My first impulse was to call this final group of grades “Abject Failures” but that’s just shortsighted on my part. Most of these players would have been picked at some point in the draft so it’s not like these teams won’t end up with a couple of starters at least out of this debacle of a draft just by the law of averages. But did these teams actively make their squads better? Did they reach for a player way above where he should have been drafted? Did they skip over players that would have better helped their team? Did they draft a guy that might go to prison in a month? Is he dating a Kardashian? Does he have ties to ISIS? These are legitimate questions.
So here, at last and in reverse order are your draft day disasters.
Arizona Cardinals
The haul: D.J. Humphreys (OT, Florida, round one), Markus Golden (DE, Missouri, round two), David Johnson (RB, Northern Iowa, round three), Rodney Gunter (DT, Delaware State, round four), Shaquille Riddick (DE, West Virginia, round five), J.J. Nelson (WR, UAB, round five) and Gerald Christian (TE, Louisville, round seven)
Tackles came off the board early in this draft so you can’t fault the Cardinals for grabbing Humphreys with their first-round pick, even though it may have technically been a little high for him. The rest of Arizona’s draft is a giant yawn until you get to their fifth-round pick, J.J. Nelson, who laid down the fastest 40-time at the combine. Other than Humphries, I don’t see a single guy here that will push for a starting role on a team that desperately needed to get younger this offseason. And the fact that the Cardinals had multiple chances at every quarterback in the draft outside of Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota and didn’t take one of them will come back to bite them in the ass sooner than anyone thinks. Grade: D+
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Indianapolis Colts
The haul: Philip Dorsett (WR, Miami, round one), D’Joun Smith (CB, Florida Atlantic, round three), Henry Anderson (DE, Stanford, round three), Clayton Geathers (SS, Central Florida, round four), David Parry (NT, Stanford, round five), Josh Robinson (RB, Mississippi State, round six), Amarlo Herrera (ILB, Georgia, round six) and Denzelle Good (OT, Mars Hill, round seven)
Though they made it all the way to the AFC Championship game last season, the Colts have way too many holes in their roster, especially on defense, to run through the draft like this. Dorsett, with his speed alone, will play significantly but Indianapolis needed help on the defensive front, corner and safety and they needed to get starters and other than maybe Henry Anderson in round three, I don’t see one in this draft. The Colts are going to have a fantastic special teams unit after this draft, but I don’t think that was their goal when they hit the scouting trail last winter. Grade: D
Carolina Panthers
The haul: Shaq Thompson (OLB, Washington, round one), Devin Funchess (WR/TE, Michigan, round two), Daryl Williams (OG, Oklahoma, round four), David Mayo (LB, Texas State, round five) and Cameron Artis-Payne (RB, Auburn, round five)
With only a handful of picks the Panthers needed to make them count. Instead, they ruined their draft right out of the gate, taking Thompson, a second-rounder at best, with the 25th pick in the first round. When you look back at this draft and see what Thompson did, versus the guy they should have picked (Preston Smith, DE, Mississippi State, picked by the Redskins 13 picks later), you’re just going to feel sick, Panthers. Funchess is a good pick, but he’s going to be a tight end so you still need a real answer on the outside opposite Kelvin Benjamin. Grade: D-
Green Bay Packers
The haul: Damarious Randall (FS, Arizona State, round one), Quinten Rollins (CB, Miami [OH], round two), Ty Montgomery (WR, Stanford, round three), Jake Ryan (OLB, Michigan, round four), Brett Hundley (QB, UCLA, round five), Aaron Ripkowski (FB, Oklahoma, round six), Christian Ringo (DE, Louisiana-Lafayett, round six) and Kennard Backman (TE, UAB, round six)
If Thompson was a reach for the Panthers, then Randall has to be described as a finger-tip grab. The packers needed help in the defensive backfield, sure, but it’s like the Packers were working from some sort of alternate universe draft board. Would Randall have more an impact for them this season than, say, Bernardrick McKinney? I don’t see that happening. Is Rollins going to have a better rookie season than P.J. Williams, who the Saints took 16 picks later? I wouldn’t bet on it. Montgomery is an interesting pick and I can’t fault them for taking Brett Hundely, my second favorite QB entering this draft, in the fifth round as a developmental player that they can trade for a much higher pick in a couple of years. We have another wasted fullback pick in Ripkowski. The biggest problem is that if the Packers get even one starter out of this class in 2015, they’ll be lucky. Grade: D-
Seattle Seahawks
The haul: Frank Clark (DE, Michigan, round two), Tyler Lockett (WR, Kansas State, round three), Terry Poole (OG, San Diego State, round four), Mark Glowinski (OG, West Virginia, round four), Tye Smith (CB, Towson, round five), Obum Gwacham (DE, Oregon State, round six), Kristjan Sokoli (DT, Buffalo, round six) and Ryan Murphy (CB, Oregon State, round seven)
There’s lack of due diligence and then there’s what the Seahawks did with Frank Clark. I know Microsoft owns Seattle, but could no one with the Seahawks sneak onto Google and do a half-assed search under Clark’s name? He has a home invasion conviction on his record from 2012 and his domestic violence arrest was just last November that got him kicked off the Michigan football team and he accepted a plea deal to escape any extra jail time. That means guilty. Two guilty convictions in four years, for God’s sake. That’s not a guy you use a second-round pick on. The Seahawks needed legitimate help at receiver and decided, in spite of all video and production evidence to the contrary, that Tyler Lockett was better than Jaelen Strong, Chris Conley and Sammie Coates who were all taken afterwards. My guess is they’re wrong. Grade: F
