The 2022 NFL Draft class is three years into their careers and in today’s video we will be going back and grading the back half of the the first round of the 2022 draft which of course is picks 17-32. For anyone interested – we graded picks 1-16 last week and that video will be linked at the end. Not every draft class is the same as some are more top loaded than others and I think you’ll see that in today’s video. We will be going in reverse order so we will be starting with the Minnesota Vikings selection of safety Lewis Cine and finishing with the Chargers selection of Guard Zion Johnson. And there’s 16 picks to dive into so without further ado – let’s begin
32 – The Minnesota Vikings traded back from pick 12 with the division rival Lions and drafted Georgia safety Lewis Cine with their first round pick. Unfortunately, Cine broke his leg during his rookie season in just week 4 on a special teams play and his season was over. Injuries are unfortunately a part of football and everyone was hoping he could be a starter in 2023 and forget what happened during his rookie season. But that never happened. And pretty quickly Lewis Cine became forgotten about and he became a complete whiff of a first round pick. He played 10 total defensive snaps for the Vikings before being released in final cuts during the 2024 pre season and since has played for the Bills and Eagles. He finished his Vikings tenure with 1 total tackle and I don’t think this is an exaggeration to say this is close to an all time draft bust. Not surprisingly this is an F grade
Dax Hill of the Bengals is up and when this pick was made – it was supposed to be a developmental pick with the intentions to eventually replace Jessie Bates. Unfortunately for the Bengals – Jessie Bates is one of the best safeties in the league and was immediately named a second team all pro in first year with the Falcons in 2023, and had another 4 interceptions in 2024 and has been one of the very few bright spots for the Falcons defense over the past few years. In a lot of ways – this pick reminds me of the AJ Brown Treylon Burks selection which we’ll get to later in the video where the Bengals thought it would be a seamless transition to replace a great player. Obviously this selection isn’t talked about as much, but the concept applies. Unfortunately Dax Hill tore his ACL in week 5 of the 2024 season and he played sparingly in his rookie year back in 2022 so we only have about a year and a quarter worth of football from Dax Hill since being a first round pick back in 2022. He made the transition from safety to corner from 2023 to 2024 and I thought he looked good when he was on the field in 2024. I think this is one of the most difficult picks to grade from this draft because a lot of Hill’s situation has been out of his control. I think the talent is probably close to a B or B+ level based on what we’ve seen – but I don’t think the organization did him many favors from the start. And this grade gets a C-
George Karlaftis of the Chiefs is up and I liked this selection when it was made because of what it would represent for George. This applies any time a player is selected to a team with a Chris Jones, or really anytime there is already a premier pass rusher on the team – but the reality is for George – he was never going to be the main focus of the opposing offensive line. And that favors him in a lot of situations by having a teammate like Chris Jones and in 3 years Karalftis has 24.5 sacks and has been a really key contributor for the Chiefs. He had a 3 sack game this past postseason against the Texans and believe it or not – has 8 sacks in 10 career postseason games just 3 years into his NFL career. He has back to back seasons with 60 or more pressure and he was drafted at just 21 years old so believe it or not – Karlafits is still younger than some 2025 NFL draft prospects. I don’t think he is a premier edge rusher by any means and I think Chiefs fans would agree with that – but he has one double digit sack season and has continuously been a key contributor in January. I think he will receive a contract extension from the Chiefs when the time comes and after an A grade last year – he gets another A grade this year
29 – Cole Strange was the Patriots first round pick and I didn’t like this pick from the minute it was made for a few reasons. I didn’t like the process for the Patriots who had the 21st pick and traded out of the pick so the Chiefs could go get a consensus top 15 player in the draft in Trent McDuffie – while New England traded back to draft a player who was widely viewed as a third round pick. Rams coach Sean McVay laughed at the selection and basically said he was a guy they were looking at because he thought he would be available late on day 2 when they were on the clock. As cliché as it sounds – the selection of Cole Strange was a very strange selection and unfortunately he has only played in 13 games over the last two years. The best ability in the NFL is of course availability – and even when he plays it’s not like he is a game changing guard that other teams fear when he’s on the field. I do think he’ll stick around the league for some time – but this pick received a lot of rightful criticism at the time and through 3 years – the criticism has proven to be warranted. The Patriots have been a bad team over the last few years and it’s because of decisions like this. 3 years later this is an F
