Thor's NFC Draft Haul Rankings

Below, you’ll find a table that ranks each team’s finish in a variety of metrics that went into deriving the final Draft Haul rankings. For an in-depth explanation into methodology, please check out the first part of our three-part Draft Haul series, which was published on Thursday. If you missed the AFC breakdown on Monday, you can find that here. 

Key

Equity: Draft equity, the value of picks used in the 2020 NFL Draft

D-Class: Draft Class, a measure of talent acquired in the 2020 NFL Draft

D-ROI: Draft Return on Investment, a rate stat showing the value each team derived out of their 2020 NFL Draft picks

GPA: Grade Point Average shows what the media graded each class, as calculated by Rene Bugner

T-Class: Total Class, a measure of combined talent acquired in the 2020 NFL Draft and UDFA signings

Key

2021 picks: The total number of picks currently projected to be held in next year’s draft (This includes projected compensatory picks, which can change)

2021 equity points: An attempt to quantify the total value of each team’s current projected 2021 NFL Draft pick holdings

Key

Haul score: Combined elements of each team’s draft class, UDFA crop, ROI and media GPA to produce a final score to encompass and quantify how each organization performed during the totality of the rookie acquisition process

Draft score: Derived from talent acquired in the draft against draft equity spent (ROI), with media GPA used as a modifier, to rank which teams did the best inside the 2020 NFL Draft

UDFA score: My scores and rankings of each team’s UDFA class

T-ROI: Total Return on Investment, a rate stat showing the combined value each team derived out of their 2020 NFL Draft picks and UDFA haul against the pick equity they used in the draft

1 (1). Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys ran away with best in show this year, finishing No. 1 in both Draft Score and UDFA class. Dallas finished No. 2 on ROI in the draft, plucking steal after steal, beginning with WR CeeDee Lamb and extending into a monster Day 2 (CB Trevon Diggs and DL Neville Gallimore) and a Day 3 filled with exceptional value plays (I ranked iOL Tyler Biadasz and EDGE Bradlee Anae a combined 134 slots over where they were ultimately taken). The front office continued to clean up in the UDFA portion, with a monster haul that easily ranked No. 1 by my numbers. Dallas signed seven prospects that Stephen Jones said on the season ticket holder call the Cowboys had draftable grades on. I had draftable grades on five of them, myself (I saw uber-athletic South Carolina RB Rico Dowdle as a late fifth-round talent, well-rounded TCU RB Jet Anderson as a sixth-sounder, and Texas Tech T Terence Steele, BYU LB Francis Bernard and Kansas LB Azur Kamara as seventh-rounders). Not only that, but the Cowboys signed six additional prospects I graded pre-draft just outside of draftable range. Despite only spending the 19th-most draft equity in the league on actual picks, the Cowboys left the process with a top-5 talent haul overall. Utterly dominant showing from start to finish. And that’s not all, folks! With four projected comp picks coming in 2021, Dallas currently holds nine selections in next year’s draft.

2 (2). Minnesota Vikings

Courtesy of the Stefon Diggs trade and some nifty trading-back, the Vikings set the table to ultimately spend the 10th-most draft equity in the league and pick up valuable 2021 draft capital ammunition along the way. Rick Spielman badly needed a strong draft with his team in transition, and he enjoyed a banner three-day process. The Purple spent their riches wisely, taking players I had ranked higher than their draft slots nine-of-15 times. By my rankings, the Vikes walked away from the draft with three first-round values, a second-rounder, two thirds, three fifths and a seventh -- landing a fourth-ranked talent haul in the draft en route to a draft-ROI that ranked No. 4 in the league. The Vikings traded the slots the 49ers and Saints used to take WR Brandon Aiyuk and TE Adam Trautman for the picks that ultimately acquired CB Jeff Gladney, iDL D.J. Wonnum, iDL James Lynch, CB Harrison Hand, WR K.J. Osborn, OT Blake Brandel and QB Nathan Stanley. Sitting on a war chest of picks, the Vikings were able to execute deals that netted 2021 fourth- and fifth round picks for 2020 fifth- and sixth-rounders. In addition to the 2021 fourth-rounder Buffalo shipped over as part of the Diggs trade, the Vikings are the NFL’s most pick-rich teams heading into next year’s process as well, with 12 projected selections currently in their pocket. Minny’s UDFA crop was merely average, but with 15 picks spent this wisely, it didn’t have to be anything more. WR Quartney Davis and CB Nevelle Clarke are two guys to watch in camp who could crash the opening-roster party.

3 (3). Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals smoked the draft and looked good doing it, with Kliff Kingsburg lounging alone in his spacious, magazine-spread War Room. Top to bottom, from unicorn defensive chess piece Isaiah Simmons on down to local Tasmanian Devil RB Eno Benjamin, the Cardinals got fabulous value at positions of need. Benjamin will battle UDFA sleeper RB Jonathan Ward for a roster spot. Both are gifted receivers. The Cardinals turned the 17th-most draft equity into the sixth-most rookie talent acquired during the draft. And this lofty top-three Draft Haul ranking doesn’t even take into account the acquisition of WR DeAndre Hopkins, which in essence only cost the draft-pick downgrade from TCU iDL Ross Blacklock to iDL Rashard Lawrence. That was obviously draft capital very much well spent. Add Hopkins to Arizona’s No. 6-ranked total rookie class, and the Cardinals exited the process having added about as much new talent as any organization. I was skeptical of Kingsbury’s hiring, but since his addition Arizona has enjoyed two stellar draft processes and significantly upgraded the talent on its roster top-to-bottom. Turns out building NFL rosters isn’t as difficult as recruiting to Lubbock.

