2010 NFL Draft: Handing Out Grades Following An Eventful Seven Rounds

SB Nation's Cat Scratch Reader takes a look at the Panthers 2010 draft class.

So the picks are in and the Panthers have certainly made some good picks and some that are sure to be considered controversial.The Panthers are known for utilizing the 'Best Player Available' strategy and it was in full force the past three days. From their first pick for QB Jimmy Clausen to their last three DB's taken there is plenty for everyone.

Here's the full list of Panthers draft picks:

QB Jimmy Clausen

WR Brandon LaFell

QB Armanti Edwards

LB Eric Norwood

DE Greg Hardy

WR David Gettis

DB Jordan Pugh

QB Tony Pike

DB RJ Stanford

DB Robert McClain

Check out a pick-by-pick analysis over at Cat Scratch Reader.

GM Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens are among the best at what they do. Their time to shine is the NFL draft as the Ravens are consistently one of the better drafting teams around.

SB Nation's Baltimore Beatdown has noticed that praises them once again for the selection of Alabama NT Terrence Cody in the second round.

For months, this was maybe the most sought after pick in Baltimore. While so many teams and fan bases gave no consideration for Cody joining their squad because of weight issues, the Ravens and their fans welcomed it. Can't tell you how happy everyone should be with this pick. Does he need to work on his weight? Of course. But the guy is a monster. Cody is the perfect run stuffing Nose Tackle that this defense loves having. He will have a great chance to start from day 1 and should make for an immovable tandem with him and Haloti Ngata. Absolutely incredible pick. Cody "Plays Like a Raven."

The overall grade was an A and they make a good case for it.

Here are all the Ravens draft picks:

Round 2 (43) - Sergio Kindle - OLB - Texas

Round 2 (57) - Terrence Cody - NT- Alabama

Round 3 (70) - Ed Dickson - TE- Oregon

Round 4 (114) - Dennis Pitta - TE - BYU

Round 5 (156) - David Reed - WR- Utah

Round 5 (157) - Arthur Jones - DT - Syracuse

Round 6 (194) - Ramon Harewood - OT/OG - Morehouse

See the full results of each player over at Baltimore Beatdown.

SB Nation's Eagles site declined to give a letter-grade for the Eagles 2010 draft class but went ahead and rounded up what everyone else is saying about the new crop of players.

As soon as the draft ends, the question becomes "How did we do?" The real answer to that question obviously won't come for several years, but in the meantime we try to guess anyway by giving out grades. Some of these guys base those grades on whether a team addressed a need, some on the perceived "value" of a pick, some on the quality of the players, and some on the volume of players and trades. They don't really mean much right now, but they're fun to look at anyway. Good news for us, the experts seem to really like the Eagles draft.

Here are the Eagles 2010 draft picks:

DE Brandon Graham

S Nate Allen

DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim

CB Trevard Lindley

LB Keenan Clayton

QB Mike Kafka

TE Clay Harbor

DE Ricky Sapp

WR Riley Cooper

RB Charles Scott

LB Jamar Chaney

DT Jeff Owens

SS Kurt Coleman

Check out what everyone is saying about the Eagles draft over at Bleeding Green Nation.

SB Nation's Battle Red Blog grades the Texans 2010 draft class, which was run by Smithiak. Who is Smithiak, you ask? A combination of GM Rick Smith and coach Gary Kubiak.

I really liked what they did in Rounds One, Two, Five, Six, and Seven. Rounds Three and Four completely flummox me and will continue to do so until further notice. As we've said ad nauseam, Smithiak's track record is such that they deserve the benefit of the doubt, and time will tell how they did. 2013 will be when we know whether 2010 was another 2006 or not. Until then, all we can have is hope and/or dread.

The Texans fans gave out a lot of A's. It looks like they're happy with the class.

Here's the full list of Texans 2010 draft picks:

CB Kareem Jackson

RB Ben Tate

DT Earl Mitchell

LB Daryl Sharpton

TE Garrett Gresham

CB Sherrick McManis

OG Shelly Smith

KR Trindon Holliday

TE Dorin Dickerson

Check out the full pick-by-pick analysis over at Battle Red Blog.

SB Nation's The Falcoholic has an impressive breakdown of each of the Falcons 2010 draft picks. Here's the rundown on first round LB Sean Weatherspoon, out of Mizzou.

