My immediate post draft grade was a D. Limited picks to start with, using the 1st (3rd round) on a QB who had very little experience, trading up to get a WR who opted out of 2020, drafting their obligatory TE, and moving up TWO times to get a 5th round LB.
Add in the player's performances after 1 year, Collins had one of the worst catch rates in football, had just 3 games where he had more than 3 catches in a game, and didn't score his 1st and only TD until week 16.
Brevin Jordan didn't even put the uniform on the 1st 7 weeks of the season, then averaged 2.2 catches and 19.7 yards per game. Of course the Kelly/O'Brien offense seemed unaware most of the time that TEs were allowed to catch passes.
Garrett Wallow was the worst of the bunch. They moved up TWICE to grab him and he barely saw the field. If not for injuries and Covid, he wouldn't have. He played 15 defensive snaps the 1st 12 weeks of the season, 0 from weeks 6-12.
Roy Lopez started 15 games, which for a 6th rounder is pretty impressive. Was that because he was good or because of a lack of talent? In the end he was on the field for just 46% of the snaps, 20 solo tackles, 5 TFL and 1 sack. I'll take that out of a 6th rounder.
And then there's Mills. Forced to start his career in week 2, back to the bench for 4 games, then taking it the rest of the way. In that 1st stint, he was pretty bad, but then you'd expect that from a guy with as little experience as he had. 7 TD, 8 INT, 6.5 Y/A, 80.2 PR, and the Texans averaged 10.1 points per game.
Part II looked a little different. 9 TD, 2 INT, 7.1 Y/A, 98.6 PR, and the Texans averaged 23.2 points per game in his final 5 starts.
Home/road splits were crazy. 12 TD, 1 INT, 109.5 PR at home, 4 TD, 9 INT, 63.1 PR on the road.
So with Mills' improvement in the 2nd half, along with Lopez's contributions being a 6th, I give last year's draft a full letter grade bump from D to C. We'll see if year 2 can keep that grade trending up.