Ranking the Teams on Day 2 of the NFL Draft the Last 10 Years

A week ago, I ranked all the NFL teams by their performance in the first round of the NFL Draft in the last 10 years. (If you missed it, check here: Teams 1-16 and Teams 17-32.) Today, I’m doing the same, but with Day 2 picks, Rounds 2 and 3.

Defining success or failure on the second day of the NFL Draft is a different exercise than it is for Day 1. Sure, the Buccaneers spending a second-rounder on Roberto Aguayo (a kicker) in 2016 and getting one season of 71.0% field goal success before moving on is a failure, and the Saints famously getting Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, Alex Anzalone and Trey Hendrickson in 2017 is a success. But for the most part, the further you get from the first round, the more it’s about throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks. So a missed pick hurts a team’s rankings far less than a hit helps them. In other words, if a team gets one Pro Bowler in two years in the first round, that’s pretty dicey; if they get one Pro Bowler in two years on Day 2, that’s actually pretty decent.

(Tomorrow, I’ll look at the best teams on Day 3, and let’s just say now: One Pro Bowler in two years after Round 3 is very good.)

Unlike the first-round rankings, I’m more willing to consider how a player might have done after leaving his initial team in this range. In the first round, it’s about helping your team. After that, it’s more about finding good players. So if you find a good player but another team ultimately reaps the benefits, that counts for something. Not as much as reaping those rewards yourself, but it’s there.

Here we go, from 32 to 1. Friday, I’ll look at Day 3.

Ranking the Teams on Day 2 of the NFL Draft, 2015-2024

32. Las Vegas Raiders

Total picks: 22
Games: 1,025
Pro Bowls: 0

The Raiders’ best Day 2 pick over the last 10 years is … Arden Key, who played three years with the team (one as a starter) before eventually finding more success in Tennessee three teams later? Tre’von Moehrig, who was a full-timer for four years in Las Vegas and left before getting an extension? Jackson Powers-Johnson, who is only one season in? There really aren’t bright spots.

31. New York Jets

Total picks: 17
Games: 698
Pro Bowls: 0

Every team’s collection of Day 2 picks has played at least 900 NFL games in the last 10 years except the Jets’ group, which isn’t even at 700. They’ve also made the fewest picks, but the per-player average is still very bad. Breece Hall is the star here, but even he is a question mark — Year 1 injury, Year 2 stardom, Year 3 moderate disappointment, Year 4 trade candidate/committee back? The Jets and Raiders are the only teams to not draft a single Pro Bowler on Day 2 in the last 10 years.

30. Carolina Panthers

Total picks: 20
Games: 1,055
Pro Bowls: 1

See that line above that says “Pro Bowls: 1”? That was James Bradberry, the Panthers’ second-round pick in 2016, who made the Pro Bowl in 2020 … for the Giants. Carolina has found mild success on Day 2 (Bradberry, Curtis Samuel, Jeremy Chinn) but hasn’t even come close to a difference maker — Taylor Moton (drafted in 2017 and basically a full-time starter since 2018, still with the team) is the closest. Add in some glaring missteps the last few years (Jonathan Mingo, Matt Corral, Terrace Marshall Jr.), and the Panthers are struggling.

29. Atlanta Falcons

Total picks: 19
Games: 1,007
Pro Bowls: 3

Some teams haven’t found success on Day 2 at all. Others did briefly and then just went away from it. That’s the Falcons, who landed Tevin Coleman (2015), Deion Jones (2016) and Austin Hooper (2016) over a two-year span. They got three Pro Bowls and 50 touchdowns out of it. Not bad. But that was nine and 10 years ago, and since then it’s been dry, at least until the second-round pick of Matthew Bergeron in 2024. And while Deion Jones was very good, Austin Hooper and Tevin Coleman aren’t enough to overcome that sort of dry spell.

28. Los Angeles Chargers

Total picks: 18
Games: 970
Pro Bowls: 1

Like the Panthers above, the Chargers’ lone Pro Bowler among their Day 2 picks did it after leaving the team, with 2015 second-rounder Denzel Perryman making it with the Raiders in 2021. But the team did also draft a 40-touchdown tight end in 2016 (Hunter Henry) and an rookie receiver last year who topped 1,100 yards (Ladd McConkey). Give it a few years, and McConkey alone could help this ranking.