This was the pick everyone knew was coming. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that this is a good pick. Spoon is a tacklin' machine, offers a decent pass rush, and can even do a little underneath coverage every once and a while. He's a leader too, something that didn't go unnoticed by our dear Comrade. He's vocal, loves the game, enjoys himself, and is good leader material. His confidence will hopefully bolster a defense that has needed linchpin since Dimitroff and Smith took over.

Here's the full list of Falcons draft picks:

LB Sean Weatherspoon

DT Corey Peter

G Mike Johnson

G Joe Hawley

CB Dominique Franks

WR Kerry Meier

S Shann Schillinger

Read a pick-by-pick analysis of the Falcons draft picks at The Falcoholic.

SB Nation's Behind The Steel Curtain takes a closer look at the Steelers 10 draft picks.  Overall they gave the Steelers class a B+.

Here's the best pick:

There's a number of very intriguing players in the Steelers lot of draft picks, but I think only one of them can be classified as a safe bet to be both an important contributor in 2010 and a mainstay on the depth chart for years to come. To me that guy is center Maurkice Pouncey, who could start at guard as a rookie before being moved back to center in 2011 or 2012.

Here are all the Steelers 2010 draft picks:

C Maurkice Pouncey

DE Jason Worilds

WR Emmanuel Sanders

DE Thaddeus Gibson

OT Chris Scott

CB Crezdon Butler

LB Stevenson Sylvester

RB Jonathan Dwyer

WR Antonio Brown

DT Doug Worthington

Read all about the best pick, worst pick and others at Behind The Steel Curtain.

We've got another SB Nation blogger who isn't a big fan of the post-draft grades. The Phinsider still takes a look at the Dolphins 2010 draft class but not in the letter-grades sense.

Here's what they said about DE Jared Odrick:

Whether that's true or not, the Dolphins filled two starting spots in round one. Odrick will win a starting job at defensive end. And his selection allows the Dolphins to move Randy Starks to nose tackle, where he is already penciled in as a starter. If you ask me, that's solid drafting.

They've gone down the Dolphins picks in the first three rounds and handed out the analysis.

Here are the Dolphins 2010 draft picks:

DE Jared Odrick

DE Koa Misi

OT John Jerry

LB AJ Edds

CB Nolan Carroll

SS Reshad Jones

DL Chris McCoy

LB Austin Spitler

Read the full write-up over at The Phinsider.

SB Nation's Dawgs By Nature doesn't like handing out grades 48 hours after the conclusion of the 2010 NFL draft. The general rule of thumb is that it takes three years to judge a draft class so they've gone back and taken a look at the 2007 class.

DBN gives their class a B.

Hits: Joe Thomas and Eric Wright

Misses: Some dude named Brady Quinn

Browns got a All world LT and young up and coming CB.  The miss of Brady Quinn keeps this draft from being a A or A-.

Check out DBN's full list of draft grades.

SB Nation's Arrowhead Pride has broken down the Chiefs draft picks and assigned letter grades.  AP was high on the first round pick, Eric Berry, like most everyone was.

Overall, I think the Chiefs did a pretty darn good job this draft. It wasn't immediately obvious to me that this draft was great until I took the time to research some of these guys a bit more and see where they're going to fit in KC.

In the AP poll, 50% of fans grade it a B and 37% give it an A.

Here's the full list of Chiefs draft picks:

S Eric Berry

RB Dexter McCluster

CB Javier Arenas

G Jon Asamoah

TE Tony Moeaki

S Kendrick Lewis

LB Cameron Sheffield

Read the player-by-player evaluations over at Arrowhead Pride.

SB Nation's Daily Norseman has the Vikings draft grades in and they are...

Incomplete!

OK, they don't like grading drafts two days after it ends like a lot of folks. But they have good reason. Daily Norseman passes along a quote from a draft analyst written the day after the 2005 draft. The review was glowing and suggested the Vikings had a great draft.

Five years later and not one player from that draft is still on the team.

The more Daily Norseman researches -- and there's a lot of research here -- the more they like it.

