LA Chargers: Winners and Losers from the 2020 NFL Draft
By Steven Haglund
Winner: Baltimore Ravens
It has become quite clear over the years that no one in the NFL drafts better than the Baltimore Ravens. It seems like every year they are unanimously proclaimed the winners of the draft. Overall, their draft class this year really was fantastic.
They were the best regular-season team in the AFC last year and added the following players in the draft: LB Patrick Queen, RB JK Dobbins, DL Justin Madubuike, WR Devin Duvernay, LB Malik Harrison, G Tyre Phillips, G Ben Bredeson, DL Broderick Washington, WR James Proche, and S Geno Stone.
That is great value up and down the board. Dobbins isn’t likely an immediate impact player with Mark Ingram currently on the roster, but with the way he was slipping that value was excellent. Pairing Queen, the coverage linebacker with Harrison the downhill linebacker was very smart. Getting both Duvernay and Proche to compliment Marquise Brown and Mark Andrews was too.
They had to replace future Hall of Famer Marshall Yanda and doubled down there with Phillips and Bredeson. Finally, if KJ Hill doesn’t end up being the steal of the draft it’s because Stone does. He is the perfect free safety in that defense and he gets to go and learn behind Earl Thomas. The Ravens absolutely nailed this draft, unfortunately for the rest of the league.
Winner: Drew Lock, Broncos
If it wasn’t clear before, it is now. The Broncos are all in on Drew Lock. The former Missouri quarterback played excellent for them last year in his short season after spending most of it on injured reserve.
The Broncos obviously added Melvin Gordon in free agency, then they added Jerry Jeudy, KJ Hamler, Albert Okwuegbunam and Kyrie Cleveland to pair with Courtland Sutton, Noah Fant and Phillip Lindsay. They also drafted Lloyd Cushenberry and Netane Muti (another candidate for potential steal of the draft) to shore up the interior of the offensive line.
That’s a lot of new offensive talent for a team that has really struggled to score the ball since Peyton Manning was lighting up the scoreboard. I personally need to see more out of Lock before I really believe he is capable of being a franchise cornerstone for them, but John Elway and company clearly believe he is and now he has a bunch of shiny new offensive weapons to work with.