2016 NFL Draft: Biggest Steals, Reaches and Surprises from Rounds 2-3

It's Day 2 of the 2016 NFL draft, a day that meant different things for different teams and players.

For the six young men invited to the NFL draft (including three from the national champion Alabama Crimson Tide) who didn't hear their names called Thursday, it was a badly needed chance to end an agonizing wait and get on with their lives.

At least one already did. As Adam Schefter of ESPN reported (h/t Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk), UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, whose Day 1 free-fall was one of Thursday's biggest stories, watched Friday's proceedings from a Chicago hotel room.

For some teams, Friday was moving day. There were five trades on the draft's first day, and Friday wasn't any different. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (h/t Marc Sessler of NFL.com) reported earlier Friday the Dallas Cowboys were trying to wrangle the day's first pick away from the Cleveland Browns, and the wheeling and dealing continued right up until proceedings wrapped for the night.

That trade didn't come to pass, so it was the Browns—owners of a whopping four picks on Friday—who got things rolling with their selection of Oklahoma State defensive lineman Emmanuel Ogbah.

There were masterstrokes, missteps and mayhem aplenty. In other words, it was your standard Day 2 at the NFL draft.

And with that in mind here's a look back at Friday's high (and low) points.

Bleacher Report Big Board

Before we get to Friday's review, here's an updated look at the Bleacher Report big board.

The three highest-ranked players on the board entering Friday's action all had major questions looming over them—the types of questions that caused them to fall from Round 1 in the first place.

For Jack and Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith, it was the condition of their surgically repaired knees. For Eastern Kentucky's Noah Spence, it was the off-field issues that led to his dismissal from Ohio State.

Fortunately for all three, they didn't have to languish long. Smith and Jack went very early on Day 2. Spence followed a few picks later.

Here's a quick rundown of the players ranked inside our top 50 overall still available after two days of the 2016 NFL draft:

Andrew Billings, DL, Baylor (21): The sole prospect left who earned a first-round grade from Matt Miller, Billings' fall over the past two days has morphed into the 2016 draft's biggest ongoing mystery.

Kenneth Dixon, RB, Louisiana Tech (41): Good luck trying to figure out the running backs in a year where the third player at the position drafted (Kenyan Drake) was the backup to the second (Derrick Henry). Dixon should come off the board very early on Saturday.

Christian Westerman, C/OG, Arizona State (48): It wasn't just our Matt Miller who graded Westerman here. Lance Zierlein of NFL.com gave the 298-pounder a Day 2 grade, comparing Westerman to Alex Mack.

And the top quarterbacks left, because quarterbacks:

Dak Prescott, QB, Mississippi (101): Prescott improved throwing the ball in 2015 for the Bulldogs but after being passed over for the likes of Christian Hackenberg and Cody Kessler (no, really), it's fair to wonder if Prescott's been hit with the "just another running quarterback" stigma.

Connor Cook, QB, Michigan State (102): Mike Griffith of MLive reports former NFL GM Phil Savage isn't surprised Cook is still on the board. "He's tall with a quick release, and I think Connor Cook has some real positives, (but) I think the negative on him is I don't see explosiveness in his arm, or his legs," said Savage.

The lowest-graded player who has already been taken? That "prize" belongs to, of all teams, the New England Patriots, who selected Nebraska defensive tackle Vincent Valentine (No. 273) with the 96th pick.

The Second-Rounder Who Wasn't (STEAL)

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In any other year, the 32nd overall pick in the NFL draft would have taken place on Day 1.

Not so in 2016, for reasons that escape me.

It's almost as if my brain's deflated.

Hey. The story won't die, so neither do the jokes.

In some respects, the New England Patriots losing their first-rounder afforded the Cleveland Browns an extra one. Lord knows they can use it.

The Browns used that pick to select Oklahoma State's Emmanuel Ogbah, a 6'4", 273-pound defensive end who was the Big 12 defensive player of the year in 2015.