So, the more I look at the Vikings' draft, the more I like it.  Does that mean that the class is going to be awesome?  Certainly not. . .but given the recent track record of Brad Childress and Rick Spielman when it comes to talent evaluation, I'm going to go ahead and trust them until they give me sufficient reason not to.

Here's the full list of the Vikings 2010 draft class:

CB Chris Cook

RB Toby Gerhart

DE Everson Griffen

OT Chris Degeare

LB Nathan Triplett

QB Joe Webb

TE Mickey Shuler

LB Ryan D'Imperio

Check out the full evaluation over at Daily Norseman.

SB Nation's Mile High Report conducted a poll to let its community determine a letter grade for the Broncos 2010 draft class.

51% give it a B, 24% an A and 17% a C.

Here's the full rundown on all the Broncos picks:

WR Demaryius Thomas

QB Tim Tebow

OL Zane Beadles

C J.D. Walton

WR Eric Decker

CB Perrish Cox

OL Eric Olsen

CB Syd'Quan Thompson

LB Jammie Kirlew

See what Broncos fans are saying about the 2010 draft over at Mile High Report.

SB Nation's Acme Packing Company has come out with their draft grades for the 2010 draft class. Here's how they arrived at their results:

When I'm talking about NFL draft grades for the Green Bay Packers right after the draft, I'm not necessarily talking about the player and his NFL career. No one knows how their NFL careers will turn out. What I'm looking at is the first the need and then value of the pick.

The best pick, in the opinion of myself and Acme Packing Company, is first round OT Bryan Bulaga. The Packers had serious line problems and Bulaga was being talked about as a top ten pick. This is great value.

Here are all the Packers draft picks. Acme Packing Company has grades on every single one.

OT Bryan Bulaga

DE Mike Neal

S Morgan Burnett

TE Andrew Quarless

T/G Marshall Newhouse

RB James Starks

DE C.J. Wilson

Check out their grades for rounds 1-2 here and rounds 3-7 here.

SB Nation's Lions community, Pride of Detroit, has their report card and it's not bad. POD used a formula to grade each pick and averaged it out.

The result was a B for the 2010 draft class.

Overall, I gave the Lions a B simply for the picks they made.  Again, if you take into account all of the picks the Lions used to acquire proven players, the overall grade would easily be bumped up to an A for me.  For the picks alone, though, I like that Suh and Best will be able to contribute from day one, that Spievey and Fox have the potential to develop into solid players over time, and that the seventh-round picks weren't completely out there or anything.

When draft picks used to acquire veteran players were taken into account, POD grades it an A.

Here are all the Lions draft picks:

DT Ndamukong Suh

RB Jahvid Best

CB Amari Spievey

OT Jason Fox

DE Willie Young

WR Tim Toone

POD readers are currently split on the draft class with about half grading it an A and the other half a B.

SB Nation's Redskins community, Hogs Haven, has the report cards on the Redskins 2010 draft class. They're a tricky class to figure out because you have to account for the second round pick that was spent on Donovan McNabb.

Here's what Hogs Haven had to say about the class:

Trading a 2nd round pick for McNabb was a fantastic deal, even if the Redskins don't win a Super Bowl under him. Would you really want to groom a QB under Jason Campbell and Rex Grossman? Next year the Redskins will pick up a QB and it will be a much better situation for him. As for the low grades, Shanahan was hand-cuffed not having a 3rd or 6th round pick. If Vinny had left those for Shanahan, I'm sure things would be different. I don't like how FS or RB was not addressed. That's the real reason for my grade...but then again, there aren't too many options in the 5th+ rounds.

Hogs Haven compiled other grades from around the internet and the consensus seems to be a C. But, because of the McNabb trade, Hogs Haven gives them a B.

Here's the full list of Redskins draft picks:

OT Trent Williams

LB Perry Riley

TE Dennis Morris

WR Terrence Austin

C Erik Cook

OT Selvish Capers

Check out Hogs Haven for a variety of thoughts and grades on the Redskins 2010 draft class.

SB Nation's Titans community, Music City Miracles, is happy with the Titans draft because they avoided the "upside" guys and instead focused on production.

My biggest criticism of the Mike Reinfeldt/Jeff Fisher regime has been the fact that they love to take guys that didn't produce in college because they have "upside."  They have also had some type of weird love affair with guys from small schools, not that there is anything wrong with that, but a lot of times it takes those guys a little more time to get ready on the NFL level.  This year they went big school, big production with their first four picks of the draft.

