Grading Draft Grades

Saturday, the NFL Draft will change the directions of every franchise in football, albeit good and bad.

However, you won't find any post-draft grades here.

You may get a "what were they thinking?" or a "great trade", or perhaps nothing at all. But to grade each team's entire draft is like claiming an inheritance as the omniscient god of both college and pro football.

Draft grades are hardly fair considering the concept of first round busts, the Heisman jinx, oh and some former sixth-rounder named Tom Brady, just to name a few.

Consider this: since Super Bowl I, only three Heisman winners--supposedly the "best" player in college football--have been on Super Bowl winners with only one of them, Marcus Allen, winning a ring with the team that drafted him.

Also consider the names of quarterbacks such as Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger and Spergon Wynn were considered "better" quarterbacks than that three-time Super Bowl champion mentioned earlier.

There was once a debate between Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf; a toss-up between Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer; Dan McGwire and Todd Marinovich were both selected before Brett Favre. And lest we forget Philly-phans who booed Donovan McNabb who was taken after sure thing Tim Couch because they were more interested in Sticky-Ricky Williams.-

Local Browns fans use their old No. 2 jerseys to dry off their cars after strolling through the Big Dipper.

Then there's the famous 2002 Draft where David Carr (No. 1 overall), Joey Harrington (No. 3), Patrick Ramsey (No. 32) and Josh McCown were all selected before Jacksonville Jaguars' clipboard holder-turned-starter David Garrard was selected at 108.

And those are just quarterbacks--they players even the laymen notice.

In other words, could everybody just wait three or four years and grade the performances of the players in relation to their draft status, instead of just after Round One?

Or, here's a better idea. Wait until September, or even December and use the win-loss column and compare it to past years win-loss columns, playoff appearances, and Super Bowl championships.

Now, there are some people qualified to give draft grades.

They are the people who work for 32 different teams who do this for a living. They're called scouts. They're called general managers. They're called Mel Kiper, Jr. In some cases, they have no experience grading talent and are entering their first draft under the title of "chief operations officer". However, each of these probably has more know-how and experience than sportswriters and mock-draft analysts who pay godaddy.com to host their amateur website in hopes ESPN or NFL Network will discover their analysis from the scrapheap of geekery and hire them as their Czar of NFL Draftdom.

Unfortunately, nobody has the formula for draft surprises or poor performances.

Sometimes it's bad coaching. Sometimes it's great coaching. Sometimes it's bad scouting. Sometimes scouts don't get enough credit. Sometimes there are bad front offices, salary cap issues or the players themselves who couldn't meet expectations either either in college or after the draft. Sometimes it's a deceiving combine. Sometimes players just blossom after a team takes a flier on them.

There are so many factors dictating the NFL Draft and the futures of NFL teams.

Instead of grading the draft, how about using Bill Parcells' old formula of grading teams:

"You are what your record says you are."

Multiply that by the number of playoff appearances over a given period of time.

Somewhere in that formula, you may have your answer. In New England, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, and Arizona you don't even need a calculator. You already have your answer.

You've heard this cliche before: "Everyone is a Hall-of-Famer on Day One. Championships are won on Day Two."

This isn't to say you can't have disagreements with a decision or two of your NFL team. But to grade an entire draft of your team, or every team is more ridiculous than preseason predictions.

Someday you'll find out how well (or poorly) your team did in the NFL Draft. It may anywhere from eight months to three years.

But it certainly won't be next Monday.