2023 NFL Draft: The best NFL player/scheme fits in the second round

The deeper you get into any draft, the more important it is for your rookies to fit the schemes they’re heading into with their first NFL teams. Even in the second round, outside of those inexplicable sleepers who slide, the dings start to show up more often even with the most gifted prospects, so situations that allow those players to maximize their attributes and minimize their liabilities are certainly crucial.

Great scheme fits don’t happen all the time, but they can certainly pay off in the second round. In recent years, think of Bobby Wanger, Rob Gronkowski, Davante Adams, Lavonte David, Chris Jones, and Derrick Henry among those second-round picks who were able to make the most of their talents in the best possible schematic conditions.

We’ve already looked at the best scheme fits for the first round of the 2023 NFL draft, and we’ve discussed some of the most compelling overall fits with Greg Cosell. Here, to further the discussion, are our best scheme fits for the second round of the most recent draft.

Joey Porter Jr. CB, Pittsburgh Steelers

(Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

Last season, the Steelers played a whole lot of man coverage, and they were… well, decent when they did it. In Cover-0, Cover-1, and 2-Man in 2022, Pittsburgh allowed 108 completions on 204 attempts for 1,615 yards, 14 touchdowns, seven interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 87.8. Only six teams had more snaps in man coverage, so this is the defense Mike Tomlin and his staff want to run at a high rate. If you weren’t sure of that, you can be after they selected Penn State’s Joey Porter Jr. with the first pick in the second round, and Purdue’s Cory Trice Jr. with the 241st overall pick in the seventh round.

Both Porter (6-foot-2, 193 pounds) and Trice (6-foot-3, 206 pounds) are huge defenders with giant wingspans who love to get right up on receivers and just envelop them. But since we’re talking about second-round guys here, let’s focus on Porter. He is of course the son of the former Steelers edge-rusher, and he played high-school football with Tomlin’s son Dino at one point, so the family ties are all over the place. That’s nice and all, but it’s Porter’s specific fit in what Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin want to do that made them trade up to the first pick in the second round.

“One of the things we always do is we look at guys and we want to know, ‘Hey, how do they play in the press?’” Austin said of Porter’s ability to press receivers. “Because we are going to play man and you guys know that, but we are also going to play some zone and we are also going to ask these guys to tackle some big backs in our division. He’s got that ability to do all of those things. When you start looking at skill sets, I felt really comfortable with what he brought to the table for us, and we were good there.”

As they should. When Porter was in press coverage last season for the Nittany Lions, he allowed allowed five catches on 13 targets in press for 63 yards. This included an 11-yard in-cut to Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. (who some believe to be the best receiver prospect since Calvin Johnson) where Harrison had to be at his best to catch it, as Porter was all over him.

Sam LaPorta, TE, Detroit Lions

(Syndication: Detroit Free Press)

On November 1, 2022, the Lions traded tight end T.J. Hockenson to the Vikings for a 2023 second-round pick and a 2024 third-round pick, while Minnesota got a 2023 fourth-round pick and a conditional 2024 fourth-round pick along with their new tight end. As it turned out, Detroit was about to select another Iowa tight end in the 2023 draft — Sam LaPorta, who caught 58 passes on 90 targets last season for 648 yards and one touchdown. Not exactly stellar numbers, but this was done in an offense that ranked 123rd out of 131 FBS teams in points scored, and whose quarterbacks combined for seven touchdowns and seven interceptions.

The Lions saw through what LaPorts was dealing with, and made him the latest Hawkeye tight end of renown, following in the footsteps of Dallas Clark, Scott Chandler, Noah Fant, George Kittle, and Hockenson himself.

“Yeah, LaPorta, really athletic guy,” Lions EVP and general manager Brad Holes said. “He can play a lot of different positions, he can align in a lot of different spots. He can do it in-line. I really like his urgency and willingness in the run game. For the most part, he’s active with his hands, and he’s not the biggest guy. He’s not a 6-foot-5’, 250-pound guy, but he plays a lot bigger in-line than what you think. What really stands out is when he detaches from the core and the work that he can do on the perimeter, and he can beat a DB and he can catch contested and he can win a slant. He’s got very good ball skills.