So what did Titans fans think? Early returns on the draft grade poll are saying a B.

Here's the Titans full list of picks:

DE Derrick Morgan

WR Damian Williams

LB Rennie Curran

CB Alterraun Verner

DB Robert Johnson

QB Rusty Smith

SS Myron Rolle

WR Marc Mariani

DT David Howard

Read the full analysis of the Titans grades over at Music City Miracles.

Like many others, SB Nation's Buffalo Rumblings isn't a fan of assigning letter grades to a draft 48 hours after it's over. So they've taken a different approach in evaluating their class:

Rather than make bold predictions about the team's future prospects and the possible career outcomes of these athletes, we'll scale it back a bit and grade each new Bill based purely on the type of utility that the team will get out of them as a rookie.

In other words, rookie impact.

The Bills have the player who could make the most impact of all rookies in this class -- RB C.J. Spiller.

Chan Gailey will need to be creative in the way he uses Spiller, not only to mask the rookie's deficiencies (running between the tackles, pass protection), but to maximize his ability to make game-breaking plays. He'll run, catch, return kicks and punts, and you may even see him operate the Wildcat a time or two.

Spiller received an A. As a whole, Buffalo Rumblings gave the Bills a C+ in terms of rookie impact.

Here are all of the Bills draft picks:

RB C.J. Spiller

NT Torell Troup

DE Alex Carrington

WR Marcus Easley

OT Ed Wang

ILB Arthur Moats

OLB Danny Batten

QB Levi Brown

OG Kyle Calloway

Check out the excellent write-ups and individual grades of each player in the Bills draft class over at Buffalo Rumblings.

SB Nation's Buc 'Em has a team of six writers turning in their reports cards for the Bucs 2010 draft class. Overall, the marks are high. It seems most liked the decision of going with two defensive tackles with the first two picks.

Here's a sampling of the individual grades:

Gerald McCoy - A+ This was one of the easiest and safest picks in the entire draft for any team.  McCoy is happy and motivated to be in Tampa, has the physical tools to succeed as a 3-tech, and has Warren Sapp to help him learn the position.  having another premier pocket-collapsing prospect alongside him in Brian Price can only make him better.

Mike Williams - A.  Love this pick.  It's like getting a slightly used Mercedes for the price of a Hyundai.  Hopefully the E-class won't break down on the Bucs.  No doubt he's a risk in la cabeza, but his physical abilities and gamebreaking potential make him worth rolling the dice in Round 4.

Here are all the Bucs draft picks:

DT Gerald McCoy

DT Brian Price

WR Arrelious Benn

DB Myron Lewis

WR Mike Williams

P Brent Bowden

S Cody Grimm

LB Dekoda Watson

DE Erik Lorig

Check out all of grades at Buc 'Em -- Lots of 'As'.

So your GM is Bill Polian. Arguably one of the best drafters of all time. That means you're more than likely going to agree with most of the draft picks, right?

Well, not if you're BBS from SB Nation's Stampede Blue. He examines Polian's third round choice in the 2010 draft, CB Kevin Thomas.

Awful pick, and it suggests that Polian's poor decision-making in the third round has returned. Last season, it was thought that Bill might have broken the trend with Jerraud Powers. With Thomas, questions about his durability, toughness, recovery speed, and tackling make him a puzzling selection in Round Three especially with guys like Akwasi Owusu-Ansah still on the board. I will be very happy if or when Bill Polian proves me wrong on this pick. But, right now, it smells of bust.

BBS sure isn't shy. Overall, Stampede Blue gives the 2010 Colts draft class a B.

I think a "B" is pretty fair for this crop. Rounds Two and Three really bring the whole thing down a notch, but the Hughes pick and the selections in Round Seven add some excellent depth and personnel options to all three areas of the team. As always, Colts drafts aren't "sexy."

Here are all the Colts 2010 draft picks:

DE Jerry Hughes

LB Pat Angerer

CB Kevin Thomas

OG Jacques McClendon

TE Brody Eldridge

DE Ricardo Matthews

LB Kavell Conner

CB Ray Fisher

They have write-ups on every single draft pick (including the bad ones) so be sure to check out Stampede Blue.

