2012 NFL Draft: Drafts I Liked and Drafts I Didn't

By this point, we're all familiar with my intense disdain for draft grades. While I understand why they're done and why fans gobble them up, they tend to make me break out in hives. 

Instead of grades, I like to take a look at who collected players who should help them and how they went about doing so. If I like it, cool. If I don't, also cool. There's no way of knowing how any of these draft classes will pan out until at least three years or so down the line, so all this knee-jerk reaction stuff is all so much filler. 

With that said, here is one man's opinion on what took place over the last three days at Radio City Music Hall in New York City during the NFL draft.

Drafts I Liked

There were a number of teams that I thought really did a good job of not over-committing resources in a search to plug roster holes. More than anything the draft is about investing in the future of your football team. 

I thought the Cincinnati Bengals did a great job of letting things come to them and collecting talent that will not only help them down the road but should provide them some immediate relief in certain areas. Lots of focus will be put on the early selections of Dre Kirkpatrick and Kevin Zeitler, but the selections of Mohamed Sanu and Orson Charles should really help their second-year quarterback Andy Dalton as he continues to develop. 

Another draft that I really liked was put together by the San Diego Chargers. Letting value fall to them, they collected a defensive haul the first two days to help new defensive coordinator John Pagano. Melvin Ingram and Kendall Reyes should become instant starters and Brandon Taylor shouldn't be far behind. I especially liked the Chargers grabbing center David Molk in the seventh round. Molk is undersized, but I expect him to be a starter in the league sooner rather than later. 

A few other teams, such as the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, were their usual brilliant selves on draft weekend, but at this point it will be noteworthy if Kevin Colbert and Ted Thompson ever put together ill-advised drafts. I almost always like what they do with their drafts. 

Drafts I Didn't Like 

In my short time covering the league, I've learned that criticizing certain teams is akin to touching the Third Rail when it comes to reaction from their fanbases. One such fanbase roots for the Jacksonville Jaguars, so let me start with this—drafting a punter in the third round may prove to be a prescient move. However, more often than not that is the type of move that gets a general manager fired. Looking over Gene Smith's history presiding over the Jaguars, that might not be such a bad thing for Jaguars fans. Smith made a good pick in Round 2 with defensive end Andre Branch, but other than that I wasn't a fan of this draft.

I also wasn't a fan of whatever was going on with the Denver Broncos. It's not exactly that I didn't like what they were addressing with their picks, but more I don't really understand the long-term plan.

This is a team that has an aging Peyton Manning for a limited amount of time...and they used their first two picks on a defensive tackle and Manning's eventual replacement. With the chips all-in on Manning, I expected a bit more help for the only four-time MVP, but it would seem general manager John Elway is looking more long-term, something I usually advocate. But there's nothing "usual" about how the Broncos went about extracting themselves from Tebow Time and putting everything on Manning.