“I know that there’s some stats on drops and all that stuff, but I’m not concerned about his hands. He’s got really impressive ball skills – he’s just a really good athlete. He can bend, he can change directions, and again, I just like the way he plays football, man. He’s just got a gritty feel about him. Although he’s athletic and he can do all that stuff in the pass game and he can be a mismatch and all that stuff, but he still has a gritty finishing style, especially with the ball in his hands. He’s got run-after-the-catch (ability), so I think he’s going to be a guy that’s going to be a good addition. He’s going to be able to do a lot of good things. This was a good tight end class, it really was this year. But he just really stood out to me among the others, so we were happy to get him.”

LaPorta wasn’t responsible for a ton of explosive plays — how could he be in that offense — but he was impressively effective inline, in the slot, and out wide. Putting him in Ben Johnson’s diverse offense should provide a massive uptick in productivity whether it’s Jared Goff throwing him the ball in the short term, or perhaps Hendon Hooker doing so later on.

You saw his broken-tackle ability in that first clip, and here’s how LaPorta can just truck a defender in the middle of the field for bigger gains. Is he a Dan Campbell type of guy? It would certainly appear to be so.

Michael Mayer, TE, Las Vegas Raiders

(Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports)

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels has very specific ideas about what he wants in his offensive players, and if you don’t fit that suit, you aren’t going to be around very long. The capricious coach proved that when he put Darren Waller — one of the NFL’s most explosive tight ends — in his doghouse in his first year as the Raiders’ top dude, and eventually endorsed the trade of Waller to the New York Giants.

Waller is a new-school “big receiver” tight end as opposed to a more traditional player at the position, and it became clear that McDaniels would sacrifice that explosive play ability at the altar of a more complete skill set — both with the Waller trade, and the decision to trade up in the second round of the 2023 draft to take Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer with the 35th overall pick in the second round.

Not that Mayer is a stick-in-the mud guy from an explosive play perspective — he led all tight ends in this draft class with eight receptions of 20 or more air yards — but it’s not his primary thing. Mayer’s appeal to the Raiders was his entire palette of attributes.

“A really unique thing about him I’d say is his short area quickness,” general manager Dave Zeigler said of Mayer. “He’s a bigger guy, but he still has — when you watch the tape — he has the ability to win in a short area, can win on third down, use his size down in the red zone. Obviously has some size to continue to develop as a run blocker. Another kid with excellent traits, very smart. Probably in terms of our scale of traits, one of the highest guys on our board in that regard too, the way we kind of measure that. So, really excited to be able to get a young tight end with his skill set where we got him. We felt like that was very good value.”

Last season for the Fighting Irish, Mayer caught 67 passes on 101 targets for 809 yards and nine touchdowns, and the nine touchdowns are especially instructive as to what the Raiders saw in him, and how he’ll likely be used. McDaniels already has Davante Adams, Jakobi Myers, and Hunter Renfrow at his disposal as receivers; he doesn’t need or want his tight end flying around all over the place, for better or worse. As Zeigler said, McDaniels wants a tight end who can win in compressed areas from the backfield, inline, and the slot, and Mayer can do that all day long. He’s big and physical enough to win contested-catch battles, he has the subtle movement skills to get open quickly, and he’ll just body defenders at the catch point.

Julius Brents, CB, Indianapolis Colts

(Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)

Like the Steelers, the Colts and general manager Chris Ballard clearly wanted a new group of massive cornerbacks with the ability to press and envelop receivers off the line of scrimmage. There was the 6-foot-3, 198-pound Brents, taken with the 44th overall pick in the second round, South Carolina’s Darius Rush in the fifth round, and Texas A&M’s Jaylon Jones in the seventh round. All three of them should be able to excel in defensive coordinator Gus Bradley’s single-high island-based coverages. Indy’s top personnel man was particularly impressed by Brents’ physical profile.

