Grading the 2022 Draft (work in progress)

Drake Jackson looks well suited to play the wide nine with his hands on the ground. This will give him more leverage allowing him to get under the pads of the OL, and when they push back, he is very flexible to use that push back to duck under and get around the edge. This move is harder to do when you are standing up and further away from the OL I would believe. Coach K has a lot to work with here, DJ can do back flips, so that shows amazing athleticism for a 260+ lb lineman. I saw flashes of strength in Baldy's tapes where he is strong enough to push off, disengage and get to the ball carrier or penetrate inside (insert lewd comment here). Liking this pick.

If you exclude reaching on a RB with our 2nd highest pick and the decision on Day 3 to draft 2 raw OL over Kinnard, Tom and Salyer, I'd give this draft an A. Time will tell but we have a terrible track record with OL picks and just last year did something eerily similar reaching on Sermon and Banks over way more established players like Creed Humphrey.

I give it a B-, only because I LOVED the Drake Jackson pick, great value in Castro-Field / Khalif Davis, Danny Gray / Brock Purdy were easy scheme fits value and we killed it in UDFA.

That said if our 2 Day 3 OL underwhelm and Kinnard / Tom / Salyer go on to be starting caliber OL then we need to fire everyone responsible for OL eval and seriously change our process in eval. Seems we have no value on pass blocking, level of competition, and draft capital value when it comes to OL evals.