NFL draft grades – Mel Kiper Jr. picks steals, sleepers and favourite 2022 lessons from all 32 groups

This was my thirty ninth 12 months doing the NFL draft for ESPN, and I can not bear in mind a buying and selling frenzy fairly just like the one we noticed in the midst of Spherical 1 on Thursday. There have been picks and gamers flying off the board sooner than I might wrap my head round which staff was on the clock. Now that we have been by all 262 picks, although, it is time for one in every of my favourite workouts yearly. That is the piece everybody complains about up till the following draft.

I really like doing NFL draft grades, and it helps me put all 32 groups’ lessons into perspective. That was powerful in 2022, particularly with 9 groups having a number of first-round picks and 10 groups not having any first-round choose, each of which have been essentially the most within the frequent draft period (since 1967). The protection dominated the highest of the draft, and of the 16 offensive gamers taken in Spherical 1, a whopping 15 have been both offensive linemen (9) or vast receivers (six).

Let’s get into my team-by-team grades. Identical guidelines apply, as at all times: I grade all 32 lessons utilizing my Massive Board and place rankings because the prism to gauge how successfully every staff addressed key personnel holes in addition to how environment friendly every was in maneuvering the board and including additional picks or future property. I wrapped up Spherical 1 on Thursday evening and Day 2 on Friday evening, however within the grades file is the place I dump out my pocket book.

We’ll begin with the very best grades and go to the worst, with groups which have an identical grades listed in alphabetical order. Right here we go:

Bounce to:
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN
CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND
JAX | KC | LAC | LAR | LV | MIA | MIN
NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF
SEA | TB | TEN | WSH