NFC West draft grades Cardinals get sexy Seahawks get a steal

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NFC West draft grades: Cardinals get sexy, Seahawks get a steal Published: May 01, 2019 at 04:58 AM Deputy Editor, Written Content NOTABLE SELECTIONS BEST PICK: , WR, Mi si sippi Metcalf blew up the NFL when he blazed a 4.33 40-yard dash at 228 pounds. Having already gone viral a few weeks prior, thanks to , Metcalf's electric 40 sent him into a whole other stratosphere of freak folklore. But maybe we should've paid closer attention to a couple other combine times: 7.38 and 4.5. Those were Metcalf's results in the three-cone drill and 20-yard shuttle, both of which were infamously -- say it with me now! -- Those drills, which aren't the sexy ones shown live on NFL Network, measure a prospect's short-area quickne s and change-of-direction skills. Apparently, NFL teams took notice. With this perceived stiffne s -- as well as a college career that was more defined by injuries and a limited route tree than raw production -- a player who spent months as a mock draft darling stunningly tumbled all the way to the last pick of the second round. But here's the good part for the ninth receiver off the board: He couldn't have landed in a better situation. The look to do two things offensively: pound the rock and take deep shots, with the threat of the latter opening up the former, and vice versa. Metcalf's straight-line speed give him an instant role Markus Granlund Jersey in Brian Schottenheimer's attack: take the top off the defense and, when the situation presents itself, go get 's majestic downfield heaves. MOST SURPRISING PICK: , WR, Iowa State Standing 6-foot-5 and 227 pounds, with a 4.48 40 to his name and a contested-catch brilliance in his game, Butler was pretty widely projected as a second-round pick who could even sneak into Round 1. So, yeah, it was surprising when Friday night's festivities came to a close with the last pick of the third round and Butler remained profe sionally homele s. That changed immediately on Saturday, as the pounced on the Iowa State product with the first pick of the fourth round. Butler was spectacularly productive last season in Ames, setting school records for receiving yards (1,318) and yards per catch (22.0) while putting together that rivals any other in this draft cla s. He can work outside or inside, doing much of his best work as a big slot. So, what's the rub? Drops, and plenty of them. Pro Football Focus had him dropping 15.5 percent of catchable pa ses last season, which is ghastly. But given Butler's ma sive hands and collection of mind-blowing grabs, this very well could be a fixable problem. Show him the way, Larry Fitz. BIGGEST SLEEPER: , RB, Memphis How worried are the about 's balky left knee? Sean McVay, Les Snead and Co. haven't publicly stated anything alarming about the highest-paid running back in football, but actions speak louder than words. And while L.A.'s decision to for restricted free agent back in March was slightly notable, the ' aggre sive trade up for Henderson last Friday created a legit stir. Insurance policy or not, Henderson does project as a perfect fit in McVay's outside-zone running game. This one-cut back is an absolute home run hitter. In 2018, he averaged a whopping 8.9 yards per carry -- for the second consecutive season, by the way -- while piling up 1,909 rushing yards and 22 touchdowns. According to Pro Football Focus, Henderson averaged 6.2 yards per carry (!!), nearly a yard more than any other player in college football averaged last season. is fun to watch, and McVay will have fun deploying him as a change-of-pace terror (or more?). TEAM GRADES Grade 1 - A Round 1: (No. 1 overall) Kyler Murray, QB, Oklahoma. Round 2: (No. 33) Byron Murphy, CB, Washington; (No. 62) Andy Isabella, WR, Ma sachusetts. Round 3: (No. 65) Zach Allen, DE, Boston College. Round 4: (No. 103) Hakeem Butler, WR, Iowa State. Round 5: (No. 139) Deionte Thompson, S, Alabama. Round 6: (No. 174) Keesean Johnson, WR, Fresno State; (No. 179) Lamont Gaillard, C, Georgia. Round 7: (No. 248) Joshua Miles, OT, Morgan State; (No. 249) Michael Dogbe, DT, Temple; (No. 254) Caleb Wilson, TE, UCLA. There's a time and place to discu s Arizona's handling of Josh Rosen, but this ain't it. Could GM Steve Keim have done a better job shopping around last year's No. 10 overall pick, thus allowing him to receive a better return on his (brief) investment? Quite po sibly. But the moment the Cardinals made the hyper-bold hire of Kliff Kingsbury, they owed it to the coach (and themselves) to go all in on the Air Raid. And despite what Kingsbury initially tried to convince us, Rosen is not the ideal triggerman for this attack. But Murray sure could be. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner might be the most electric running quarterback we've seen enter the NFL since Michael Vick. More importantly, he's a high-level pa ser who excels inside the pocket and outside of structure. In addition to the absurd traditional pa sing numbers in his lone season as OU's starter (69 percent completion rate, 42:7 TD-to-INT ratio, 11.6 yards per attempt), Murray posted the exact same Pro Football Focus grade as his predece sor in Norman, Baker Mayfield. That guy's game plays pretty well on Sundays, no? Keim also nabbed a cadre of new toys for Murray to play with: a speed merchant (Isabella), a towering playmaker (Butler) and a smooth route runner with great hands (Johnson). Add that trio to Larry Fitzgerald and Christian Kirk (Murray's former teammate at Texas A&M), and Arizona's poised to make a ma sive leap up the charts from last season's 32nd-ranked pa sing attack. Defensively, the Cards nabbed a highly talented corner to stick opposite Patrick Peterson (Murphy), a versatile D-lineman whose motor is always running hot (Allen) and a potential fifth-round steal at safety (Thompson). Grade 2 - A- Round 2: (No. 61 overall) Taylor Rapp, S, Washington. Round 3: (No. 70) Darrell Henderson, Bo Horvat Women Jersey RB, Memphis; (No. 79) David Long, CB, Michigan; (No. 97) Bobby Evans, OL, Oklahoma. Round 4: (No. 134) Greg Gaines, DT, Washington. Round 5: (No. 169) David Edwards, OT, Wisconsin. Round 7: (No. 243) Nick Scott, S, Penn State; (No. 251) Dakota Allen, LB, Texas Tech. For the third straight draft, the Rams didn't make a first-round selection. L.A. actually came into Thursday night with the penultimate pick of the first round, but the Rams traded out, kicking off a dizzying game of musical draft slots in which the organization didn't make a single pick in one of its original spots until late in the fifth round. But it's hard to argue with the draft cla s produced by Les Snead's pick-swapping extravaganza. NFL scouts-turned-NFL.com draftniks Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks waxed poetic about Rapp throughout the entire pre-draft proce s, 40 time be damned! Jeremiah had Rapp as his No. 39 overall player, while Brooks ranked the Washington product as the second-best safety in the cla s. Snead got him near the end of Round 2. That's a bona fide value pick for the secondary, and it wasn't the only one! Long produced some eye-popping numbers, both as a player at Michigan and as a physical specimen at the combine. According to Pro Football Focus, the corner logged 595 coverage snaps during his three-year college career, giving up a grand total of 18 catches (on 60 targets) for 130 yards. Then in Indy, Long recorded the top marks in the three-cone drill (6.45) and the 20-yard shuttle (3.97), displaying the kind of next-level agility that comes in quite handy at the cornerback position. Snead got him midway through the third round, after eight other corners had already been picked. In Round 4, the Rams hopped on Gaines, a 312-pound, high-motor plugger who enthusiastically takes on blocks and blows up running lanes. Sounds like a fine running mate for Aaron Donald. On offense, Snead added quality depth in the backfield (Henderson's the most explosive running back in this entire cla s) and the offensive line (Evans and Edwards were both three-year starters on stellar college O-lines). Prudent planning, considering Todd Gurley's health and the offensive line's offseason attrition (as well as Andrew Whitworth's age). A center might've been nice, though. Grade 3 - B+ Round 1: (No. 29 overall) L.J. Collier, DE, TCU. Round 2: (No. 47) Marquise Blair, S Utah; (No. 64) D.K. Metcalf, WR, Mi si sippi. Round 3: (No. 88) Cody Barton, LB, Utah. Round 4: (No. 120) Gary Jennings, WR, West Virginia; (No. 124) Phil Haynes, OG, Wake Forest; (No. 132) Ugo Amadi, CB, Oregon. Round 5: (No. 142) Ben Burr-Kirven, LB, Washington. Round 6: (No. 204) Travis