It's a pick that met with the approval of Steve Palazzolo of Pro Football Focus, who graded the move a "B+:"

"

There was a lot of talk that the Browns would trade the pick, but they grab one of the best pass rushers in the draft in Ogbah, owner of the No. 3 pass rush grade in the class. He’s not as strong against the run as you’d like given his size and length, but the Browns got burst off the edge in Ogbah.

"

In some respects, that grade might appear a bit high, at least by the standards of the experts who ranked players on the B/R big board. Ogbah checked in over 30 spots lower than Spence, who would appear a more prototypical outside linebacker in a 3-4 front like the Browns employ.

However, some draftniks assigned Ogbah a first-round grade, he didn't carry the red flags Spence did and Ogbah has the size to kick up front in subpackages.

It wasn't a mega-steal by any stretch, but it's a quality player in a position of need for the Browns.

Solid start to Day 2 for the Browns, but there's one team who likely wasn't happy about this pick or the Tennessee Titans' selection of Clemson's Kevin Dodd one pick later: the Dallas Cowboys, who are desperate for help up front defensively.

Jaylon Smith's Long Wait Ends (REACH)

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It may well be the DE mini-run set the stage for the first big curveball of Round 2.

Before I go any further, an important caveat. Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith was a phenomenal collegiate football player. Were it not for the ACL tear Smith suffered in Notre Dame's Fiesta Bowl loss to The University of First-Rounders, the 6'2", 223-pounder would have been long gone by now.

Lance Zierlein of NFL.com wrote one AFC coach compared Smith's game to that of Kansas City's Derrick Johnson, who in case you haven't noticed has had one heck of an NFL career:

"He reminds me so much of DJ (Derrick Johnson) when he came out," the coach said. "Same frame, same speed and same playmaking ability. Both of those guys are made for the pro game."

There's a reason Smith ranked second overall on the B/R big board.

Zierlein's colleague Mike Mayock hailed the move by the Cowboys:

"

It takes a decision maker with conviction to make a selection like this. It starts with Jerry Jones; people who think outside the box and pull the trigger on these type of investments. I thought he could be Luke Kuechly at the next level. Smith is three downs all day long. Make no mistake, he will not play in 2016. This is all about a nerve regenerating and nobody knows if and to what extent.

"

Of course, in hailing the move Mayock also points out the problem with it.

If Smith is still experiencing numbness in his leg as a result of nerve damage from his injury, his rookie season is already over. Frankly, we just don't know how much of Jaylon Smith we'll see again, whether he'll return to form, never come close or fall somewhere in between.

The Cowboys aren't exactly a rebuilding team. In fact, I'm pretty sure Jerry Jones has no clue what that word means.

Dallas has also seen this movie before. Back in 2011, the Cowboys spent a second-round pick on North Carolina's Bruce Carter, who was considered one of that year's top prospects at the position before—wait for it—tearing his ACL.

Carter showed a flash or two in four years with the Cowboys, but he never came close to living up to the potential he showed in college.

I hope Smith's story ends much differently. I really and truly do. But given the injury many pundits (including Zierlein) didn't expect Smith's name to be called until Saturday.

Rip me if you must, but a Cowboys team that badly needed pass-rush help didn't get it here. They didn't get anything until 2017...

They hope.

Jaguars Get Jacked Up (SURPRISE)

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Smith's selection by the Cowboys left Myles Jack as the highest-ranked player on B/R's big board who didn't yet have an NFL home.

That didn't last long.

Two selections later, the Jacksonville Jaguars "jacked" the 6'1", 245-pound linebacker in a move that nearly sent Mayock into fanboy mode:

"

That is an awesome pick. The Jaguars get two players, Jalen Ramsey yesterday and Jack today, who were top-rated prospects on many people's boards. Jack is a supremely gifted athlete. He can play the run game and pass game. The concern, obviously, has been the medical.

"

It caps a whirlwind week for Jack, who not long ago was considered a top-10 prospect despite a torn meniscus last year. Until, that is, Jack himself admitted the possibility he will need microfracture surgery down the road thanks to the injury, according to Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post.

