NFL Draft winners and losers

By Rick Morris

I would like to start by referring you back to our liveblogging from the first night of the draft and our compilation of highlight videos from the top prospects.

Winners are considered to be the teams above a grade of C+ (because if you didn’t do any better than standing still, you actually lost ground with other teams improving).

WINNERS (18)
(A) Seattle: If you include the trades, they addressed most of their biggest needs and with explosive picks in most cases.
(A) New York Giants: Even if their know-nothing fans continue to dump on him, Jerry Reese just proved again that he is one of the best GMs in the game and he’ll look like a genius once they’re really able to turn Jason Pierre-Paul loose.
(A-) Detroit: You have to like their picks: the best player in the draft in Suh, an explosive complementary back, and an upgrade in the secondary.
(A-) Philadelphia: They improved many key areas and if they had included a complementary RB, they could well have had the best draft of 2010.
(B+) Baltimore: It’s not a deep draft in terms of their haul, but the upgrade on defense from a few picks is just immense.
(B+) St. Louis: Got their franchise QB, a very necessary WR and some help on D.
(B) Oakland: In addressing several needs very well, even with a bit of a first-round reach, this was a very un-Al like draft – and there could be no higher praise.
(B) Green Bay: Wonderful first-round value foreshadowed a pretty good process for this team.
(B) New York Jets: Nobody made fewer high and middle picks count for more.
(B) Tampa Bay: RB is still a goofy picture, but much-needed help on defense and at wideout really helps.
(B) Miami: A nice offseason of progression continues for the Fish with several position upgrades.
(B) New England: WR Price is an excellent move for the future and the team got better and younger in some key areas.
(B-) Tennessee: While they might have wanted to address OL a bit more, they upgraded many other critical areas.
(B-) Cincinnati: TE Gresham is a huge hit and they added some other talented players, but did not work as hard as they could on filling remaining holes.
(B-) San Francisco: First round reach aside, they added some more core players to a rising squad.
(B-) Minnesota: It’s a strange draft; they didn’t fill many of their few needs, but they cleaned up on value with some nice players dropping to them.
(B-) Cleveland: Straight need – not value – picks in the secondary, but a necessary move-the-chains change-of-pace RB and the team getting totally lucky in having QB McCoy drop redeems the process somewhat.
(B-) Kansas City: Berry is the rare safety capable of going in the top five and he wasn’t the only upgrade in the secondary – although it’s fair to wonder how McCluster fits into the offense.

LOSERS (14)
(C+) Atlanta: They picked up some nice players, but didn’t do much to address existing needs.
(C+) Dallas: They didn’t have the picks to add many impact players, but they did get a few.
(C+) San Diego: See Dallas.
(C+) Carolina: With great help on both sides of the passing game, the Panthers made the most of their limited middle and high picks.
(C) Denver: Minus the massive Tebow reach and unacceptable price paid to acquire him, this would have been a good haul.
(C-) Indianapolis: They should have done more to address needs on both sides of the trenches.
(C-) Arizona: Some nice additions don’t do enough to offset the losses caused by the cheap ownership.
(D+) Houston: For a team on the verge of making the playoffs, their inability to fill more needs was disappointing.
(D+) New Orleans: They got some players, but should have worked harder on augmenting their front seven.
(D+) Pittsburgh: RB Dwyer was a great late value and C Pouncey helps a lot, but the team having the NFL’s worst offseason could have used more help on the D line and at CB.
(D) Buffalo: With few needs substantively addressed, Spiller needs to live up to the billing of being the next Chris Johnson to keep this from being rated down with the Marv Levy drafts.
(D) Washington: Looks like a one-player draft right now in terms of addressing needs.
(D-) Jacksonville: A first-round reach set the tone for a very underwhelming draft.
(F) Chicago: With no high picks, there wasn’t much opportunity to achieve much, although Dan LeFevour in the fifth is an interesting hedge on the progress of QB Cutler.