“There are not a lot of guys 6-foot-3 playing corner in the league, but he is a really good athlete,” Ballard said of Brents. “He’s a really good fit for what we want to do because he’s a press corner. We do want to play a little more press coverage. We think he’s going to be really good at it. He’s got some unique traits. He’s a really good athlete and for a tall kid he can really change direction. We’re excited about it. We think he’s a really good fit for the defense.”

Last season for the Wildcats, Brents allowed just 24 catches on 52 targets for 374 yards, 123 yards after the catch, three touchdowns, four interceptions, three pas breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 57.7. On 15 snaps in press coverage in 2022, Brents gave up just six receptions for 33 yards — the longest catch he allowed in press was 15 yards, and there were more catches that went absolutely nowhere than those that did.

This two-yard loss against Texas A&M was one example of how well Brents can close down any quick-game stuff from press, which is mandatory in today’s NFL.

Brian Branch, DB, Detroit Lions

(Gary Cosby Jr.-USA TODAY Sports)

The Detroit Lions enjoyed quite the secondary makeover in the 2023 offseason. They signed cornerbacks Cameron Sutton and Emmanuel Moseley, as well as versatile slot/safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Adding Branch to that mis with the 45th pick in the second round, along with 2022 third-round safety Kerby Joseph (who made Aaron Rodgers’ life miserable with three interceptions last season) turns a defensive backfield that was a glaring liability into a serious strength. The Alabama alum allowed 36 catches on 57 targets last season for 240 yards, 136 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, six pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 69.3.

“Really what stood out about Brian was really just if you want to like – if you just had football players – there’s “football player” in caps, and just black and white, that’s what he is, just the way that he plays the game, whether he is playing nickel,” Lions general manager Brad Holmes said of the pick. “That’s what he played the majority of his career there. He’s been more of a nickel than a safety, but his nickel stuff is really good.

“He’s one of the better tacklers that I saw on film this year from a defensive standpoint, especially for a DB. He just plays the game how we play it and like the style of how we want to play. He’s very instinctive. He’s very physical. He’s one of the better tacklers. He’s very athletic. The guy can bend, change directions. He’s got good size. He was another one that when he came in on his visit, just kind of looking him in his eye and you can just feel him. You can just feel that he wants to be great. That put it over the top for me. I didn’t think that he was going to be there, but we were jacked that he was.”

Like Minkah Fitzpatrick, his multi-position predecessor at Alabama, Branch can play all over the secondary, and in Branch’s case, there’s a ton of potential in the slot, as Holmes said. Branch can match and carry any route, he is expert at jumping stuff over the middle, and No. 14 knows how to bring a receiver down after the catch.

Keeanu Benton, DI, Pittsburgh Steelers

(Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports)

The Steelers have revolved through some great interior defensive linemen alongside future Hall of Famer Cameron Heyward over the last few years. Javon Hargrave and Stephon Tuitt have been the most prominent, but with Tuitt’s injuries and eventual retirement in June, 2022, Pittsbugh has struggled to give Heyward adequate support, which has required Hayward to play like Superman most of the time. Which Heyward is still capable of doing, but it’s not an ideal situation.

So, with the 49th overall pick in the second round, the Steelers took Wisconsin’s Keeanu Benton, who has been quite the run-stopper and pass-rusher of late. Last season, the 6-foot-4, 309-pound Benton totaled six sacks, 11 quarterback hits, 11 quarterback hurries, and 27 stops. Moreover, he had production everywhere from nose tackle to occasional edge, which makes him a perfect fit in Pittsburgh’s multiple fronts.

“He’s a big, strong guy,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of Benton. “Really active. Good hands. For a big guy, you’ll see him venture outside the box chasing things down. He’s got a good motor. You can see he’s in really good shape. He plays a lot of snaps. Sometimes you’ll watch guys and they’re splitting snaps with other guys. He’s an 80 to 85 percent guy. So, he keeps himself in really good shape, really good competitive sphere, big strong guy. I like him. 

“I think we’ll start him probably inside as a nose and see what he can do as a 3 or a 4 for us. He’s a big body but he’s not a two-down guy. So, he’ll have some chance to be a guy that can play on third-down and do some things in terms of penetrating and rushing and all those things. We’ll probably start him inside as a nose, and let him grow into it and see what he does. But he’s not strictly that.”