28 – Devonte Wyatt was the Packers second first round pick of the night with the other being linebacker Quay Walker and this was an all around frustrating draft process for the Packers because they desperately needed a receiver entering the 2022 draft – yet used both of their first round picks on defensive players. Devonte Wyatt was also an older prospect as he was 24 during his rookie season and anytime you have an older prospect – you expect to see production pretty early because a lot of the time – though not every time – they are more physically developed and mature for that matter too. Wyatt didn’t play much during his rookie year but stepped up in his second year as he had over 40 pressures from the interior before having a bit of a regression in 2024 as he finished the year with just 23 total tackles in 14 games played. Now you can look at is as him having 5 sacks in year 3 through rose colored lenses – but I don’t think that would justify this pick. He has just 5 starts in 3 years and I thought he was trending in the right direction entering 2024 – but didn’t take the next step. He also missed some time in 2024 and this is a player who has played more than 400 snaps in a season just once in 3 years. He’ll be 27 during the 2025 season and 3 years later this is a C
Jags linebacker Devin Lloyd is up and the Jags traded up to get Devin Lloyd through a trade with the Bucs. Lloyd has over 110 tackles in each of the first 3 years of his career and overall there’s been a lot more good than bad. I really think Devin Lloyd has improved over the last two years of his career and it’s shown. The one big knack with Lloyd that Jags fans get frustrated with is he gets beat in coverage at times – and at times in particular it can be pretty bad – but he does a lot of things right. He’s a really good run stopping linebacker, he can get after the quarterback when they need him to, and I don’t think he gets as much credit as he should. I think he is an above average linebacker and – gets far too criticized at times for what can be a near impossible job – which of course is coverage as an NFL linebacker. There’s times where the Jags certainly don’t do him any favors as at one point during the 2024 he was asked to guard Davante Adams down the middle of the field one on one and it resulted in a 71 yard touchdown. And that’s not setting any linebacker up for success – let alone Devin Lloyd. I know the coverage woes can be frustrating, but I like him and I think this grade is a B+
Jermaine Johnson was the Jets 3rd first round pick of the night as Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson were each selected in the top 10 of the 2022 draft. Johnson was a part of an insane draft for the Jets in which they also selected running back Breece Hall early in the second round. The plan was to bring Jermaine along slowly in his rookie year and have him be a rotational guy early on and have him eventually be a starter and a guy who can legitimately get after the quarterback in year 2 and beyond. And credit to the Jets because that was exactly what they did. He became a pro bowler 2023 as he had over 50 pressures, had 16 quarterback hits, and had 7.5 sacks. Unfortunately, Johnson suffered a torn achilles in week 2 of 2024 and missed the rest of the season. Admittedly, this is a pretty tricky pick to grade because year 1 was kind of a wash and year 2 was a really good year – and ultimately a glimpse of the player I think Jermaine Johnson will be if he can stay healthy. But we are 3 years in with a former first round pass rusher that has played just 33 career games and has 10 career sacks. I have praised the Jets 2022 draft countless times and Jermaine certainly plays a part within that. From a sheer talent level – I really think Jermaine is an A level talent and when healthy – is everything the Jets could have hoped for when they were on the clock back in 2022. But because of the lack of production – at least to the level you’d like – and a lot of which is out of his control – we are going to give this pick a B grade
25 – Tyler Linderbaum was the Ravens second first round pick of the night as the other was safety Kyle Hamilton and I really do think the 2022 first round is a good summarization of the Baltimore Ravens as a franchise. They traded former receiver Hollywood Brown and drafted an all pro in Kyle Hamilton and they traded back a few spots with Buffalo later in the first round – and drafted a multiple time pro bowler to man their trenches for a long time. Tyler Linderbaum was regarded as one of the best players all throughout the draft process in 2022 but fell down the board due to his positional value. And 3 years later there are a lot of teams that wish they would have just stayed put and took what was a non sexy pick in the first round and called it a day. Whenever you think of the Baltimore Ravens you probably think of Lamar Jackson – or even Derrick Henry – but there’s no doubt Linderbaum makes Lamar’s job easier and he is an extremely pivotal player to their success. Linderbaum has not allowed a sack since his rookie season – which is now over 1,100 pass blocking snaps per PFF and given that he did this at just 23 and 24 years old – I think he is more than here to stay. There’s a reason they say to draft Iowa offensive lineman and he – Bucs tackle Tristan Wirfs are shining examples. This was a tremendous draft process by a really well run organization and this is an A+
24 – Tyler Smith was a player I liked a lot in the 2022 pre draft process as I thought his game would translate very favorably to the NFL level and I thought whichever team drafted him would be getting a good football player – whether it was at guard or tackle. He’s a really explosive athlete for his size and 3 years in he is already a multiple time pro bowler and was a second team all pro in 2023. I know people like to mock the Cowboys and get their jokes in about them not having been to an NFC championship game in a very long time – but believe it or not they do a lot of things well as a franchise. And having a 3 year run of first round picks in CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons, and Tyler Smith is a good example of that. And when push comes to shove – they should extend all 3 players because all 3 are very good at what they do and they’ve already CeeDee Lamb of course. I personally don’t think Tyler Smith will ever be in the conversation of the best guard in football – but he’s an invaluable player to the Cowboys and 3 years later this is an A+