Per Adam Schefter of ESPN, Jack was informed Friday by Dr. James Andrews that day isn't coming any time soon.

And as James Quintong of ESPN.com pointed out Friday, video that surfaced of Jack dunking a basketball certainly didn't look like an injured player nursing a bad knee.

If Jack's healthy and can stay that way for any amount of time, this may well be the best value pick to this point in the draft.

Jack can do it all. Stuff the run. Rush the passer. At UCLA he did everything this side of parking cars before the game and selling nachos at halftime.

Telvin Smith. Dante Fowler (whose return after missing all of his rookie year affords the Jaguars what amounts to another first-round pick). And now Ramsey and Jack.

Jacksonville head coach Gus Bradley has an impressive array of young talent on defense.

And we may just be looking at the beginning of a shift in power in the AFC South.

Buccaneers Speculate on Spence (STEAL)

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With Jack and Smith gone, the highest-rated remaining player on the B/R big board (sponsored by Hot Pockets, the preferred dinner of writers with no time for dinner everywhere) was Noah Spence.

And just as with Jack, he didn't have to wait long.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers used the 39th overall pick on Spence, who insisted to Fox Sports before the draft he's learned from the missteps that led him from rising star at Ohio State to troubled youngster at Eastern Kentucky:

"

No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

I think my biggest strength is pass rush. I'm relentless on the field. I think I can get better with my run-stopping abilities and playing within the framework of the defense.

"

To Spence's credit, he didn't shy away from questions about his drug use during the draft process, and he passed every drug test while at EKU.

His workouts this spring were a mixed bag. After Spence was essentially unblockable at the Senior Bowl in January, some draftniks were penciling him into the top 10. But then Spence faltered a bit in Indy, leading to the 6'2", 251-pounder entering this year's draft as one of its biggest wild cards.

However, at no point has Spence's talent or ability to collapse the pocket been in question, and that's an area in which the Buccaneers needed a boost.

If he can keep his head on straight and add a bit of bulk (assuming the Buccaneers want Spence to play end, which isn't a certainty) Tampa got a top-15 talent for pennies on the dollar.

If that isn't a steal, what is?

Bama Boys Bounce (STEAL)

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At the beginning of the 2016 NFL draft, three players from the reigning national champions of college football were in the green room in Chicago waiting to hear their name called. Only Ohio State had more youngsters in attendance.

Well, while Buckeyes flew out of the green room on Day 1, all three of those Alabama standouts sat in awkward silence staring at their cell phones.

It may not have been a high point for them personally, but a run on elephants in the draft's second round afforded three NFL teams what can only be called exceptional values.

First up was inside linebacker Reggie Ragland, who went to the Buffalo Bills at No. 41. In Preston Brown and Zach Brown (no relation), the Bills have a pair of rangy, athletic, young inside linebackers.

What they didn't have was an imposing thumper, a role Zierlein believes the 6'1", 247-pound Ragland can fill from Day 1:

"

Thumping inside linebacker with throwback size and tone­setting mentality. Ragland is a confident and capable early starter in league who has the temperament to become one of the premier run­-stopping inside linebackers in the pro game. Ragland has some coverage and speed limitations, but his instincts and overall awareness should be able to mask those issues.

"

Ragland was followed by beefeater A'Shawn Robinson, who the Detroit Lions selected as a complement and heir to Haloti Ngata at 46.

As Nick Baumgardner of MLive,com wrote, ESPN's Mel Kiper saw the big man as an ever bigger value in the middle of the second round:

"

He's disruptive, he can get in the backfield, he stops the run on the way to getting to the quarterback. He can do it. He's 307 pounds, he's got long arms, he's a tremendous natural athlete.

The want-to, the desire, the hustl ...he was considered by Nick Saban to be one of the leaders of that football team (at Alabama). He's a steal at this point in the draft

"

The Seattle Seahawks then took fellow tackle Jarran Reed, who is for all intents and purposes a slightly more polished, slightly less explosive version of Robinson, three picks later.

