NFL Mock Draft 2023, Botch Job: Every team screws up its first-round pick

NFL Mock Draft 2023: Every team screws up its first-round pick

If you haven’t picked on this theme throughout this draft, one thing I’m rarely a fan of is an over-reactionary approach to what happened in free agency when it comes to early picks in the draft. So if the Bengals were to move quickly at the end of the first round to try and replace Jessie Bates with Brian Branch, I’d have an issue with that.

First off, Branch isn’t the athlete or coverage player that Bates was, even as the best safety in this draft class. As such, it would be a poor replacement.

But more importantly, the Bengals have bigger needs where there is more value here, specifically with linebackers, cornerback and even defensive line help. That’s where this pick should go, not on an ill-fitting replacement for Bates after losing him in free agency.

Bryan Bresee is yet another player in the 2023 draft class who, when you look at the measurables, has the clear potential to be dominant — very much a throughline for much of the front seven players in this class. But he just never put that together in college, which another problematic but frequent occurrence among the defensive linemen and edge rushers.

Make no mistake, the Saints need a ton of front seven help given the lack of depth and some real holes in that group. But they also have needs at receiver, potentially at running back, with cornerback and secondary depth, and so on.

This is far from a complete roster and there are players who will still be available at No. 29 who can truly help the cause right away. What Bresee showed at Clemson is not a player who fits into that mold, which is a problem for me after New Orleans seemingly tried to solve the quarterback issue with Derek Carr this offseason.