{"id":975,"date":"2025-04-26T06:46:19","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T06:46:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/975\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T06:46:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T06:46:19","slug":"2025-nfl-draft-winners-and-losers-of-rounds-2-and-3-saints-pick-qb-tyler-shough-shows-theyre-still-in-denial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/975\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 NFL Draft winners and losers of Rounds 2 and 3: Saints’ pick QB Tyler Shough shows they’re still in denial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tyler Shough<\/a> was an interesting prospect in the NFL Draft<\/a>, and he could be a good NFL quarterback. He’s 25 years old, turning 26 in September, so he better be good right away. There’s not much time to waste.<\/p>\n

For some teams, Shough would have made perfect sense. For the team that drafted him, the New Orleans Saints, it’s just another bout of denial.<\/p>\n

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The Saints are in a bad spot. They have an aging roster that isn’t good enough to compete now and doesn’t have a sufficient amount of hope for the future. There’s a reason that teams were hesitant to take Shough, although his skills were intriguing<\/a>. Prospects who played college football over seven different seasons aren’t in high demand because the clock has already been ticking.<\/p>\n

The Saints apparently didn’t care. They didn’t like any quarterbacks in this class enough to draft one ninth overall<\/a>, and that was a fair assessment. The NFL has told us through its actions that this quarterback class wasn’t that good outside of Cam Ward<\/a>. But taking one with a valuable second-round pick might not bring much return on investment.<\/p>\n

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The 2026 NFL Draft is expected to have a deeper group of quarterbacks. That class could include Arch Manning, who grew up in New Orleans. The Saints wouldn’t be guaranteed to get a top pick to take a quarterback, but it’s a team that probably needs to tear things down and start again. They just refuse to admit it.<\/p>\n

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The Shough pick will probably end up looking like a waste. The Saints don’t need a short-term fix, which Shough is given his age. If they are in position to draft one of the top quarterbacks in next year’s draft, they won’t get much value out of taking Shough.<\/p>\n

It’s nothing against Shough. He had some enticing traits. It just doesn’t seem like a good fit for the Saints. The problem is the Saints don’t realize that.<\/p>\n

\"Tyler<\/p>\n

Tyler Shough was the second-round pick of the New Orleans Saints. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Isaiah Vazquez via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from the second day of the NFL Draft:<\/p>\n

WINNERS<\/p>\n

Cleveland Browns: When you\u2019re the Browns, all you have is time.<\/p>\n

After taking a major step back last season and admitting defeat on Deshaun Watson<\/a> this offseason, the Browns weren’t realistically going to be anywhere close to a contender in 2025. They\u2019re back to a multi-year prospect.<\/p>\n

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They could have taken 25-year-old quarterback Tyler Shough like the Saints, but what would that have accomplished? They had self-awareness to realize that forcing a quarterback pick this year probably would be wasting a valuable asset.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Browns started stockpiling again, starting with a trade with the Jaguars<\/a> that any trade value chart ever made would say that Cleveland got a ton of extra value.<\/p>\n

The Browns drafted defensive tackle Mason Graham<\/a>, linebacker Carson Schwesinger and running back Quinshon Judkins<\/a> with their three picks in the top 36, and still have an extra first-round pick next year from Jacksonville. They don\u2019t have a quarterback of the future yet. But they didn\u2019t waste a pick hoping to find one.<\/p>\n

Baltimore Ravens: The Ravens have a knack for sitting back and letting good values fall to them.<\/p>\n

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They made a sharp pick in the first round with safety Malaki Starks<\/a>, a player the Ravens were linked to throughout the draft process and will fit right into the defense. They got him with the 27th pick.<\/p>\n

Then the Ravens took a shot on a player who has huge potential but fell out of the first round in pass rusher Mike Green<\/a> of Marshall, who led FBS with 17 sacks last season. There were questions about Green<\/a>, particularly sexual assault allegations against him a few years ago, which he has denied and was never charged. Perhaps the character issues that caused other teams to pass will be a problem throughout Green’s NFL journey. If not, the Ravens got a first-round talent near the end of the second round.<\/p>\n

LOSERS<\/p>\n

Will Johnson<\/a>: Johnson is undeniably talented. He was a fantastic cornerback at Michigan and was high on many analysts’ big boards and mock drafts. And he didn’t get picked in the first round. Two other cornerbacks did.<\/p>\n

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It was a tough slide for Johnson, but one that was unfortunately predictable. There were too many questions about him after injury concerns, including a knee issue via ESPN’s Adam Schefter<\/a>. Johnson missed the second half of last season with turf toe. Then it was a hamstring that kept him from running at the scouting combine, which seemed to be especially harmful to his draft stock.<\/p>\n

Instead of being one of the first names called in this year’s draft, he had to wait until the Arizona Cardinals took him in the second round with the 47th overall pick. He can still have a great NFL career, especially now that he has extra motivation, but some poorly timed injuries cost him a lot of money.<\/p>\n

Cowboys skill position group, still: When Dallas took guard Tyler Booker in the first round<\/a>, ignoring needs at running back and receiver, it made some sense because Booker is a good player and the Cowboys would have other opportunities in the draft to get some playmakers.<\/p>\n

Then in the second round, they drafted a defensive end. And in the third round, a cornerback.<\/p>\n

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New Cowboys defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku<\/a> is a good player, as is third-round cornerback Shavon Revel Jr.<\/a> But at some point the lack of juice in the Cowboys’ offense will reveal itself to be a problem. CeeDee Lamb<\/a> is fantastic and there’s not much else around him.<\/p>\n

It’s prudent for the Cowboys to build both lines, and even to take Revel when he fell way too far. But a buzzy pick now and then would help too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Shough was an interesting prospect in the NFL Draft, and he could be a good NFL quarterback.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[615,390,117,127,1121,54,230,229,563,285,19,7,212,890,579,276,896,55,6,15,187,586,397,310,489,494,485,283,275],"class_list":{"0":"post-975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-draft","8":"tag-arch-manning","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-baltimore-ravens","11":"tag-cam-ward","12":"tag-ceedee-lamb","13":"tag-cleveland-browns","14":"tag-cowboys","15":"tag-dallas","16":"tag-deshaun-watson","17":"tag-donovan-ezeiruaku","18":"tag-draft","19":"tag-football","20":"tag-jacksonville","21":"tag-malaki-starks","22":"tag-mason-graham","23":"tag-mike-green","24":"tag-new-orleans","25":"tag-new-orleans-saints","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-nfl-draft","28":"tag-pick","29":"tag-quinshon-judkins","30":"tag-saints","31":"tag-shavon-revel","32":"tag-shough","33":"tag-the-saints","34":"tag-tyler-booker","35":"tag-tyler-shough","36":"tag-will-johnson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}