All three young men were key contributors to college football's best defense in 2015. All three received first-round grades here at B/R.

And all three were bargains on Day 2 of the draft.

Jihad Who? (REACH)

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The Oakland Raiders have to be the most difficult team in the NFL to figure out in the second round. And just as with safety Mike "Who?" Mitchell in 2009, the Raiders used their second pick of the 2016 draft on a player that left some pundits scrambling through their notes.

OK, to be fair the selection of Illinois defensive lineman Jihad Ward wasn't that big a reach according to Zierlein, who graded the 6'5", 297-pounder as a Day 2 prospect:

"

Above average athleticism for a man his size and he has the effort level that should lead to continued improvement in the areas where he is deficient. Ward is a developmental prospect who has the size to fit as a 4-­3 base end or defensive tackle and as a 3­-4 defensive end.

"

Palazzolo wasn't buying it though, assigning the pick a grade (D+) that gets high-schoolers grounded:

"

With a number of better interior defensive line options on the board, the Raiders go with Ward, who projects as a two-down player. He moved around the Illinois defensive line, finishing with the 69th-best overall grade among edge defenders in the class providing very little as a pass rusher

"

It isn't necessarily that this is an awful pick. Ward has great size and decent athleticism, and the ability to kick inside on passing downs offers the sort of versatility NFL teams love in defensive players nowadays.

However, in Ward we're talking about a player who is very much a project, a young man who had all of 1.5 sacks for the Fighting Illini in 2015.

And a player, per Schefter, who may need a knee scope before his first practice.

Look at the bright side, Raider Nation.

The Mitchell pick was panned to heck and back but, while he's not an All-Pro, Mitchell's stuck around the league and actually become a decent safety.

Not in Oakland, mind you, but still...

First-Round Grade, Second-Round Tag (STEAL)

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Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer joined the NFL Network's telecast Friday, and to the surprise of absolutely no one Meyer had some good things to say about wide receiver Michael Thomas.

"His greatest strengths are that he has ball skill and he's a competitive SOB," Meyer said. "He's a refuse-to-lose type player. I think that he will have a long career in the NFL."

SOB, of course, refers to Spectacular Ohio State Buckeye.

Meyer wasn't the only person who thought highly of the 6'3", 212-pounder. Thomas was the highest-ranked wide receiver on our own Matt Miller's board, an assertion Thomas wasn't about to argue with:

"

When I look at all the other receivers in this class, I feel I'm the best. No disrespect to anyone else and their talent, but I don't see anyone better than me. I may not run 1,000 go routes on film or get 150-plus targets in my offense, but what I was asked to do by my coaching staff, I did very well, and we won a lot of ballgames by me doing what I was asked. I was on an offense with a ton of talent—going back and forth with quarterbacks—but we still managed to be a top team when the season ended. It's a team sport. And a lot of people, I believe, try to base who is better off numbers and not opportunity. Because when the opportunity presented itself I made plays nine out of 10 times, and I wasn't the only weapon on my team. We had tons of them. At the end of the day it was about winning ballgames for us, and everything else will take care of itself.

"

Keyshawn Johnson's nephew is confident. Go figure.

The New Orleans Saints apparently saw something they liked in Thomas as well, selecting him at No. 47.

Frankly, we don't really know how good Thomas is. Not much was asked of him at Ohio State other than to go deep a lot, catch jump balls and occasionally run a hook or post route.

But Miller, who watches approximately nine million times more tape than I do, saw enough to give Thomas a first-round grade.

That's good enough for me.

HACK!-Enberg (REACH)

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Listen, I get it. NFL teams go all sorts of wacky about quarterbacks. We just watched two teams sell their respective souls to move up in this draft and take signal-callers who may or may not actually be any good.

And after nearly making the playoffs last year, the New York Jets are about six steps the other side of panic mode at the position thanks to their contract impasse with Ryan "I need $16 million a season for beard wax" Fitzpatrick.

You can tell the Jets are freaking out because they just spent a second-round pick on Christian Hackenberg.