SB Nation's Cardinals community, Revenge of the Birds, isn't a fan of the day-after the draft grading scale so they're going to borrow Big Cat Country's method of assigning letter grades.

The picks will be evaluated based on their potential, expectancy to start, value based on round, need filled, and fan approval(based on polls posted after picks were made). Each category will earn a grade, and the average of the grades will go to that player. All seven grades will be added together and the average will be the Cardinals overall grade.

ROTB has a great breakdown of each player and an individual letter grade. I won't reveal all the individual grades (Hint: Dan Williams got an A) -- you'll have to go over to ROTB for that.

But they did assign an overall grade of a B.

A "B" was to be expected considering the Cardinals found two very good picks in the first two rounds, but waited to address needs till the end of the draft. Considering I highly believe grades shouldn't be given the Monday after the draft, I'll stand behind the method and except the B.

Read more analysis and grades at Revenge of the Birds.

You think Raiders fans are excited about this draft class?

94% of Silver and Black Pride readers graded the draft as an A or a B.

The Raiders are being praised for an overall solid draft, which is something that doesn't happen very often.

Here are all the Raiders picks:

LB Rolando McClain

DE Lamarr Houston

OT Jared Veldheer

OT Bruce Campbell

WR Jacoby Ford

CB Walter McFadden

ILB Travis Goethel

CB Jeremy Ware

S Steve Brown

Silver and Black Pride included the two trades as well -- shipping LB Kirk Morrison out and bringing in QB Jason Campbell -- and both received an A.

Check out the individual letter grades for each Raiders draft pick at Silver and Black Pride.

Dave Halprin, editor of SB Nation's Blogging The Boys, Isn't a huge fan of giving out letter grades the day after the draft ends.

Grading a draft days after it happens is like a reality TV show - sure, it can be entertaining, but it's not really reality.

That's a valid point but it's not going to stop us from assigning letter grades -- even if it is for entertainment purposes only.

BTB gives the Cowboys draft a "solid B."

I really like the Dez Bryant pick, if he produces up to his talent level, then in three years this will be a successful draft. Sean Lee also has a chance to do something special. AOA is a gifted physical specimen who may be a player down the road. The other three picks could go either way.

Here are all of the Cowboys draft picks:

WR Dez Bryant

ILB Sean Lee

S/CB Akwasi Osuwu-Ansah

OT Sam Young

CB Jamar Wall

DL Sean Lissemore

Check out the terrific breakdown of all these players at Blogging The Boys.

The Giants spent a first round pick on DE Jason Pierre-Paul. We passed along some thoughts from SB Nation's Big Blue View that suggested he wasn't the best draft pick.

Don't feel too bad for the Giants fans, though, they're liking the Giants second round pick a lot.

My favorite pick by the New York Giants of the three-day 2010 NFL Draft is Linval Joseph, the monstrous defensive tackle from East Carolina.

In a poll on Big Blue View, Joseph leads all vote-getters with 34% of the vote. Surprisingly, S Chad Jones is getting more props than Pierre-Paul.

One other positive mark in the Giants grade sheet is that Osi Umenyiora seems to be coming around after reports surfaced he was on the trading block.

Love the fact that Osi seems to be coming around. In the end, the best thing for the 2010 Giants' defense could be a motivated Umenyiora determined to prove on every snap that he is still a great player.

Big Blue View has a full round-up of thoughts and grades from other writers and bloggers.

SB Nation's Rams community, Turf Show Times, says the Rams first pick, QB Sam Bradford, gets a big A.

There is no position more important in the sport of football than the quarterback.  While any of us could argue that there were opportunities to improve the team to a larger degree in picking someone else, drafting Bradford provides a significant upgrade at, again, the most important position in the sport.  Considering the Suh alternative, it would be hard to argue that Bradford will have less impact in a game for the Rams than Suh will have in a game for the Lions.

While they're excited about the draft, there are definitely some flaws. The final grade for the entire class was a C+.

It's hard to get incredibly excited by this draft.  When you get a pair of TEs and a pair of CBs, that's not exactly the recipe for a flashy draft.  Still, with Bradford at the helm, things already look better for the Rams.