27. Jacksonville Jaguars

Total picks: 22
Games: 1,529
Pro Bowls: 2

In 2016, the Jaguars got Myles Jack and Yannick Ngakoue on Day 2. That’s a nice haul — Jack made it six years (and 88 games) in Jacksonville, while Ngakoue played four (and 63) and has been on just about every team in the league since. Outside of Ngakoue’s one Pro Bowl season, the only one the Jaguars have gotten on Day 2 is DJ Chark Jr.’s 2019, when he managed 1,008 yards and 8 touchdowns. That’s great, until you realize it’s almost more than he ever had in any two consecutive seasons otherwise.

26. Washington Commanders

Total picks: 22
Games: 1,102
Pro Bowls: 2

Terry McLaurin is the only Pro Bowler here, but he’s also got five straight years of 1,000-plus yards and scored 13 touchdowns last year, so he’s a particularly bright spot. And guys like Brian Robinson Jr. and Kendall Fuller have had nice moments as well. But Washington has run into some big problems, including Derrius Guice’s crash out and Ricky Stromberg only making it four games in Washington before injuries and a release.

25. Cleveland Browns

Total picks: 26
Games: 1,306
Pro Bowls: 5

The Browns were a top-10 team in my first-round rankings, but the success falls off on Day 2. Nick Chubb accounts for four of the five Pro Bowls the team has gotten on Day 2, with Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah nabbing the fifth. Beyond that, we’re talking names like Duke Johnson, Cedric Tillman and Grant Delpit as the bright spots. No shame, but not running away with anything.

24. New York Giants

Total picks: 21
Games: 1,148
Pro Bowls: 4

Landon Collins was one of the league’s best safeties for a while in there, with three Pro Bowls and a first-team All Pro in 2016-2018. It was another case of burning hot and bright, because his carry dipped from there, but it was a heck of a stretch. The Giants also got reliable types like Sterling Shepard, Dalvin Tomlinson and Wan’Dale Robinson, but the other particularly bright spot was Xavier McKinney, who ditched the Giants at his first opportunity and then made the Pro Bowl and got DPOY votes as soon as he got to Green Bay.

23. Dallas Cowboys

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,320
Pro Bowls: 4

The Cowboys have had ample first-round success in the last decade, but it gets more sparse the next day. The Jaylon Smith pick in 2016 was a bet he would recover from his Fiesta Bowl injury earlier in 2016, and while he did bounce back to make a Pro Bowl, he quickly became a journeyman, playing for four teams between 2021 and 2023 and not finding a contract for 2024. And it’s a bunch of “good, but only good” picks like that, names like Trevon Diggs, Osa Odighizuwa and Connor Williams who have been consistent contributors but never stars.

22. New England Patriots

Total picks: 26
Games: 1,035
Pro Bowls: 3

Joe Thuney and Jacoby Brissett both in the third round in 2016 made for a pretty successful Day 2 in very different ways — Thuney was a good lineman for five years in New England and then a very good one for four in Kansas City before heading to Chicago this offseason, while Brissett has made a career of being one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league, which is a valuable role even if it’s not an exciting one. Getting Kyle Dugger and Christian Barmore in the second round in 2020-2021 was also a bright spot (especially now that there are reports he’s back participating in workouts after dealing with blood clots). The negatives are big, though — Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene combined to play 29 NFL games after the team double-dipped at tight end in the third round in 2020, and Tyquan Thornton (2022) and Ja’Lynn Polk (2024) were big failures as second-round receivers.

21. Miami Dolphins

Total picks: 19
Games: 1,264
Pro Bowls: 5

Corners burn hot and bright, and no one highlights that better than Xavien Howard, who made three straight Pro Bowls and a first-team All Pro from ages 27 to 29 and then was out of the league by 31. Still, the Dolphins got 29 interceptions and four Pro Bowls out of him. And the team also landed on names like Mike Gesicki and Robert Hunt after that. De’Von Achane, their third-rounder in 2023, has been excellent through two years and has plenty of time to carry the whole group higher.