When he arrived at Penn State, the 6'4" 223-pounder was the highest-rated high school prospect in the nation. He had the size. The arm. Hackenberg was going to be awesome.

There was only one problem. For every awesome moment in Happy Valley, there was an awful one. Two, even.

In fact, as one NFC executive told Zierlein, a look at tape shows Hackenberg got worse as time went on:

"

The tape is just terrible over the last two years, but he has traits and leadership. His freshman tape is good, but how do you discount everything you've seen for two years? That freshman tape is going to lead a team to overdraft him.

"

This is a quarterback that completed 53.5 percent of his passes in 2015. And the next quarterback who becomes significantly more accurate in the NFL than he was in college will be the first.

Does Hackenberg have a higher ceiling than Michigan State's Connor Cook? Hypothetically? Maybe.

Apparently, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, the Jets did just what that executive warned a team would—overdrafted in the misguided belief that Hackenberg will ever sniff that mythical ceiling.

A Kicker WHEN? (SURPRISE)

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Florida State's Roberto Aguayo is a very good kicker.

As a matter of fact, Aguayo is the most accurate kicker in the history of college football. In three years at Florida State, he attempted 276 extra points and field goals.

Aguayo missed nine times. Total.

This is a kicker who declared early for the NFL draft—the first player at the position to do so since Sebastian Janikowski back in 1999.

Janikowski was the last kicker to be selected in the first round (by the Raiders, of course), but Aguayo came close, as close as anyone has come in a decade.

For the first time since Mike Nugent in 2005, a kicker went in Round 2 when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers made both Aguayo and Rich Eisen happy men by trading back into Round 2 to select him at No. 59.

That's right. The Bucs didn't just draft a kicker in Round 2. They traded more picks to do it.

I get it. Aguayo never misses in short. That's a trait that has to be appealing to NFL teams after what happened in the first season of 33-yard extra points in 2015.

But the Buccaneers just used a second-round pick on a kicker and gave up a third- and fourth-rounder for the right to do it.

That's just nuts.

Doing It Wrong (REACH)

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The Miami Dolphins have been burning through general managers of late like Taylor Swift through boyfriends. Jeff Ireland gave way to Dennis Hickey gave way to Chris Grier. And that's just since 2013.

Grier hit a home run Thursday night when Ole Miss tackle Laremy Tunsil fell into his lap at No. 13 but where that was a huge value, Grier's first pick in Round 3 was just as big of a reach.

Mind you, this isn't to say Alabama running back Kenyan Drake isn't talented. The 6'1", 210-pound burner is a threat to take it to the house every time he touches the ball, whether it's running around the edge, catching the ball out of the backfield or returning kicks.

The problem is we just haven't seen Drake touch the ball that much, as he served as Derrick Henry's understudy with the Crimson Tide last year.

An NFC Scout discussed Henry's limitations with Zierlein before the draft:

"

He's a player who you have to have a plan for because he's not an every­-down back and he's too lean to be in around the goal line. I see him as a third down back with special teams qualities and those guys get drafted in the fifth or later.

"

But it wasn't the fifth round. It was early in Round 3. As the third running back off the board, behind only Ezekiel Elliott of Ohio State and Henry.

Yes, the Dolphins needed help in the backfield. But there were any number of better options available at that point.

A staggering 10 of them in fact, according to the Bleacher Report big board.

Getting After It (STEAL)

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Once you reach the third round of the draft, it gets a bit more difficult to call picks "reaches" and "steals." There are going to be warts on every player's resume. In fact, the more talented the player, the more warts present—if the warts weren't there the player wouldn't be available this late either.

Such is the case with Ohio State defensive lineman Adolphus Washington, who became the eighth Buckeyes player taken in the first three rounds when the Buffalo Bills selected him 80th overall.

The 6'3", 300-pounder plays too upright. He has a tendency, in his zeal to get after the quarterback, to  pour right past the ball-carrier. Washington's collegiate career was cut short prematurely thanks to an arrest for allegedly soliciting a prostitute (charges were dropped).

