Biggest losers from the 2023 NFL Draft

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - Ohio State v Georgia

Dawand Jones

For the final one here, I considered “Kenneth Walker dynasty owners”, since the Seahawks drafted another running back I really like in the second round and a passing down specialist in the seventh, to take away opportunities for fantasy production.

However, I haven’t discussed an individual draft prospect yet and one I thought needed to be mentioned here is “the other” Ohio State offensive tackle. After being projected to be a top-50 pick and seeing his name frequently mentioned in mock drafts, the monstrous lineman waited all the way until Day 3, when the Browns finally ended the slide at 111th overall.

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That was after seeing his fellow Buckeye left tackle being selected sixth overall and nine total OTs coming off the board first.

The obvious concern with Jones, just looking at how gigantic he is, is if he can keep himself in football shape. When we last got measurements on him at the combine, the Ohio State OT was 6’8” and 374 pounds.

He ran as expected, with a 5.35 in the 40 and the worst ten-yard split of the event (1.92). Neither in Indy nor at the Buckeye pro day, he decided to do the jumps or agility drills, along with refusing another weigh-in in Columbus. However, what apparently really didn’t sit well with NFL evaluators was the fact that after one dominant practice at the Senior Bowl, he decided – or his agent told him – to sit out the rest of the week with no apparent injury.

His lack of willingness to commit himself fully to the process and maybe not having appropriate answers in the meetings when asked about are what I believe might have caused him to drop this far.

Since contract numbers are basically locked in due to where players get selected, that’s most likely more than 1.5 times less money on his contract than he would have received had he gone around pick 50.

Not only did going this late hurt Jones financially, but he also will have a tough time seeing the field anytime soon in Cleveland – unless they use him as a jumbo tight-end in certain short-yardage packages.

The Browns recently picked up Jedrick Wills Jr.’s fifth-year option, keeping him at left tackle for the next two seasons at least, and the guy on the right side Jack Conklin just signed a more back-loaded four-year, $60-million extension in December.

For people considering if they could move him to guard – I have a tough time seeing any scenario where they’ll try taking the potential outs in either of Joel Bitonio or Wyatt’s deals, since those are Pro Bowl/All-Pro level players.

They also just re-signed center Ethan Pocic by the way. The one bright spot for Jones is that he’ll get to work under one of the top O-line coaches in Bill Callahan, to develop a kick-set necessary to make it in the pros.

Other questionable draft classes: Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs & San Francisco 49ers.

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