AFC North Draft Grades
- Luke Yates
- May 8, 2023
- 4 min read
With the draft now over, and about a week to brush up on some tape, it’s time to grade these AFC North draft classes and end up horribly and laughably wrong in 5 years.
Steelers: A
1.14: OT Broderick Jones - B-
2.32: CB Joey Porter Jr. - A+
2.49: DT Keeanu Benton - B
3.93: TE Darnell Washington - A-
4.132: DE Nick Herbig - A
7.241: CB Cory Trice Jr. - A
7.251: OL Spencer Anderson - B
The Steelers had one of, if not the best, class in the league this year. To me, the highlight here is Joey Porter Jr. in the 2nd round. Now, when players fall like this there usually is a reason, but even with understanding that, this value for Pittsburgh is crazy. A player I had mocked to them at 17 falls to them at 32. Even the moves I didn’t like, like trading up for Broderick Jones, who I thought was raw and had ranked as my OT4, the pick still made sense. The Jets were reportedly going to take him and the Steelers desperately needed a tackle. Same thing goes for Benton, who I thought was a bit of a reach, trading down was going to be hard in this generally weaker class and Benton is still a position of need. The strength of this class is in the backend of it. Cory Trice had a 3rd round grade from me and shaky medicals dropped him very far, a good gamble for a 7th round pick. Overall the Steelers addressed needs and infused some good young talent into their roster.
Ravens: B+
1.22: WR Zay Flowers - A
3.86: LB Trenton Simpson - B+
4.124: EDGE Tavius Robinson - B-
5.157: CB Kyu Blu Kelly - A
6.199: OT Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu - C
7.229: OG Andrew Vorhees - A
The Ravens had an atypical draft, usually they are a team with tons of picks but this year they only had 5 before trading for an extra 7th. Baltimore’s offense got a huge boost on draft weekend with the signing of Lamar Jackson to a 5-year $260 million contract extension. But, the offense still needed pieces, and Zay Flowers is a great addition. Flowers from the second I watched him in February was one of my favorite prospects in the entire draft, so I think the Ravens getting him without having to move up was a stellar pickup. The rest of their draft was a bit weird, Trenton Simpson was definitely a BPA pick, and makes sense given the Ravens emphasis on positionless defense but the Tavius Robinson pick was a little weird. It seemed a lot of their picks weren’t *bad* persay but I felt they had better players on the board for a lot of the picks. The Kyu Blu Kelly and trading back into the draft for Andrew Vorhees picks I loved a whole lot though, and that’s what rounds out this class to me. Vorhees is a player that can be a legitimate impact piece of his rehab goes well, which is phenomenal for a 7th round pick, and Kelly was a player I thought would be long gone by the 5th round. Again, you have to take into account the reason why players fall, but value is still value.
Bengals: A-
1.28: DE Myles Murphy - B+
2.60: CB DJ Turner - A+
3.95: S Jordan Battle - A
4.131: WR Charlie Jones - C+
5.163: RB Chase Brown - C+
6.203: WR Andre Iosivas - A-
6.217: P Brad Robbins - A
7.246: CB DJ Ivey - B-
The Bengals were a story of 2 drafts to me. Their day 1 and 2 was nearly flawless. Myles Murphy, while not being a player I particularly loved on tape, was by far BPA at 28, and DJ Turner at 60 and Jordan Battle at 95 was a pure masterclass to me. But the Charlie Jones and Chase Brown picks were just, eh. Chase Brown in particular I didn’t understand. The need for RB is there yes, but one of the problems that Cincinnati has had on offense is that they cannot keep Joe Mixon in on passing downs because he is a very poor pass protector, so you draft one of the worst pass blocking backs in the class? Brown is a good player overall it just seemed like an awkward fit. Jones also I thought was a straight up reach, didn’t really like what I saw and I thought actually that their pick of Andre Iosivas in the 6th was much better value and a better move. Iosivas needs a lot of refinement and the Bengals WR corps being as good as it is allows for him to wait in the wings and develop. Cincy rounded it out though, I thought punter was a pretty serious need last year as their punting was pretty weak, and DJ Ivey in the 7th is pretty good.
Browns: A
3.74: WR Cedric Tillman - A
3.98: DT Siaki Ika - A
4.111: OT Dawand Jones - B-
4.126: EDGE Isaiah McGuire - B
5.140: QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson - A
5.142: CB Cameron Mitchell - B+
6.190: OL Luke Wypler - B
The Browns draft was a perfect example of doing more with less. They were in a tough spot, needing a really good class and also not having many picks. Deshaun Watson’s cap hit is coming, and it’s going to be nasty. You HAVE to get cheap talent if you are Cleveland here, and I think they did a pretty good job of it given the circumstances. Tillman I thought was a good BPA pick at an underrated position need and Siaki Ika was another one of my favorites from the class. Dawand Jones is an interesting one because he fell so far and reports as to why are a little concerning, but I did have him ranked a lot higher than this so I still like the pick overall. DTR was a great pickup, one thing you definitely need if you’re going to have a QB with a 67 million dollar cap hit is a cheap backup. And DTR is also supremely talented. The rest of the class was good depth at positions of need. The one thing that confused me was the lack of a linebacker pick, but I can pretty easily chalk that up to the linebacker class not being the best.
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