20. Green Bay Packers

Total picks: 24
Games: 1,180
Pro Bowls: 2

Elgton Jenkins (who has made it twice) is the only Pro Bowler here, but this is a group that could easily look way different in the matter of a year or two. For the first five years of the decade, Jenkins was the bright spot. But since then, they Packers have landed A.J. Dillon (who had a moment or two, but that’s about it), and then in 2022-2023 rebuilt their entire pass-catching group with Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Luke Musgrave, Jayden Reed, Tucker Kraft and Dontayvion Wicks (all but Doubs and Wicks on Day 2). The team could use a single elite receiver (just ask Josh Jacobs), but that is still a contender-level receiver room basically all built on Day 2. No guarantees, but lots of possibilities.

19. Los Angeles Rams

Total picks: 24
Games: 1,354
Pro Bowls: 1

Making a Pro Bowl isn’t a perfect 1:1 correlation to skill, we know that. And the Rams illustrate it as well as anyone, because they got a 10-year starter (Rob Havenstein), a respected veteran tight end (Gerald Everett), a superstar-for-a-time receiver (Cooper Kupp), a flash-in-the-pan running back (Cam Akers) and back-to-back third-place finishers for DPOY (Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske) and came out of that with exactly one Pro Bowl (Kupp’s Triple Crown 2021). Still, that’s a very nice group of pieces, especially if Turner/Fiske continue to develop into star defenders.

18. Chicago Bears

Total picks: 18
Games: 1,069
Pro Bowls: 3

The Bears have been legendarily bad in the first round. In the second, they’ve been … average. Cody Whitehair, James Daniels and Teven Jenkins all had nice runs as starting offensive linemen. David Montgomery has become the Knuckles to Jahmyr Gibbs’ Sonic in Detroit. But it’s really the second round in 2020 that boosts the Bears, with the team getting Cole Kmet and two-time Pro Bowler Jaylon Johnson with seven picks of one another.

17. Houston Texans

Total picks: 24
Games: 1,182
Pro Bowls: 3

Jonathan Greenard and Nico Collins in consecutive third rounds in 2020 and 2021 highlight a relatively short list, with Benardrick McKinney (2015), Justin Reid (2018) and Tank Dell (2023) having their moments. The team has taken plenty of stabs at skill players and had plenty of misses — Jaelen Strong, Braxton Miller, quasi-miss D’Onta Foreman, Kahale Warring, Davis Mills, John Metchie III. Lot of swings, not many hits.

16. Buffalo Bills

Total picks: 21
Games: 1,356
Pro Bowls: 7

Dion Dawkins is entering his ninth year in Buffalo, has been a full-time starter almost the entire time and has made the Pro Bowl the last four years in a row. Definite home run of a pick. James Cook has back-to-back 1,000-yard Pro Bowl seasons. Also a hit, even if the team is balking at an extension. After those hits, though, the Day 2 success stories in Buffalo are Ronald Darby, Devin Singletary and Dawson Knox. Good players all, but not the kinds of picks you’re hanging your hat on. Bang-up job on Dawkins, though.

15. Denver Broncos

Total picks: 26
Games: 1,464
Pro Bowls: 6

In my first draft of this, I tried dividing the teams into tiers, before it got too cumbersome and felt forced. But it was clear that the Broncos ended a tier and the Bills started a new one. Denver has gotten a couple of Pro Bowls out of Justin Simmons and Marvin Mims Jr. (as a returner) and one each from Courtland Sutton and Nik Bonitto. That’s more than solid. But “more than solid” is as far as it’s gone for Denver on Day 2,

14. San Francisco 49ers

Total picks: 21
Games: 904
Pro Bowls: 5

The 49ers haven’t had a lot of hits on Day 2 in the last decade, but the hits they have had have been fantastic. Yeah, their Day 2 history includes C.J. Beathard, Dante Pettis, Jalen Hurd, Trey Sermon, Tyrion Davis-Price. But it also includes one of the best defensive players in football in Fred Warner. It includes a star (at least for a while) receiver in Deebo Samuel Sr. And it includes last year’s third-rounder, Dominick Puni, who is only one year into his career but certainly looks like a hit.  

13. Baltimore Ravens

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,309
Pro Bowls: 11

You know the Three True Outcomes guys in baseball? Home run, walk or strikeout? Like the 49ers, the Ravens are the Two True Outcomes drafters on Day 2 — they’ve either knocked their pick out of the park (Orlando Brown Jr. and Mark Andrews both in the third round in 2018 and combining for seven Pro Bowls, Nnamdi Madubuike and Devin Duvernay both in the third round in 2020 and four more Pro Bowls) or swung and missed (outside of those names, their best Day 2 pick is probably J.K. Dobbins or last year’s second-rounder Roger Rosengarten). Still, three definite hits (I’m not really counting return man Duvernay) plus what looks like one in Rosengarten is better than most teams find.

