, against an awful Cleveland team.
He has never shown anything as close to very good. He seems to have potential, but so far that hasn't appeared on the field.
And, in today's NFL, if your QB isn't very good, your team won't make the playoffs.
May 01, 2011 at 04:53 pm
Yep, agreed RS -
I do think the Kitties will be better - but they had a LONG way to make up - even last year.
IF Stafford stays healthy and IF they find some help for their secondary/WLB THEN I'll be ready to annoint them postseason ready. Not until then.
But the thought of Suh, Fairly, VB and C Williams on the same DL is scary...
May 01, 2011 at 09:04 am
Mock drafts are just as useless.
May 01, 2011 at 12:55 pm
amen
May 01, 2011 at 10:05 am
I thought the most important part of the Draft is the grading of the post-draft report cards. We're gonna have to give CHTV an incomplete on this one...
Seriously though, Nagler is right on. Who the hell really knows? Although it does at least appear that there are competent decisions being made in Detroit nowadays...
May 01, 2011 at 10:26 am
B+, We all knew you were going to need to write an article about draft grades sooner or later, but nobody else seems interested in doing it. You could've waited until Day 3 of post-draft analysis and addressed more pressing topics firsts.
PackerAaron
May 01, 2011 at 10:54 am
LOL
May 01, 2011 at 10:32 am
Grades are silly, but what's wrong with talking about and projecting how a guy might be able to help the Packers? Are you saying it's wrong to be excited the Packers picked an offensive tackle that could help protect Aaron Rodgers? Should we not discuss the possibilities that a guy like Randall Cobb could bring to the offense because we don't know if he'll really be any good? Where do you draw the line? I'm just not sure how to interpret what I'm reading here...
PackerAaron
May 01, 2011 at 10:53 am
Huh? I think its pretty clear. Of COURSE its great to project how guys will help the Packers. But giving a whole draft class an A or C or whatever is asinine. As is saying a team "Won" or "Lost" this weekend. It's beyond absurd.
May 01, 2011 at 11:19 am
It's stupid to grade a draft class, but it's possible to assess a GMs job running a draft. I think it's safe to say that Bellichick and Thompson make competent moves while the Al Davis, Jerry Angelo, and Dimitroff make make questionable decisions.
May 01, 2011 at 08:05 pm
Exactly. When you reach for a QB at #12, you're not being efficient with your picks. If you're reaching a lot, and year after year, you are killing your roster. That's what the grades SHOULD be about - who did the most with what they have. Unfortunately, the guys who get the "A"s for their drafts are usually the guys who trade up and draft two 1st rounders.
May 01, 2011 at 01:04 pm
OK, so it's just the "Grading" you object to. It sounded a bit to me like you were railing against speculating and projecting, also. Hence, the reason for my comment.
May 01, 2011 at 10:48 am
So I guess Aaron gives the entire process an "F" for Futility?
Personally, I go so far that I don't even try to figure out what college kid is going to be good in the pros. God bless everybody who researches these kids. You all do great work. But it's an area where the people who are the best in the world at their trade pretty much fail half the time. Having said all that, it's the only good thing going on in the NFL right now, so it's just natural to read the stuff.
Besides, I just can't wait to read my first "This kid can carry the mail" of the spring!
May 01, 2011 at 12:31 pm
So what grade do we give the Matthews/Raji class then?
May 01, 2011 at 01:04 pm
We give them the grade "SBXVL champions".
May 01, 2011 at 01:34 pm
Even that draft is too recent to grade. In celebration of another successful year of covering the NFL draft, Aaron ought to give us his winners and losers from the 2007 draft along with a Packers draft grade. Four years is enough time for players to grow and develop, learn a system, and reach free agency if they do not sign an extension.
May 01, 2011 at 08:24 pm
That makes even less sense because we'd be placing a draft grade on a product that has as much or more to do with coaching, development, opportunity, accidental injury, and available competition. Draft Grades are fine. Read'em, enjoy, and think about the implications of what the author has to say. I think the important thing to realize is they aren't really draft grades per se, because there is no standardization of process or even agreement between graders as to what is being graded. Is it the GM's performance? Overall improvement for the team? Number of holes filled? Ability to pick the BPA? Draft grades are just a way of talking about things, I don't see anything asinine about it. There's no reason to take a grade or the grading process so seriously.
May 01, 2011 at 01:51 pm
"the idiots who watch SportsCenter."
Guess I can't watch SportsCenter any more. So when is CHTV gonna start giving me my scores and video of other sports?
GBP 4 LIFE
PackerAaron
May 01, 2011 at 05:23 pm
Let me blow your mind with this new invention called...the Internet.
May 01, 2011 at 06:01 pm
That's one route I suppose, but I'd rather stare at my 55" LED from my lazy boy than my 17" monitor in my desk chair. If I want scores and video... SC works fine. If I want in depth analysis, I come here... and hope Voo has a recent piece. 8-)
May 01, 2011 at 08:30 pm
I hear you man. Some people need SportsCenter like other people need junk food. It just makes my head hurt.
May 01, 2011 at 07:13 pm
This isn't intended to be a shot at you, Aaron. That said, perhaps the only thing worse than draft grades this time of year are all the needless reminders that post draft grades are meaningless. Most people who have been following football for any length of time already know this, but year after year writers feel the need to go out of their way to state this fact like they're breaking something new.
We get it, the grades don't mean anything. But you could say the same about SO MUCH that is written/said about football: pre-season previews, power rankings, game previews. It's all speculative in nature and has no bearing on the outcome. Yet people still write those; thankfully without the need to attach a disclaimer. And people read them, mainly because it's fun.
PackerAaron
May 01, 2011 at 09:06 pm
It's just easier to write a post and point people to it rather than answer the same question over and over again via email and Twitter. It's also easier to just ignore a post than to complain about it.
May 01, 2011 at 09:48 pm
It's easy to ignore draft grades, too. Or rather to look at them with the appropriate perspective- they are one person's opinion. Some opinions carry more weight than others, but ultimately they're still just speculation. That's fine.
What I'm mainly saying is I'm glad writers don't adopt this attitude with the rest of what is written about football. "I know you came here to see a preview of this week's game, but I don't do those. Last year so-and-so predicted the Packers would beat the Lions at Ford Field, but as you know that didn't happen, so this entire exercise of breaking down match ups is pretty pointless. Just come back next week and read the box score."
PackerAaron
May 02, 2011 at 08:29 am
I think you're missing the overlying point here - this post was in response to the many, many people who asked me to grade/judge the draft. It was written in response to them. Yes, I did so by giving my opinion, which you are free to disagree with.
May 02, 2011 at 06:50 am
Grades are like mock drafts, for entertainment purposes only.
May 02, 2011 at 03:52 pm
NFL Football itself is only entertainment. No need to take it seriously.