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NFL Draft Grades, Winners And Losers: Ravens, Packers, Lions Among Winners; Patriots Probably Should Be Too

Mocking The Draft has lists of winners and losers from the 2011 NFL Draft. The winners are the Ravens, Lions, Packers, Texans, Colts, Chiefs, Saints, Vikings, Giants and Bucs.

The Ravens did very well to get Jimmy Smith, Torrey Smith and Jah Reid. Nick Fairley could be a coup for the Lions. The Packers got great value at the end of the first round in Derek Sherrod, and I liked Randall Cobb in the second round and Davon House in the fourth. J.J. Watt, Brooks Reed and Brandon Harris made for a very good draft by the Texans, and the Colts upgraded their offense line substantially with Anthony Castonzo and Ben Ijalana.

The Chiefs and Vikings are somewhat more debatable. The Chiefs reached for Jon Baldwin in the first round and will need him to develop into a good receiver, which even a lot of Pittsburgh locals have doubts about. And the Vikings' draft hinges on quarterback Christian Ponder.

I'd replace those two teams with ... well, probably the Steelers, but maybe that's just me being a homer. But the other teams I would add, and it would probably be near the top, are the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots. The Browns got tons of value from the No. 6 overall pick. The Pats got Nate Solder in the first round, then picked up a potentially terrific cornerback in Ras-I Dowling early in the second. They also stole Ryan Mallett at No. 74, then grabbed a potential first- or second-round talent in Marcus Cannon in the fifth round after it was revealed that Cannon had non-Hodkins lymphoma. The Pats were one of the smartest teams throughout the list, and as much as it pains me to say it, I think they're pretty clear winners here.

The losers list is the Jaguars, Raiders, Seahawks, Chargers and Redskins. It's hard to argue much with these - the Seahawks reached for top picks James Carpenter and John Moffitt. The Chargers' selection of Corey Liuget in the first round was fine, but they really reached for Jonas Mouton in the second.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.