12. Minnesota Vikings

Total picks: 18
Games: 1,137
Pro Bowls: 12

Does brief big success outweigh sustained marginal success? Because in 2015, the Vikings drafted Eric Kendricks and Danielle Hunter on Day 2, and then in 2017 they added Dalvin Cook and Pat Elflein. That’s 10 Pro Bowls plus Elflein. Add in Brian O’Neill’s two Pro Bowls and seven starting years in 2018. Real nice run. Since then … Alexander Mattison, Ezra Cleveland, Ed Ingram, buncha just-a-guys. So this is a high rank based on the first part of our sample, and then the rest of the decade dragging them down.

11. Seattle Seahawks

Total picks: 25
Games: 1,567
Pro Bowls: 7

Getting Tyler Lockett in the third round of 2015 got the team 10 solid years as a starter. But otherwise, the highlights of the Seahawks’ Day 2 draft history in early part of the last decade did a lot of their work elsewhere. Frank Clark logged four years in Seattle, then went to Kansas City and started making Pro Bowls. Jarran Reed did his four years before leaving (he eventually found his way back). Ethan Pocic took off for Cleveland, Shaq Griffin went to Jacksonville. Even 2019 second-rounder DK Metcalf is now gone. Add in Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet forming a strong backfield out of the second round in 2022 and 2023, and the Seahawks have been good at finding talent on Day 2, but they’ve been worse at keeping that talent.

10. Cincinnati Bengals

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,425
Pro Bowls: 3

Ja’Marr Chase was a first-rounder of course, but the Bengals did find Tyler Boyd (2016) and Tee Higgins (2020) in the second round, forming the better part of their receiver room for a generation, plus Joe Mixon (2017) as another Day 2 pick. Mixon sliding to Day 2 was partly a result of off-field concerns, but the Bengals did reap the rewards. They also got a very good safety in Jessie Bates III on Day 2. Unfortunately, they’ve had too many misses in recent years to keep that going. Still, the highs are high.

9. Indianapolis Colts

Total picks: 26
Games: 1,377
Pro Bowls: 5

The Colts have had hits. They got a Defensive Rookie of the Year in Shaquille Leonard. They got the No. 2 in 2021 Offensive Player of the Year in Jonathan Taylor. They got their current receiver room in Michael Pittman Jr., Alec Pierce and Josh Downs. That’s all pretty (or very) good. It’s just that Leonard and Taylor account for all the Pro Bowls, and the Pittman-Pierce-Downs trio have proven to be more “serviceable” than “wow.” And outside of that group, the hits have been few and not spectacular — Braden Smith, Bernhard Raimann, Julian Blackmon. It’s a good draft history, but one that could definitely hit harder.

8. Arizona Cardinals

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,142
Pro Bowls: 10

Budda Baker has made seven Pro Bowl and two first-team All-Pros, and even at age 28 in 2024 he was still a full-time starter and an upper-level safety around the league. Trey McBride just had 1,100 yards and became the highest-paid tight end in league history. David Johnson in 2016 was one of 10 running backs ever to top 400 PPR points in a season. Christian Kirk broke a bunch of GMs’ brains with his contract in Jacksonville. There have been hits. Big ones. They more than make up for the misses like Chad Williams and Andy Isabella.

7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Total picks: 26
Games: 1,487
Pro Bowls: 3

Look past Roberto Aguayo. That 2016 pick is the punch line of this exercise. But beyond Aguayo, the Buccaneers have been very good at the second round, even if it hasn’t led to the Hall of Fame — only three Pro Bowls. Donovan Smith has started for nine years. Chris Godwin just got a big-money extension. Carlton Davis got a big contract as well. He, Sean Murphy-Bunting, Jamel Dean and Antoine Winfield Jr. were an all-second-round secondary for a bit. Rachaad White was the PPR RB4 in 2023. Jalen McMillan looked good as a rookie. The Buccaneers have had plenty of Day 2 success. There’s a reason they have four straight division title and five straight playoff appearances.

