NFL draft grades – Mel Kiper Jr. picks steals, sleepers and favourite 2022 courses from all 32 groups

This was my thirty ninth 12 months doing the NFL draft for ESPN, and I am unable to keep in mind a buying and selling frenzy fairly just like the one we noticed in the course of Spherical 1 on Thursday. There have been picks and gamers flying off the board sooner than I might wrap my head round which staff was on the clock. Now that we have been by means of all 262 picks, although, it is time for considered one of my favourite workouts yearly. That is the piece everybody complains about up till the following draft.

I like doing NFL draft grades, and it helps me put all 32 groups’ courses into perspective. That was robust in 2022, particularly with 9 groups having a number of first-round picks and 10 groups not having any first-round choose, each of which had been probably the most within the frequent draft period (since 1967). The protection dominated the highest of the draft, and of the 16 offensive gamers taken in Spherical 1, a whopping 15 had been both offensive linemen (9) or broad receivers (six).

Let’s get into my team-by-team grades. Identical guidelines apply, as at all times: I grade all 32 courses utilizing my Huge Board and place rankings because the prism to gauge how successfully every staff addressed key personnel holes in addition to how environment friendly every was in maneuvering the board and including further picks or future belongings. I wrapped up Spherical 1 on Thursday night time and Day 2 on Friday night time, however within the grades file is the place I dump out my pocket book.

We’ll begin with one of the best grades and go to the worst, with groups which have equivalent grades listed in alphabetical order. Right here we go:

Soar to:
ARI | ATL | BAL | BUF | CAR | CHI | CIN
CLE | DAL | DEN | DET | GB | HOU | IND
JAX | KC | LAC | LAR | LV | MIA | MIN
NE | NO | NYG | NYJ | PHI | PIT | SF
SEA | TB | TEN | WSH