8 (4). Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs had a bonanza of a draft, turning the 15th-most draft equity into the 10th-most draft talent acquired, the fifth-best return on investment in the league. They plugged a pressing hole at right tackle in the starting lineup with Tristan Wirfs, ending his surprising slide at 1.13. Antoine Winfield’s availability at 2.45 was an enormous coup, and the Bucs got great value in Round 5 when they popped Winfield’s collegiate teammate, slot WR Tyler Johnson. The UDFA crop was above-average, led by Oklahoma CB Parnell Motley, a sticky B12 corner with athletic limitations whose game and length suit Tampa’s press-man heavy schema well. OL John Molchon didn’t test as well as expected, and that probably led to his UDFA availability, but he could absolutely hang around on this roster and potentially contribute down the line.

13 (5). Carolina Panthers

A haul very much in the workmanlike image of new HC Matt Rhule. The draft wasn’t flashy -- consisting entirely of defensive linemen and defensive backs -- but it served the purpose of beginning the process of reshaping that side of the ball in Rhule’s image. DT Derrick Brown and S Jeremy Chinn will likely start right away, and EDGE Yetur Gross-Matos may as well. Rhule and company leveraged their knowledge of the college game they just left to get solid values throughout. Carolina’s UDFA crop finished middle-of-the-pack, but included a potential rotational back in RB Rodney Smith and a sleeper WR in Omar Bayless, last year’s Sun Belt Player of the Year. Bayless in particular could be a hidden gem.

14 (6). New York Giants

If Carolina’s class was in the image of Rhule, New York’s was most definitely in the image of Dave Gettleman, with three of the first five picks coming along the offensive line, an area of acute need. Gettleman stayed in his slots and stuck to his guns. My numbers ranked Gettleman’s in-draft ROI only No. 19, but I personally had no qualms with his strategy nor his picks. The media didn’t either, ranking the G-Men No. 13 in GPA. My favorite pick was OT Matt Peart at 3.99 -- I ranked him 30 slots higher. The Giants put together a nice UDFA class, headlined by Maryland RB Javon Leake and Illinois EDGE Oluwole Betiku Jr., who each had pet niche cheering sections in the scouting community and have decent odds of cracking the roster. Leake was one of the nation’s best return men, and Betiku was a former ballyhooed prospect who finally broke out after transferring from USC to Illinois.

15 (7). New Orleans Saints

The Saints did exactly what they did last year: They used their Day 3 picks to trade up to snatch prospects who were surprisingly falling down the board, and then they spent Saturday calling UDFA prospects to get a jump on that process (arguably against league rules -- but who follows those, anyway?!). Heading in without a second-round pick from last year’s trade-up for iDL Erik McCoy, the Saints also parted ways with four Day 3 picks to trade up for TE Adam Trautman. This would have been the ever-rare three-man draft class had New Orleans not traded a future pick to get back into Round 7 to pick QB Tommy Stevens, a Taysom Hill-esque project who reportedly had a verbal agreement to sign with the Panthers after the draft (every team breaks this rule). But the Saints got really good value with the picks they used -- No. 7 draft-ROI -- and used that UDFA head-start to sign my No. 3-ranked UDFA class, the second-straight year the Saints have finished with a top-three UDFA crop. I saw the headliners, LB Joe Bachie and DT Malcolm Roach, as fifth- and sixth-round talents, respectively. I ranked iDL Cesar Ruiz as a second-rounder but had no issues with him going in the first due to the precipitous drop-off in iOL talent after him -- tier-drops matter. EDGE Zack Baun was a high second-round guy from me, TE Adam Trautman a high third-rounder. Even though the draft class didn’t look like a full draft class, the Saints ended up cobbling together a full draft worth of talent by snatching up Baun and Trautman at value prices and slaying in the UDFA free-for-all. New Orleans finished No. 22 in total talent acquired despite using only the No. 26-most equity.

16 (8). Detroit Lions

The Lions went chalk at 1.3 with CB Jeffrey Okudah, but started throwing curveballs from there, beginning with the selection of RB D’Andre Swift at the top of the second round. I thought the Lions reached a bit later on in the draft; my numbers had Detroit spending the fourth-most draft equity to acquire the eight-most talent, to finish No. 20 in draft-ROI. Notre Dame EDGE Julian Okwara was the team’s best value pick, a third-rounder that many, myself included, saw as a Round 2 prospect. The Lions’ UDFA crop was sparse, but it included arguably the most talented prospect who wasn’t selected, Washington TE Hunter Bryant. Bryant is a skilled big-slot receiver -- not really a tight end if we’re being honest-- whose game would complement T.J. Hockenson’s well if he can crack the roster.