Bills corner Kaiir Elam is up and I know this pick is tough to look back on for Bills fans specifically because their buddies in Kansas City took Trent McDuffie just two picks prior to taking Elam and Trent of course would become a multiple time all pro. Kaiir Elam on the other hand has been a healthy scratch multiple times and he became more of a special teams player in 2024. He played significant time in the final few games of the year due to injuries ahead of him on the depth chart and as a third year player that’s a former first round pick – that’s what you need to know about this selection. Now I know you may be thinking this is an automatic F grade – and I would understand why as Kaiir has been a healthy scratch and has only played in 29 career games in 3 years – but Elam had an interception against the Dolphins in the playoffs in 2022 when Buffalo was losing – that gave them the ball on Miami’s 33 yard line and they took the lead in the second half of the game. He also had an interception in the 2023 playoffs when the Steelers were in the red zone and two playoff interceptions in games Buffalo – and especially a game changing interception in 2022 – is more than nothing. And this doesn’t change the grade to a B or anything crazy – but I did want to note that. And because of the playoff contributions – we are going to bump this to a D
Quay Walker was the first of two Packers first round picks as this was the offseason they traded Davante Adams to the Raiders. Quay has racked up a lot of tackles since becoming a Packer as he’s had over 100 tackles in each year despite missing a few games in each of the last two years – but that doesn’t mean he’s particularly great. Quay tested pretty well during the pre draft process as he had a 4.52 40 which was in the 90th percentile for the linebacker position, and also tested in the 78th percentile in the broad jump. He’s a really good athlete at nearly 6’4 240 but that doesn’t always translate to being a good linebacker. And with the pre draft process going on for the 2025 draft right now – I don’t think 40 times mean that much for linebackers – and I think Quay is a good example why. There’s thresholds of course, but a lot of the time it’s about instincts. And I don’t think Quay reads the game particularly well and I know Packers fans get pretty frustrated with Walker at times too. The flashes are certainly there, and there’s times where Quay will go a few games in a row where he looks like a really good player – but he’s not consistent enough and I think this who he is as a player 3 years into his career. A C grade
The Kansas City Chiefs traded up to pick 21 to go get Washington corner Trent McDuffie who surprisingly fell down the draft board. I thought McDuffie was a consensus top 15 player in this class and I think the Chiefs trading up to go get Trent McDuffie – and the Patriots trading back so they could draft a 3rd round guard at pick 29 overall – perfectly describes the direction each franchise has taken over the past few years. McDuffie is a 2 time all pro and is a 2 time Super Bowl champion and as crazy as this is going to sound – experienced his first career playoff loss in February of 2025. The Chiefs had two first round picks in 2022 and they hit on each of them in George Kalraftis and Trent McDuffie. The Chiefs success over the past few years hasn’t happened by accident and it’s due in large part to extremely successful drafting in back to back years in 2021 and 2022. We have talked about not over thinking the good players in draft classes before and this certainly applied to McDuffie in 2022. Now I’d be lying if I said I thought he would be a two time all pro in the first three years of his career – but he played a tremendous part in the Chiefs winning back to back super bowls in 2022 and 2023. His most iconic play at this point is probably the deflection in Super Bowl 58 in a win over the 49ers – and 3 years later this is an A+
Super Bowl champion quarterback Kenny Pickett is up and he was the Steelers first round pick back in 2022 in hopes he could be the successor to Ben Roethlisberger. The hope was Kenny would go from leading the Pitt Panthers to a wildly successful 2021 season – to bringing the Steelers back to being legitimate postseason contenders year in and year out – and that the Steelers 2022 draft class – led by Pickett and second round receiver George Pickens – would be a great quarterback receiving duo for the next several years. And you can even add in Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth too. I didn’t think Pickett’s rookie season was all that bad as his offensive line wasn’t great and he led multiple game winning drives and I thought once there was some stability – that he would be alright in 2023 I liked Kenny a lot heading into the 2023 season because the flashes were there. But the consistency was never there and that’s ultimately what came back and bit Kenny in the rear end. He would make a good play and follow it up with misreading plays or receivers not being open or flat out bad decisions. He finished his Steelers tenure with 13 touchdowns to 13 interceptions before being traded to the Eagles last offseason. The Steelers spent a first round pick on a quarterback that didn’t work out and this pick is an F.