Here are all of the Rams picks:

QB Sam Bradford

OT Roger Saffold

CB Jerome Murphy

WR Mardy Gilyard

TE Mike Hoomanawanui

DE Hall Davis

TE Fendi Onobun

DE Eugene Sims

CB Marquis Johnson

DE George Selvie

LB Josh Hull

Read the lengthy analysis of each player over at Turf Show Times.

One of the most respected draft gurus around is Rick Gosselin of the Dallas Morning News. He posted his 2010 NFL draft grades and gave the Colts a C.

SB Nation's Stampede Blue responded to this "meh" grade:

Personally, I think this is weak on Gosselin's part. A "C" grade is a weak grade for a draft. Either clarify that weak grade with reasons why the team seemingly screwed up, or don't grade at all. If you are wrong about that "C" grade two years from now, fine. Who cares? There's nothing "wrong" about being wrong when you are evaluating draft grades from a media perspective. Their job is to be critical, and often they have to do this with little or no real information.

Stampede Blue's BBS has noticed a trend with the Colts drafting -- the second and third round picks the last four years haven't been very good.

See what he has to say about that over at Stampede Blue.

SB Nation's Jaguars community, Big Cat Country, handed out two A's in their grade of the Jags 2010 NFL draft. However, one of those A's was for Kirk Morrison, whom the Jags acquired from the Raiders for a fourth round pick. That's not a bad "rookie" to have in there.

BCC's final grade landed between a B-/C+.

BCC used five criteria in their grading scale:

. Player Potential?
2. Expected to Start This Year?
3. Good Value for the Round Chosen (aka Not a Reach)?
4. Filled a Position of Need?
5. Does the Pick Have Fan Approval?

Take a look at the Jags 2010 draft class then hop on over to BCC and check out their individual grades.

10th overall selection: Tyson Alualu, DT, Cal

74th overall selection, D'Anthony Smith, DT, Louisiana Tech

143rd overall selection, Larry Hart, DE/LB, Central Arkansas

153rd overall selection, Austen Lane, DE, Murray State

180th overall selection, Deji Karim, RB, Southern Illinois

203rd overall selection, Scotty McGee, KR, James Madison

Acquired via trade with the Raiders, Kirk Morrison, LB

Read all about the Jags draft at Big Cat Country.

SB Nation's Saints community, Canal Street Chronicles, hands out just one A in the Saints 2010 NFL draft grades. The lucky player was 4th round choice Al Woods.

CSC gives us the rundown on how they issue these grades.

I'm going to assign subjective grades to players I barely know anything about and whose future success I couldn't possibly predict. They'll be based only on my personal opinions, just a smidgen of research and my current emotional state, which at the current moment is mildly confused and heavily inebriated. But there will be a method to my madness. My evaluations will take into account player potential, perceived draft value, position of need, fan approval and whether they're expected to start next year.

Here is the Saints complete 2010 NFL draft class:

Patrick Robinson, CB, Florida State

Charles Brown, OT, USC

Jimmy Graham, TE, Miami

Al Woods, DT, LSU

Matt Tennant, C, Boston College

Sean Canfield, QB, Oregon St.

Read more about the Saints draft at Canal Street Chronicles.

SB Nation's 49ers community, Niners Nation, has a wide range of emotions on their 2010 NFL draft class.

Opinions here on Niners Nation have ranged anywhere from very excited with the selections to very disappointed. And then there are those who fall somewhere in between. Overall, the 49ers addressed some fairly significant needs on both sides of the ball and have a lot to prove this season.

Niners Nation gave their class a B+ overall.

11th Pick Overall (1st Round) - Anthony Davis | Offensive Tackle | Rutgers

17th Pick Overall (1st Round) - Mike Iupati | Offensive Guard | Idaho

49th Pick Overall (2nd Round) - Taylor Mays | Strong Safety | USC

91st Pick Overall (3rd Round) - Navorro Bowman | Linebacker | Penn State

173rd Pick Overall (6th Round) - Anthony Dixon | Running Back | Mississippi State

182nd Pick Overall (6th Round) - Nate Byham | Tight End | Pittsburgh

206th Pick Overall (6th Round) - Kyle Williams | Wide Reciever | ASU

224th Pick Overall (7th Round) - Phillip Adams | Cornerback | South Carolina State

Read the ins and outs of all the picks at Niners Nation.