Good question. If you grade the R1 players the same as R7 players it obviously wouldn't make sense so you must assess based on projection which is subjective.
I see
SI made a sensible assessment of Texans picks as it must be based on what players you scored at which positions.
For us to score two borderline first round talents in the third round obviously warrants a very high grade (A) for those two.
Akins was a reach as I believe we could have gotten him in the 6th round. (I gave him a C based on that).
Coutee probably went where he should have (B) and Ejiofor was a good score (B+).
SI's grade? A. Probably a tad high, but A- was definitely warranted.
As I said in another post, the other AFC south teams must be annoyed that we got two very good talents with our first two picks despite not having a first or second round pick.
Texans were very fortunate this was such a deep draft.
I would have liked to see us wait on Akins until the 6th and take a quality OL or RB in his place at #98. Akins would replace Jordan Thomas who I would not have drafted.
That would have pushed them to an A.
Their draft could easily have looked like this:-
#68. Justin Reid S
#80. Martinas Rankin OL
#98. Rick Leonard OL or Will Richardson OL or Nyheim Hines RB
#103. Keke Coutee WR
#177. Duke Ejiofor DE
#211. Jordan Akins TE
#214. Peter Kalambayi DE
#222. Jermaine Kelly DB
Sure, hindsight is always 20/20, but there is also a couple more changes I would have liked to see:-
#214. Alex McGough QB
#222. Peter Kalambayi DE.
Sure, you could say we have to be pretty happy with what we got from where we were, but with that in mind, Texans needed to make every single pick count and they dropped the ball a bit with their 3rd, (#98) for mine.