Although teams spent millions of dollars on their front office, scouting departments, and coaching, many teams still consistently make incredibly head-scratching moves that are a waste of the resources given to every team.

Atlanta Falcons

Many both in the NFL world and in online discourse have contributed to a large amount of backlash that GM Terry Fontenot and the Atlanta Falcons have received for their drafting of QB Michael Penix at eighth overall. Apart from the question marks on Michael Penix such as his poor performance in the college football championship, multiple torn ACLs, and the fact that he is a late declare to the draft at 23 years old soon to turn 24 in about a week, the most major issue is that they just paid $100 million guaranteed to QB kirk cousins in free agency. Although Fontenot has referenced previous scenarios such as the sitting of Mahomes and Love behind Rodgers and Smith, the comparison of such a recent signing doesn’t hold up to past examples of success.

Cousins’s contract holds up as a top ten highest guaranteed money at signing for any contract. Also, in the mind of a sharp NFL GM, the benefits to a quarterback like Michael Penix is that they are pro-ready and can immediately come in and play as a starter while on a cheaper rookie contract, so that they are a bargain compared to their role on the team. With a team like the Falcons, this pick was certainly a grave mistake as with the signing of cousins they were poised to win the division and be contenders in the NFC this season and drafting a player that would actually start and make an impact such as a Dallas Turner or a Laiatu Latu would be far more beneficial.

Minnesota Vikings

Next are the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings in this draft came out of the first round with huge additions to the team in the form of JJ McCarthy and Dallas Turner. I am certainly a fan of the picks and do not doubt that they will be good starters for the Vikings that will play snaps for the team at some point providing value on a rookie contract. The issue is though, the Vikings gave up excessive draft capital in their trade-ups. 

Some of the very analytics-based trade charts even said that the Vikings lost the value of an early first round pick in their trades. Although I would imagine it wasn’t the Vikings intention to spend all that draft capital on a pass rusher, they were not able to use pick 23 to trade up to the top 3 to get drake maye as they wanted. So, they did what they could and ended up with two fantastic players. However, they still wasted a huge amount of draft capital for a young rebuilding team that is in a very competitive NFC North and not really set to win now. The ramifications of these moves will be felt as in future drafts the Vikings will be shallow on picks as in the 2025 draft they basically only have a first rounder and 2s, 3s, or 4s. So, the team will be forced to use up a lot of their cap space and the UDFA market to fill up some of their starters instead of low-cost rookie.

Titans

Even though JC Latham shows great promise and is expected to start for the Titans, their decision to prioritize filling a positional gap instead of selecting the most talented player available was a mistake for the rebuilding team. Free agency and trades are where teams needs should be met, the draft, especially for rebuilding teams, is the one unequivalent market where the best player available should be upheld to the most except for extreme scenarios. The Titans certainly should have considered players such as Rome Odunze, Laiatu Latu, Dallas Turner, or quarterbacks like Penix and McCarthy instead of reaching on an offensive tackle. They had a strong need at offensive tackle but the most that will do in their division facing teams like the surging Texans and fringe playoff teams like the Colts and Jaguars is maybe push them from 6 to 7 wins. When the Titans are a bad team in a very competitive AFC with a question mark at quarterback with Will Levis, only a bonafide stud at a premium position or a new quarterback could push the needle enough for Tennessee.

Overall, the worst moves weren’t teams drafting bad players, teams generally know what they are doing. The mistakes were just a misallocation of resources and a lack of recognizing what state of contention or rebuilding that they are in.