Not every team is going to fill every big hole on their roster in the NFL Draft.
Other teams are drafting positions of their own need. Some teams don’t like to draft for need. Maybe teams didn’t have enough quality picks to fill multiple needs.
Whatever the case, there are plenty of remaining roster deficiencies around the NFL after the draft. Here are the five biggest needs that weren’t addressed:
Yes, Ezekiel Elliott is returning to Dallas. Did we all forget complaining about Elliott taking snaps away from Tony Pollard from about 2020-2022? Is Elliott really a great RB1 option as he turns 29 years old? Elliott was OK with the New England Patriots last season but he also had a career low 3.5 yards per carry. Those struggles might say a lot about the 2023 Patriots offense as a whole, but don’t buy the company line that Elliott showed too much there.
The Cowboys had to do something considering their paper thin running back depth chart, and that’s why Elliott is back for a reunion tour. Dallas might have liked Texas running back Jonathon Brooks but the Carolina Panthers beat them to the punch and took him in the second round. The Cowboys had eight picks and didn’t use one on a running back. The Cowboys are a pass-heavy team, no matter what Mike McCarthy forecasted last offseason, but they might be really unbalanced this season unless there’s a revelation at running back.
Atlanta Falcons pass rusher
Yes, this will be a Michael Penix, Jr. blurb. There have been a bunch of words typed and said about the Falcons’ surprise first-round pick of a quarterback, and not many of them are complimentary. But one of the underrated confusing parts of that pick was that three teams were reportedly trying to move up into the top 10 for Penix. The Falcons could have theoretically moved back to the middle of the first round, picked up more picks and still gotten a top pass rusher like Laiatu Latu or Dallas Turner. The Falcons have had one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL for the past few years. They could have gotten a good edge rusher to help now. This Penix decision better work out in their favor.
Maybe Keon Coleman, the Bills’ pick to start the second round, will fix the position. There’s some question about that considering Coleman’s speed and his ability to separate, but most considered him a first-round talent. He was a very good college receiver. Still, it was a surprise that the Bills didn’t use any of their nine picks after Coleman on a receiver, especially considering how deep the receiver class was. Packaging two or three picks to move up for another receiver would have helped the receiver room look a lot better. We’ll see if the Bills’ faith in Coleman and the holdover receivers on the roster is justified.
Tight end wasn’t a huge need for the Jets, but it’s not a strength either. There’s a reason every mock draft had Brock Bowers going to New York. Imagine pairing Aaron Rodgers with an elite tight end, especially with Garrett Wilson out wide and Breece Hall’s explosiveness out of the backfield. Instead, the Jets settled on left tackle Olu Fashanu and let Bowers pass. It makes sense considering new signee Tyron Smith’s age and injury history, but that makes the Smith signing a little redundant. It’s not a bad pick, it would have just been nice to get Rodgers another elite target, and Bowers is as good of a tight end prospect as you’ll find.
Well, some team was going to lose out at quarterback. When the Falcons chose Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth pick, that put the squeeze on for the rest of the quarterback needy teams. When Bo Nix went with the 12th overall pick, that meant the Raiders weren’t getting a rookie quarterback who could start right away. The next quarterback off the board, Spencer Rattler, wasn’t picked until the 150th overall selection.
That means the Raiders are going with Gardner Minshew II or perhaps Aidan O’Connell, and that’s OK. The Raiders stocked up on quality players like tight end Brock Bowers and interior lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson, who will help whoever the Raiders find as their quarterback of the future, maybe in the 2025 NFL Draft. It’s not fun to wait another year for a quarterback to rally around, but it’s better to wait and find the right one than reach on a quarterback that will just end up being a wasted pick.
