Who Won the AFC North Draft?
Which AFCN team won the draft? Yep, it’s a silly question given the massive disparity of opinions regarding players versus needs, when they haven’t even stepped on the field. But what good is the offseason without silly questions?
Gut instinct tells me that the Ravens won the draft, but I feel that way mainly because they snagged some players I had hoped would become Steelers, and because of their absurd haul of six picks from the 4th round. But maybe it’s not that clear cut.
For our analysis, let’s go with the pick grades provided by CBS Sports. While these grades may be wildly wrong, at least they don’t come from my homer brain.
In the grids below, we summarize the players, letter grades, and numeric equivalents.
Steelers
| Pickett | A | 4 |
| Pickens | A | 4 |
| Leal | B | 3 |
| Austin | A | 4 |
| Heyward | C | 2 |
| Robinson | C- | 1.75 |
| Oladokun | C+ | 2.25 |
Ravens
| Hamilton | B- | 2.75 |
| Linderbaum | B | 3 |
| Ojabo | B+ | 3.25 |
| Jones | B+ | 3.25 |
| Faalele | A | 4 |
| Armour-Davis | A+ | 4.25 |
| Kolar | A | 4 |
| Stout | C- | 1.75 |
| Likely | B+ | 3.25 |
| Williams | C- | 1.75 |
| Badie | C+ | 2.25 |
Bengals
| Hill | B- | 2.75 |
| Taylor-Britt | B+ | 3.25 |
| Carter | C+ | 2.25 |
| Volson | B- | 2.75 |
| Anderson | B | 3 |
| Gunter | B+ | 3.25 |
Browns
| Emerson | B- | 2.75 |
| Wright | B+ | 3.25 |
| Bell | B- | 2.75 |
| Winfrey | B- | 2.75 |
| York | D+ | 1.25 |
| Ford | B | 3 |
| Woods | B- | 2.75 |
| Thomas | A | 4 |
| Deaton | A | 4 |
We can look at the overall results either quantitatively (adding up the total points) or qualitatively (averaging out the grades). Quantitatively there is no competition, given how many picks the Ravens made:
- Ravens – 33.5
- Browns – 26.5
- Steelers – 21
- Bengals – 17.25
It’s perhaps more interesting to look at it qualitatively, which tells us which GM did the best job with the picks made available to him. Here the story is a little different. The Ravens still win, but just by a hair:
- Ravens – 3.05
- Steelers – 3.0
- Browns – 2.94
- Bengals – 2.88
Let’s tweak just a little more by giving more weight to the early rounds, since those picks are usually the most impactful. Let’s consider only the picks for the first three rounds. In this case, the Steelers fare better:
- Steelers – 3.67
- Ravens – 3.06
- Browns – 2.92
- Bengals – 2.75
To be fair to Baltimore, let’s take their epic 4th round into consideration. If we look at the first four rounds, we get this:
- Steelers – 3.75
- Ravens – 3.13
- Bengals – 2.75
- Browns – 2.55
Now, I don’t know if this reflects any meaningful reality, but I do know one thing: That last grouping strongly resembles the AFCN division standings over the past couple of decades, so we might say that this draft fits into the historical narrative of the division.
In the future we can look back and determine who really won this draft. Most importantly, if Pickett turns out to be the real deal franchise QB, the rest will be academic.