19 – Trevor Penning is up and this was a pick I didn’t like from the beginning due in large part to the process of this selection. The Saints determined they had to have a second first round pick in 2022 and to make a long story short – this is how the Eagles acquired Jalen Carter in the 2023 draft. They had the long term vision to be patient with the process and the results for each franchise speak for themselves. Penning suffered a torn ligament in his foot before his rookie season began which limited his time in his rookie year, and was benched in 2023 nearly midway through the year. With veteran Ryan Ramczyk out for 2024 and the Saints spending their 2024 first round pick on Taliese Fuaga – Penning got his chance to start at right tackle this past year and it was predictably bad. He allowed over 50 pressures, had 13 penalties, and was a net negative for a team selecting inside the top 10 of the 2025 NFL Draft. I was hoping Trevor Penning would prove me wrong as I also wasn’t the biggest fan of him as a prospect and much preferred Tulsa’s Tyler Smith – who eventually went to Dallas – but this pick was bad from the start. The process was bad, he unfortunately sustained an injury which limited most of his rookie year, he was benched in his second year and he didn’t play good in his 3rd year. And here we are 3 years later and this pick is an F
The Tennessee Titans traded AJ Brown to the Eagles for the 18th pick in the first round as well as a third round pick too. Ironically, Treylon Burks pro comparison throughout the draft process was AJ Brown and after seeing the Vikings trade Stefon Diggs – then draft Justin Jefferson – Tennessee quickly found out it’s a lot easier said than done – in terms of replacing an all pro caliber talent. And I mean quickly. In 3 years Treylon Burks has just 699 career receiving yards – a mark AJ Brown had hit for the Eagles by the week 9 of the 2022 season. It’s unfortunate this pick didn’t work out because the opportunity was more than there for Treylon as the Titans receiving room hasn’t exactly been good over the past few years. Burks was the 6th receiver taken in the first round of the 2022 draft and unfortunately was the least productive of the 6 – and it’s even more embarrassing for the Titans that AJ Brown has been such a good player for the Birds since this trade was made. And since this trade was made – AJ Brown has 2 Super Bowl appearances to Treylon Burks 1 career touchdown. And as you can probably guess – this pick is an F.
17 – Zion Johnson was the Chargers first round pick back in 2022 and Zion was an incredible athlete coming out of Boston College. He tested in the 88th percentile or better in the vertical jump, broad jump, 3 cone drill, short shuttle, and the bench press. He also had 34 inch arms which is a positive and was a really clean prospect. Zion has had a lot of ups and downs as an NFL player and I think the best way to describe Zion Johnson as an NFL player is consistently inconsistent. I really think he’s the type of player where he’ll have a few good games – and you’ll hype him up to your friends about him being a good player – and then he has a bad game or an incredibly bad rep that everyone sees and that’s kind of how the first 3 years of his career has played out. In terms of actual talent – I do think Zion Johnson is pretty easily in the upper half of the league when he’s at his best. But he ’s not consistent – at all. And he’s allowed 33 or more pressures in every year since being drafted and has been an incredibly up and down player. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he put it all together one year and eventually made a pro bowl because the flashes are there. But the consistency is not. And 3 years later – this is a C. I hope you enjoyed today’s draft grade video and if you did please like and subscribe as only about 46% of people watching are subscribed and helps the channel tremendously. Until next time please be safe and have a great day. Love you guys
