NFL Draft winners and losers: Eagles soared to top

The draft is supposed to be the great equalizer in sport. It’s a chance for bad teams to catch up to the good ones. Franchises fresh off Super Bowl appearances are supposed to spend their time off in the shadows while the rest of them try to close the gap.

The Eagles see it differently.

Despite having just participated in the big game in February (they lost to Kansas City) and having spent the offseason re-signing a good number of the players who brought them there, including a young quarterback who had, for about a week, the richest contract in league history, Philadelphia was among the most dominant teams of the last three days.

The rich just got richer.

To the point where the rest of the league must have been left looking around at each other wondering: How did we let this happen?

Here is a look at five teams that made the most of the 2023 draft, including those Eagles, and five teams that made some, uh, questionable moves that may set them back rather than help them advance.

WINNERS

Philadelphia

Their process began with a pair of first-round players from the University of Georgia — defensive tackle Jalen Carter taken ninth overall and linebacker Nolan Smith taken at 30th — who should help a defense that led the league with 70 regular-season sacks get stronger, deeper and scarier. They traded up on Saturday for another former Bulldog, cornerback Kelee Ringo, near the top of the fourth round, and then, to top it all off, added an experienced and reliable running back to help replace Miles Sanders who was lost in free agency. The Eagles acquired D’Andre Swift, a Philadelphia native, from the Lions, proving that they were able to even turn other teams’ questionable moves, in this case Detroit’s selection of a back Jahmyr Gibbs in the first round, into their own gold.

Houston

At the other end of the ready-to-emerge spectrum from the Eagles are the Texans, but they seem to have finally begun pointing toward the right direction after several years of mismanagement with the selection of two cornerstone players taken in the top three picks. Instead of waffling over whether to go offense or defense, the Texans selected quarterback C.J. Stroud with their own second overall selection and then traded up to the third pick to grab edge rusher Will Anderson. They still have a long way to go to be relevant, but it’s reasonable to believe that when they finally get there the players they picked this weekend will be leading the renaissance.

Detroit

The Lions have a reputation for being one of the more unorthodox teams in the league, but darned if it doesn’t seem to be working. After flouting conventions in the first round with Gibbs and linebacker Jack Campbell, they had a very good second day adding immediate starters wide receiver Sam LaPorta and versatile defensive back Brian Branch as well as DL Brodric Martin and potential quarterback-of-the-future Hendon Hooker. Dan Campbell’s team has quickly gone from afterthought to entertaining with a quick change of culture and by doing things their own way.

Baltimore

The best way to smooth things over after a very long and public spat? Send Flowers. That’s what the Ravens did by selecting wide receiver Zay Flowers, one of the most exciting playmakers in the draft, just a few hours after they agreed to a long-term extension with quarterback Lamar Jackson on Thursday. That pick, along with the addition of Odell Beckham Jr. in free agency, will certainly make the team less one-dimensional and more dangerous. The Ravens didn’t have a lot of picks, but they got a jump on 2024 when they traded back into the seventh for future considerations and tapped offensive lineman Andrew Vorhees, who would have been a second-day pick had he not tore his ACL at the Combine. He’ll basically have a medical redshirt as a rookie and should be on the field protecting Jackson next year.

Giants

A team that had three glaring needs coming into the draft was able to plug each of them in the first three rounds without reaching for any of them. The Giants’ second day of the draft may have been better than their first when they grabbed cornerback Deonte Banks from Maryland; they were able to get center John Michael Schmitz and traded up for speedy wide receiver Jalin Hyatt in the second and third rounds. All three should be Day One starters. The Giants improved. It doesn’t feel like it’s enough to catch up with the Eagles, but they improved.

LOSERS

Atlanta

The Falcons added to their offense with the selections of running back Bijan Robinson and then offensive lineman Matthew Bergeron, but their biggest issue wasn’t addressed until the third round. The Falcons had a league-worst 39 sacks over the last two years and adding Ohio State defensive end Zach Harrison probably won’t make a huge impact on that deficiency.

San Francisco

When you made the last pick in last year’s draft and it turned into a rookie quarterback who nearly led you to the Super Bowl, it’s easy to lose faith in the traditional institutions of the selection process. Still, it was curious that they used the 99th overall pick on … a kicker. Jake Moody was the highest-drafted player at his position since the Bucs took Roberto Aguayo in the second round in 2016. 

Los Angeles Rams

Their roster has been so depleted since winning the Super Bowl a year and a half ago that it felt as if anything would help, but even with that low bar to clear their first few picks felt very uninspired. They did get two edge rushers in Byron Young and Nick Hampton and tight end Davis Allen may be a player, but this is an organization still paying off the mortgage for their Lombardi Trophy and it will take several drafts for them to fully recover.

Green Bay

After years of ignoring offensive needs to the frustration of Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay opened the Jordan Love Era by selecting . . . linebacker Lukas Van Ness. They did come back in the second round with tight end Luke Musgrave and wide receiver Jayden Reed, but a team that had the chance to make a big splash with the picks it acquired in the trade for a four-time MVP quarterback and usher in a new age instead treated this draft with too much tone-deaf practicality than the moment called for.

New England

It’s one thing for the 49ers to be dumping draft picks into specialists. They have a fairly loaded roster already. But the Patriots? They became the first team since the 2000 Raiders to select both a kicker and a punter in the same draft when they took kicker Chad Ryland in the fourth round and punter Bryce Baringer in the sixth. After having a very strong first day in which they landed one of the top cornerbacks in this class in Christian Gonzalez — not to mention shading the Jets in a trade with the Steelers that let Pittsburgh jump up and grab the offensive lineman most thought the Jets wanted — their selections fizzled. Bill Belichick has always loved drafting specialists but it made much more sense for a team filled with future Hall of Famers on offense and defense than it does for the current day Patriots.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.