Homer, RB, Miami; (No. 209) Demarcus Christmas, DT, Florida State. Round 7: (No. 236) John Ursua, WR, Hawaii. The Seahawks entered draft week with a league-low four picks. They left Nashville with an 11-man draft cla s. That's the kind of magic trick that demands a network television debunking. Or I can just quickly explain it here. (Sorry, John Schneider -- your secrets aren't safe with me.) Seattle picked up valuable draft currency by trading Frank Clark two days before the draft kicked off, and then the 'Hawks executed seven of the NFL-record 40 draft-day trades. What kind of talent did Schneider and Co. net from working the draft to its limits? The first-round selection of Collier addre sed a ma sive need area, D-line. While he doesn't po se s any extraordinary athletic traits, the TCU product appears to be a high-floor base end who'll immediately step into the starting lineup. And the 12s are undoubtedly embracing all those Michael Bennett being to sed around. (We'll see.) Wide receiver was another position that needed attention -- especially with the news that Doug Baldwin could be hanging it up -- and the Seahawks snagged a pair of big-bodied burners in Metcalf and Jennings. Neither is stylistically similar to Baldwin, who will leave ma sive shoes to fill if he does indeed retire, but it's obviously wise to infuse the WR corps with some fresh talent. And with Metcalf and Brandon Sutter Women Jersey Tyler Lockett on the field at the same time, Seattle will vertically stretch defenses into a different area code. Lastly, the 'Hawks filled another hole at the safety position with Blair. OK, that's not fair: Blair isn't Earl Thomas. Nobody is. But Seattle threw some valuable draft capital at the void created by Thomas' free agency departure. Advertised as a nasty hitter with range, Blair projects as the kind of versatile safety Pete Carroll lives for. Grade 4 - C+ Round 1: (No. 2 overall) Nick Bosa, DE, Ohio State. Round 2: (No. 36) Deebo Samuel, WR, South Carolina. Round 3: (No. 67) Jalen Hurd, WR, Baylor. Round 4: (No. 110) Mitch Wishnowsky, P, Utah. Round 5: (No. 148) Dre Greenlaw, LB, Arkansas. Round 6: (No. 176) Kaden Smith, TE, Stanford; (No. 183) Justin Skule, OT, Vanderbilt; (No. 198) Tim Harris, CB, Virginia. San Francisco fans who spent the back half of last season rooting for lo ses -- do we still call them Niner Faithful? -- were NOT pleased when Nick Mullens quarterbacked the team to back-to-back December wins, dropping the 49ers out of the No. 1 overall pick. Fortunately, San Francisco still ended up with the No. 2 pick -- and seeing how Arizona ended up taking a quarterback (a position the Jimmy Garoppolo-led Niners had no interest in), John Lynch was ultimately able to select the top player on his board. Hard to argue with the Bosa pick. San Francisco had already used three straight first-round picks on interior D-lineman from 2015-17, which sapped the allure of Quinnen Williams. And thinking about the 49ers' defensive front -- with Bosa rushing off one edge, Dee Ford off the other and DeForest Buckner coming up the gut -- it's safe to a sume San Francisco won't rank 22nd in sacks again. So, yeah, kind of a no-brainer at No. 2 overall. The 49ers' second-round pick of Deebo Samuel made a ton of sense, as well. San Francisco lacked this kind of catch-and-run weapon. Deebo and Kyle Shanahan will make sweet music together. But after the first two picks, the 49ers' draft went in ways that I don't entirely understand. Hurd, who initially starred at running back for Tenne see before transferring to Baylor and transitioning to wide receiver, feels like the kind of gimmick player who's a lot better in concept than reality. Then San Francisco spent an early fourth-rounder on a punter. With apologies to Rich Eisen, this does not seem like the best usage of draft capital. Think you let your jealousy of Seattle's leg cannon (Michael Dickson) get the best of you, Mr. Lynch. The Niners came into this draft with a crying need for secondary help, yet they didn't draft a DB until their final pick. There was plenty of CB/S talent available when Lynch got cute in Rounds 3 and 4. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be mi sing content or contain faulty links. Please use the Contact Us link in our site footer to report an i sue.
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