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As NFL training camps draw near, all 32 NFL teams are gearing up for the 2023 season. Hope is in high order at the moment, as every franchise believes this could be "their year". While time will be the ultimate judge of the 2023 NFL Draft's winners and losers, some franchises made decisions that still have us...confused.
Maybe it's drafting a position you don't need. Maybe it's taking someone who is lower on most people's draft boards when "better" prospects are still on the board.
Below are some of the picks that seemed to be the most confusing during this season's NFL Draft and still have us scratching our heads as training camp time gets closer.
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Jahmyr Gibbs - RB: Detroit Lions - Pick 12
Look, I like Jahmyr Gibbs a lot, and I think he was a first-round talent. But picking a running back like Gibbs is the kind of luxury pick that I don't think the Lions were in a position to make.
Gibbs was productive on the ground and in the receiving game last year at Alabama, with 151 carries for 926 yards plus 44 catches for 444 yards, with a combined 10 touchdowns.
But the Lions seemed trapped in this interminable hunt for a new running back, spending an exorbitant amount of draft capital on the position in recent years:
The Lions allowed the second-most net yards per pass attempt last year, as well as the second-most yards per rushing attempt. I know this is a team that appears to be going with an offense-first approach right now, but you were picking at a spot where Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez was still on the board. Gibbs, as I already mentioned, is a luxury pick—he's a really good player, but he's at a position that doesn't impact the game in the same way other positions do. Detroit should have gone defense here, and then they could have grabbed an offensive player at 18—which would have been a good time to grab a wide receiver to pair with Amon-Ra St. Brown to create one of the NFL's best young wideout groups.
Will McDonald IV - DE: New York Jets - Pick 15
The Jets made a big splash this offseason, acquiring former Packers quarterback Tim Boyle.
Kidding. The Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers, and then in classic Aaron Rodgers tradition, used their first-round pick on a defensive player.
The Jets have a good group of skill players, but they also have an offensive line that Football Outsiders ranked 17th in pass protection last season. They're set to head into next season with their biggest offensive line addition being second-round center Joe Tippmann.
When the Jets took McDonald—a good player but someone who wasn't quite this high on a lot of boards, with PFF, for example, ranking him 29th on their big board—there weren't really many slam-dunk offensive linemen left on the board, as Broderick Jones went a spot before their pick. Still, maybe this was a time to trade back some, or even reach on Oklahoma tackle Anton Harrison. IDK! The optics of trading for Rodgers and reaching for a defensive end at pick 15 just feels off, ya know?
Especially because if they did really want to go defense, there were better names on the board still. McDonald's going to be a fine player, but taking him at 15 just felt like a miss.
Zach Charbonnet - RB: Seattle Seahawks - Pick 52
Hey, remember that chart I posted earlier about running back draft capital? Here it is again:
Note the date on that: Friday morning. That was before the Seahawks spent a second on Zach Charbonnet, and they were already second to Detroit at the time. Here's how that pick changed things:
Still second, but the Seahawks have pulled away from the 30 non-Detroit teams.
For me, the biggest issue here is that the Seahawks clearly wanted a pass-catching back like Charbonnet, who had 37 receptions for 321 yards last year for UCLA, but did they really need one?
Kenneth Walker came into the NFL with just 19 college receptions, and a big knock on him at the time was that he wouldn't be able to play on passing downs. He didn't do a ton last season as a rookie, catching 27 passes for 165 yards.
Could the Seahawks need a pass-catching back? Yeah, it wouldn't hurt—there's room for improvement there from Walker. But using the 52nd pick on a pass-catching back feels like a bad use of resources here.
It's also bad for fantasy purposes, because it takes a top back, Walker, off the field more. I'm mostly avoiding making fantasy-related judgments in this article because I want to keep the focus on the actual value of the picks, but this does really suck for fantasy managers.
Chad Ryland - K: New England Patriots - Pick 112
I'll keep this part short and sweet: the Patriots traded up for a kicker on Saturday. I know New England had plenty of resources, but using some of them to trade up eight spots with a division rival to get a kicker doesn't seem like the best use of those resources.
Nothing against Ryland, who made 82.6% of his field goal attempts and 97.5% of his extra points for Maryland last season. It's just that...you already have Nick Folk, who made 86.5% of his field goal attempts last season.
Oh yeah, and the Patriots took a punter later on. As Adam Schefter tweeted, that was the first time since 2000 a team took both positions in a draft. And...I mean, the Raiders got two really good players by doing that, so maybe this winds up working out. We'll see.
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