OK, you’ve seen all the letter grade love affair draft grading from the mainstream football media. Now, let’s look at our internals.
What this version of our draft grades are/based on...
-- We start by statistically defining what a ‘really good’ draft would be for a team for this particular year. You gotta play the cards dealt. So, I begin by defining a very good draft expectation for 2026 and set that ‘very good draft’ mark at 100%...if it was achieved exactly. Teams can (and do) go above 100%, and you know what that means. 150% is the probable MAX/perfect draft area.
-- The ‘very good’ draft/100% mark is based on a count of OUR highest graded players selected. The higher the prospect value (per our economic-based data/positional importance/individual scouting grades), the more a team ‘scores’. The more top prospects selected, the higher the score.
This style of grading favors volume/quantity of players taken. If a team, like say Cleveland, has a ton of picks...they have more chance to hit a 100% grade than a team with just a handful of picks. It’s a volume game/grade however it is they got to their pick count level. The more quality/high value players selected/obtained, the more a team’s score/grade goes up.
We’re grading the literal draft haul...not judging the ‘slick’ picks/pickers making great 5th round grabs. We have a different grading for that ‘quality’.
-- 100% is the bar. Approx. 58% grade is the group average this year. 50% range is what any human could do with a random online draft guide or throwing darts at names per analyst’s rankings. And most drafts average 50-60% grade with most teams in the 35-65% range each season, which is a ‘failing’ grade...but then most GMs/teams FAIL at the draft, when you look back at it...so why would we not set the baseline for failure? Any team could stumble into one good pick/player, but can they get 3-4 high-value-position players who are graded highly...or are they wasting time picking a running back at #3 overall, or chasing 19 blocking TEs in the middle rounds?
So, here's our first statistical reaction of each team’s draft + UDFAs...
NFL Draft Team Grades/Percentage Rankings
#1 = 102.63% Las Vegas Raiders...Mendoza was a layup, and McCoy helped put them over the top, but they had a few good picks around that.
#2 = 97.99% Tampa Bay Buccaneers...caught me by surprise but they got a lot of quality starters in this draft.
#3 = 95.31% Cleveland Browns...good volume of picks, and some good picks within that. Fano being our #2 overall player they get at #9 helps drive a decent draft otherwise.
#4 = 91.31% New York Giants...I thought this would be worse, but they got several good players.
#5 = 90.17% New Orleans Saints...pushed by Jordyn Tyson but decent after that as well.
#6 = 87.98% Pittsburgh Steelers...the two killer O-Line picks could leave them #1 when we look back in a few years.
#7 = 84.90% New York Jets...I ask myself: How will Aaron Glenn mess this up?
#8 = 79.97% Miami Dolphins...Not bad, but they had a million picks...so good quantity, bad quality.
#9 = 78.96% Philadelphia Eagles...Has a shot to be a top 5 draft when we look back at it over time.
#10 = 70.53% Tennessee Titans...Downside pressure from here. I could see this being more of a bottom 10 draft in the end if Saleh butchers a la his NYJ days.
#11 = 68.17% Chicago Bears...Most people hated this draft, but they are missing it because they took good players at ‘boring’ (to the fans) positions. They had a need at center, so they took a top ranked one and a few lower ranked upside hopefuls.
#12 = 67.09% Cincinnati Bengals...I thought this would rate better. It was OK.
#13 = 60.76% Arizona Cardinals...Jeremiyah Love #3 was functionally a terrible draft pick/a wasted opportunity.
#14 = 59.29% Carolina Panthers...Downward pressure/little upside seen.
#15 = 57.27% Baltimore Ravens...Unlike the Bears, the Ravens also had a big Center need...and yet drafted none. They did waste time with two mediocre WRs instead.
#16 = 55.48% Kansas City Chiefs...Downside pressure that this draft isn’t enough to reload what they lost/traded.
#17 = 53.68% New England Patriots...Crownover makes or breaks this draft.
#18 = 52.26% Green Bay Packers...A lot of upside potential here. I like their draft more than our models did. This has a chance to be a top 10 draft.
#19 = 49.88% Indianapolis Colts...I still fail to see the Chris Ballard genius the media proclaims.
#20 = 47.56% Denver Broncos...This could go more bad for them than upside to great.
#21 = 47.09% Buffalo Bills...Has a little upside to this draft over time.
#22 = 45.06% San Francisco 49ers...Several headscratchers, but a couple slick picks as the draft went on.
#23 = 38.43% Houston Texans...An O-Line reconstruction/load-up away from the Super Bowl, potentially...and they did get OG Rutledge but then drafted one other mediocre filler OL. A great opportunity wasted, per usual.
#24 = 37.52% Dallas Cowboys...If Caleb Downs is exposed as just ‘good’ not ‘generational’ then this may wind up a bottom 3 draft of 2026.
#25 = 35.88% Los Angeles Chargers...They did add a LOT of OLs, and a couple good ones, but outside of that they missed on everything else. Probably the single greatest wasted opportunity.
#26 = 33.32% Atlanta Falcons...This may be better than we’re giving credit...or worse.
#27 = 33.15% Jacksonville Jaguars...If Pregnon didn’t fall into their laps this was going to be a single digit grade draft.
#28 = 32.78% Minnesota Vikings...I didn’t get this draft at all. Somewhat saved by the UDFA OLs.
#29 = 26.71% Detroit Lions...Boy this thing is falling apart fast.
#30 = 25.82% Seattle Seahawks...An uncharacteristically bizarre draft from John Schneider.
#31 = 25.31% Washington Commanders...Dan Quinn’s days are numbered.
#32 = 20.76% Los Angeles Rams...A team that’s got a limited Matt Stafford window and that’s been on the brink of a title for two seasons has the most useless-to-now draft in the history of ‘great teams on the verge’. They deserve not to win it in 2026.
Our bottom five has: MIN, DET, WSH, LAR...two years ago that group was considered the current and future top teams of the NFL. Four of the top 10 teams in the NFL just 2+ years ago...and now look at them.
The NFL has truly become a box of marbles rolling around with no rhyme or reason with no team just dominating the draft year after year. Good picks are either obvious to the bad teams or random blind luck. I never see a real savvy plan from any team in the draft year after year. One year they strike gold, then they disappear for a few years/drafts. And 2026 takes the cake for the dumbest draft strategies, league-wide, that I’ve ever seen.
The separation from the top teams and bottom teams, overall (beyond just the draft), has shrunk to its lowest margin...which is great for ‘parody’ and teams not having to be losers perpetually. But it also means -- there is no team that is outthinking all the other teams and thus dominates the league. It’s all about injuries/health, schedule, and the head coach not getting in the way of the random ride of a season.
