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It is hilarious to hear all of these draft pundits like Mel Kiper grade teams on their draft. For what seems like the zillionth consecutive year, Kiper gives the defending SB Champ (Ravens) the best grade as a suckup score that makes him pretend like he knows the real deal.
Rather than grading himself and trying to understand where HE whiffed, Kiper "grades" teams based on the superficial evaluations that he gives. Let's remember a few things:
-These teams are investing more money in players than most major companies are paying their CEOs, despite that these are kids coming out of school.
-It follows that the cost that each team pays to get insider information likely costs more than Kiper's house, conservatively.
-Players are willing to sit in a room for hours and answer psychological questions and tests for teams that might pay them millions. They won't give that luxury to entertainment-focused draft pundits.
-Teams love to blow smoke at draft pundits to disguise their true intentions.
Considering all that, it still amazes me that teams like the Patriots (after drafting Tavon Wilson last year and Duron Harmon this year) or the Giants (for Justin Pugh) still tend get criticized for "reaching." Same thing with the Steelers, who apparently didn't know that the running back they drafted ran a slow 40-time. To think, they must have missed that stat! Other players that were reaches in recent memory: Richard Seymour, Osi Omeniyora, Sebastian Vollmer. In fact, usually these out of left field picks tend to be the best ones. The pundits act like these teams don't realize that the glittering gold names are still on the board and haven't read Kiper or Mayock's grade before drafting.
When Super Bowl winning franchises make a "reach pick" that doesn't make sense in the eyes of these pundits, it's obvious that the pundits need to go back to school and figure out what they missed. But rather, they lazily apply grades to these picks based on their lack of knowledge about the player and the game of football.
Rather than grading himself and trying to understand where HE whiffed, Kiper "grades" teams based on the superficial evaluations that he gives. Let's remember a few things:
-These teams are investing more money in players than most major companies are paying their CEOs, despite that these are kids coming out of school.
-It follows that the cost that each team pays to get insider information likely costs more than Kiper's house, conservatively.
-Players are willing to sit in a room for hours and answer psychological questions and tests for teams that might pay them millions. They won't give that luxury to entertainment-focused draft pundits.
-Teams love to blow smoke at draft pundits to disguise their true intentions.
Considering all that, it still amazes me that teams like the Patriots (after drafting Tavon Wilson last year and Duron Harmon this year) or the Giants (for Justin Pugh) still tend get criticized for "reaching." Same thing with the Steelers, who apparently didn't know that the running back they drafted ran a slow 40-time. To think, they must have missed that stat! Other players that were reaches in recent memory: Richard Seymour, Osi Omeniyora, Sebastian Vollmer. In fact, usually these out of left field picks tend to be the best ones. The pundits act like these teams don't realize that the glittering gold names are still on the board and haven't read Kiper or Mayock's grade before drafting.
When Super Bowl winning franchises make a "reach pick" that doesn't make sense in the eyes of these pundits, it's obvious that the pundits need to go back to school and figure out what they missed. But rather, they lazily apply grades to these picks based on their lack of knowledge about the player and the game of football.