Why the low draft grades?
My views are largely those of Guillermo's. We both have been critical of the organization's penchant, if not obsession, to trade away draft picks in the current or a future draft to move up in the draft or obtain more picks in the draft taking place. But my stated views seemingly go a level beyond my friend's.
Regarding the actual players we drafted, I give us a B. We desperately needed a wide receiver; however, when we traded up to 11, I thought the target was Penning or Williams, not Olave. I liked--indeed, was relieved by--the selection of Penning at 18. I do not know much about our second-round pick, so I cannot comment on his selection and will hope for the best.
But beyond the actual selections, I am critical of the approach this organization continues to take. It arguably made sense when Sean was the coach, Brees was the quarterback, and the Super Bowl window was open, though closing a bit each year. Our Super Bowl window is now closed. Our over-under win number is Las Vegas is at best nine. We are essentially a 9-8 team. Yes, we will be competitive. Yes, we could be in the playoff race. Yes, if we stay healthy and get breaks, we might even play in a playoff game. But we are not close to being a legitimate Super Bowl contender. And in our striving so hard to stay competitive or relevant--that is, to stay at a high mediocre level--we continue to hurt our chances of becoming a legitimate Super Bowl contender. We are like a family that has a nice lifestyle, but famously lives beyond its means and has to borrow money each year at increasingly high interest rates to maintain its lifestyle.
The original sin was the trade with Philadelphia several weeks ago. Without that trade, we could have Penning, our second-round selection, three middle-round picks this year in a deep draft that we traded away, our first-round-round pick in 2023, and our second-round pick in 2024. We paid an absurdly steep price to pick Olave.
Judge this draft in four years. But to be fair, judge in four years our cumulative draft efforts in 2022 and 2023 when we won't have a first-round pick. If our draft seems relatively unproductive in 2023, a reason will be that we traded away our 2023 first-round pick to Philadephia. But then next year we will probably trade away our second-round pick, our 2024 first-round pick and other picks to get a 2023 first-round pick.