But Washington is also wildly athletic and quick for a man his size. As Meyer told the NFL Network's crew, he's an interior lineman "with a defensive end's skill set."

In other words, just the sort of player who would appeal to Rex Ryan and the Bills.

The pick earned an "A" grade from Palazzolo:

"

While he doesn’t excel in any one area, Washington is strong all-around and his +32.0 pass rush grade ranked third among interior defensive linemen in the class. He’s played both 3-tech and nose tackle for Ohio State, showing well in both roles. At this point in the draft, Washington is excellent value and he should see early playing time in Buffalo’s defensive line rotation.

"

Per Joe Buscaglia of WKBW, that appears to be exactly what Ryan has in mind for Washington.

"Rex Ryan told Adolphus Washington that he wanted to draft him," Buscaglia tweeted, "and that he wants him to come in and play 'right away.'"

Any time you get an immediate contribution from third-round players, you've done well.

Setting a Record (STEAL)

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The 2016 NFL draft has been good to the young men of The Ohio State University.

With the selection of Braxton Miller by the Houston Texans at No. 85, a new record was set. Never in the common draft era have more players from a school been taken in the first three rounds of a draft than the nine Buckeyes chosen at that point.

They added one more by night's end.

In a way it's fitting it was Miller, the two-time Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year at quarterback who converted to wide receiver in 2015, who set the record.

It was a selection that had Meyer (who is probably weeping inside as he watches this flood of talent leave Columbus) waxing philosophic.

"He has a great skill set," Meyer said. "He was a back-to-back player of the year in the Big Ten. He's a very elusive player and has top-end speed. He was a great teammate; elected captain for us."

Mind you, Miller is about as far from a finished project at wide receiver as you can get after one year in a very simple vertical passing offense where he mostly touched the ball on screens and Wildcat runs. But as one NFC executive told Zierlein, that wasn't going to stop him from being taken before Day 2 wound down:

"

He's going to go by at least the third round because of his speed and athleticism. He's got some traits that will get him drafted early and a team will worry about coaching him up after they get him in.

"

I could tell you about how Miller showed significant improvements in his route running at the Senior Bowl in January. I could go on about the 4.43 speed Miller showed off at the combine. I could tell you all about his ability to make people miss in the open field.

I could do all of that to explain why, given time, this pick will have been a bargain for the Texans.

Or I can just show you this.

Browns Gotta Brown (SURPRISE)

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The surprise part of this last one isn't that the Cleveland Browns did something mind-bendingly stupid.

The surprise is that it took them this long.

You might have heard the Browns sort of need a quarterback. Have since 1999 or so.

The team, in their infinite wisdom, decided they didn't want Carson Wentz at No. 2. The new brain trust, immersed in their analytic savvy, passed on Paxton Lynch at No. 15.

I'll give them passing on Hackenberg in Round 2. Blind squirrels and nuts.

Finally, at pick No. 93, after trading down for the 43rd time (approximately) in the draft, the Browns did indeed draft a quarterback.

Was that quarterback Connor Cook of Michigan State? Nope.

How about Dak Prescott of Mississippi State, the highest-ranked signal-caller available on the Bleacher Report big board? Of course not.

Hometown hero Cardale Jones, to make it an eye-popping 11 Buckeyes in the draft's first two days?

Hell no!

Instead, the Browns settled on USC's Cody Kessler, a player Zierlein said is "nothing special" and has "the traits and tape of a good, career backup."

And per Tony Grossi of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, this was the plan all along.

"Said all along," Grossi tweeted. "I didn't think Hue Jackson wanted RG3 seriously challenged by a rookie this year. Cody Kessler would meet that QB criterion."

Of course! Why would you want to risk hurting Robert Griffin's feelings by doing something ridiculous like getting better?

It took the new guard in Cleveland all of three rounds to start looking like the old one.

Credit where it's due. The Browns accomplished something Friday I didn't think possible.

They made the Hackenberg pick look good.