2022 NFL Draft Winners and Losers

Yahoo Sports’ Lead NFL Draft Analyst Eric Edholm reveals the teams he believes made the best and worst selections over 3 days in Las Vegas.

Video Transcript

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ERIC EDHOLM: I'm Yahoo Sports lead NFL draft analyst Eric Edholm, and the 2022 NFL draft is in the books. We are sad to see it go. But before we leave you here, we've got some winners and losers, our favorite team drafts and our least favorite ones, from this year's crop.

Let's start with the winners, and I got to go first to the Kansas City Chiefs. Wow, what a haul this year. And a dirty little secret from last season, the Chiefs weren't very tough. They got a little soft. So one solution, load up in the draft on high-energy, intense players. Help on defense in Trent McDuffie, George Karlaftis, Leo Chenal, Bryan Cook, Joshua Williams, on down the line. And they got the receiver they needed in Skyy Moore, big help with Tyreek Hill out the door.

Our next winner, let's go to the Baltimore Ravens. In what feels like an annual tradition, no we don't always love their draft, but we do like them quite often. And this year is no different. Kyle Hamilton, Tyler Linderbaum in round one, great haul right there. David Ojabo and Travis Jones in day two, what a response.

And then smart day three picks, Daniel Faalele, Jalyn Armour-Davis, Charlie Kolar, on down the line. A really good punter in Jordan Stout, and a sixth round steal in Tyler Badie. Time after time, value and talent met. The Ravens know how to do this thing very well.

Our third winner? How about the New York Jets. Round one was like the happy hunting grounds for Joe Douglas. He got Sauce Gardner, he got Garrett Wilson, he got Jermaine Johnson, starter, starter, starter. And what about Breece Hall in round two, are you kidding me? A top 25 talent for us, we love it. He's Jonathan Taylor Lite in our book, and a Rookie of the Year favorite. They wrapped up early round four, but the hay was in the barn at that point, terrific crop. The Jets are a better football team.

OK, we hate doing it, but we've got to give you losers as well. And, yes, we're going to start with the Patriots. We're the latest to pile on Cole Strange in round one. Tyquan Thornton is a risk at round two. Some positional overlap, two, two running backs. They drafted a quarterback with Mac Jones already there. More of a depth draft, very little pizzazz, just didn't love that crop overall.

Our second pick for the losers, the Arizona Cardinals. They trade the first rounder for Hollywood Brown at roughly the same cost as AJ Brown. That's a little strange to us, don't love that. And then the Cameron Thomas pick really was pretty good in round three, but every other selection we just couldn't get behind it fully. Trey McBride, nice player, a little bit of a luxury pick. Couldn't find a cornerback, don't love what Arizona did.

Our third loser team, how about the Dallas Cowboys? We were a little too tough on them last year, Micah Parsons was great. But they took risks on character, and they did the same thing again with Sam Williams. They also had Tyler Smith in round one, bit of a project in our mind. Jalen Tolbert, one of our favorite picks from them. But still, none of those selections really sang to us, so we had to put them in our bottom three.

So that wraps up the 2022 NFL Draft. Never too soon to start thinking about 2023. But for all your NFL news and notes, keep it right here at Yahoo Sports.