6. Pittsburgh Steelers

Total picks: 24
Games: 1,317
Pro Bowls: 6

The Steelers have the reputation of being the Receiver Finders, spending Day 2 picks on Sammie Coates (2015), JuJu Smith-Schuster (2017), James Washington (2018), Diontae Johnson (2019), Chase Claypool (2020), George Pickens (2022) and Roman Wilson (2024), plus TE Pat Freiermuth (2021) in the last 10 years. Coates, Washington and Wilson (so far at least) are definite misses there, with Claypool borderline. JuJu and Johnson had brief pops and then kind of vanished. Pickens has been good, but we’ll see. In short, I get that the Steelers have found big names at receiver on Day 2, but … isn’t the hit rate less impressive than you’d want for a team with that reputation?

That said, Pittsburgh has also found Javon Hargrave, Cameron Sutton, James Conner, Chukwuma Okorafor and Joey Porter Jr. on Day 2 in the last decade, so even if their receiver prowess is overstated, their overall draft ability is more than solid.

5. New Orleans Saints

Total picks: 19
Games: 1,280
Pro Bowls: 15

In 2016 and 2017, the Saints got Michael Thomas, Vonn Bell, Marcus Williams, Alvin Kamara, Alex Anzalone and Trey Hendrickson That’s good on a scale that can’t really be defined. Twelve Pro Bowls among Day 2 picks over two years, plus Bell-Williams-Anzalone? There’s a reason the Saints’ 2017 haul has gone down in history. And they still went on to get Erik McCoy in 2019 and Zack Baun in 2020. Nothing’s been as successful as 2017, though to be fair it would have been very hard for anything to get there. Still, that success is plenty for a team to hang its hat on.

4. Detroit Lions

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,306
Pro Bowls: 5

The Lions are so good at finding offensive linemen. They got Laken Tomlinson, Taylor Decker, Frank Ragnow and Penei Sewell in the first round over the years — part of the reason they ranked No. 1 for Day 1 — and they also nabbed Graham Glasgow and Jonah Jackson on Day 2. They’ve also hit on Kenny Golladay (who flamed out but was excellent for a time), D’Andre Swift and Kerby Joseph, and then in 2023 they got both Sam LaPorta and Brian Branch in the second round, a haul many teams can only dream of.

3. Tennessee Titans

Total picks: 22
Games: 1,280
Pro Bowls: 12

It takes a lot to overcome Day 2 misses like Dorial Green-Beckham, Taywan Taylor and (so far at least) Will Levis. Well, Derrick Henry has made five Pro Bowls and is likely one of our next Hall of Fame running backs. Kevin Byard has made two first-team All Pros. Jonnu Smith has been a steady tight end who suddenly had a 2024 breakout. Harold Landry III, A.J. Brown, Nate Davis, T’Vondre Sweat … the goods outweigh the bads here in a big way.

2. Philadelphia Eagles

Total picks: 18
Games: 1,139
Pro Bowls: 8

The Eagles were a little above average in our first-round rankings. Day 2? They’ve crushed it. It starts with being the only team to have found its current starting quarterback on Day 2 (unless Will Levis somehow continues to start in Tennessee) in Jalen Hurts. But they also had several hits along the offensive line, like Isaac Seumalo, Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens. Rasul Douglas didn’t do a lot as an Eagle, but he popped after leaving. Dallas Goedert has been an upper-level tight end, Miles Sanders had moments as a running back, Milton Williams, Nakobe Dean, Cooper DeJean … There’s a reason this team has been so good lately.

1. Kansas City Chiefs

Total picks: 23
Games: 1,626
Pro Bowls: 12

The two teams that played in the most recent Super Bowl are the top two teams on Day 2 of the draft. I doubt that’s a coincidence. The Chiefs have found their way into 12 Pro Bowls on Day 2. Yes, half of them belong to Chris Jones, but getting that sort of production in 2016 and having him still chugging along as an elite defender counts for a bunch. But on top of the Chiefs got Mitch Morse in 2015, Kareem Hunt in 2017, Derrick Nnadi in 2018, Nick Bolton and Creed Humphrey in 2021, Leo Chenal in 2022, Rashee Rice in 2023. And there were more hits in that run. The Chiefs have been the best-drafting team on Day 2 in the last decade, and I’m not sure it’s all that close.