Well, Benton did line up either right over the center or to one shoulder on 65% of his snaps in 2022, and 19 of his total pressures, along with five tackles for loss, came from there. Benton is great at blowing through power blocking or zone slides, and turning the backfield into chaos theory, and he should be the ideal addition for a defense in desperate need of consistent disruption in the inside of those fronts.

Zach Charbonnet, RB, Seattle Seahawks

(Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports)

The Seahawks selected two running backs in the 2023 draft, because… well, they’re the Seahawks. However, the two backs — UCLA’s Zach Charbonnet and Georgia’s Kenny McIntosh — couldn’t be more different. The 6-foot-0, 214-pound Charbonnet, selected with the 52nd overall pick in the second round, is a pure power runner, while the 6-foot-0, 204-pound McIntosh, taken with the 237th overall pick in the seventh round — projects much more as a satellite back and receiver.

Seahawks’ GM John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll were eager to say what they liked about Charbonnet..

“Contact balance, toughness, hands, vision, and versatility,”  Schneider said. “For a guy that runs a little bit upright, he has some serious contact balance and can extend his burst and get down field. He’s a tough, rugged dude. He wears people out.”

“He’s going to be right in there with Ken [Walker III],” Carroll said of Charbonnet’s role in Seattle’s offense — specifically how he fits into the team’s ideal one-two punch. “It’s going to take both guys to get the workload with some help from DeeJay [Dallas]. I really like the versatility like we are talking about because he can block, can catch the ball out of the backfield, he’s good in the screen game, he makes big plays, and he’s been the workhorse, so I think he will be a great complement to Ken. I got Ken on the phone just to talk to him about that, how much we see them fitting together. I’m pretty excited about this one.”

My pre-draft NFL comparison for Charbonnet was Marshawn Lynch, so the pairing makes sense. Charbonnet has the same type of contact power and lateral agility, and while he doesn’t’ possess home-run speed or value as a three-level receiver (at least not right now), the 53 missed tackles he forced last season on 194 carries for 1,358 yards and 14 touchdowns are all over his tape.

Rashee Rice, WR, Kansas City Chiefs

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Last season, Patrick Mahomes ranked ninth in the NFL with 70 passing attempts of 20 or more air yards, completing 31 for 985 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 110.1. Not bad at all, but when you consider that Seattle’s Geno Smith led the league with 15 touchdowns on deep passes, the Chiefs would probably like a few more scoring opportunities out of their deep passing game, and that’s something they haven’t really had since they traded Tyreek Hill.

Not that SMU’s Rashee Rice, selected with the 55th overall pick in the second round, profiles exactly like Hill from a pure speed perspective, but nobody in the NCAA was more prolific with the deep catch last season. Rice led the FBS in receptions of 20 or more air yards with 18 on 40 targets for 566 yards and four touchdowns. Rice was an explosive play machine in the Mustangs’ passing game, and it’s easy to see why Andy Reid might find him appealing.

“Certainly excited to add Rashee to the mix here,” general manager Brett Veach said. “He was a guy that the contested catch and the run after the catch was something that really stood out. We did lose JuJu [Smith-Schuster], and I think it makes sense to find a guy that can do a lot of things that he can do on the inside game and he’s almost like a running back after the catch. We just like to put talent out on the field, and Coach will find ways to put these guys in different positions and different formations and different sets.”

There’s no doubt about that, but I think Rice beings a vertical dimension to Kansas City’s passing game they really didn’t have in 2022. Marquez Valdes-Scantling was the only Mahomes target with more than five deep catches (13), but he’s more of a secondary deep target. Rice, as Veach intimated, can stretch the field and make the contested catch at 6-foot-1 and 204 pounds.

He’s not a pure burner, but he accelerates nicely off the line of scrimmage, and once he gets going, he does well to bring the ball in even as defenders are converging. If you have that kind of deep receiver, it can overhaul your passing game. Also, Rice has proven able to make the difficult catch deep in scramble drills… which seems kind of important when Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback.

Story originally appeared on Touchdown Wire