Don't you dare think about asking SVP to grade your favorite team's draft!
Nov 25, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Scott Van Pelt on the ESPN Monday Night Football Countdown set before the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn ImagesESPNNFLBy Sam Neumann on
Whatever you do, don’t mention NFL Draft grades around Scott Van Pelt.
You want to tease him about his Maryland Terrapins? Do so at your own peril. You can even poke fun at his bald head; he’s got no problem with it. In fact, he embraces his baldness. Just ask Alex Caruso.
But whatever you do, do not, under any circumstances, ask him to grade a team’s draft right after the fact.
“What do you hate more, this pre-draft mock season, or the immediate post-draft grades?” Van Pelt’s co-host, Stanford Steve, quipped on the SVPod.
“You know the answer to that,” Van Pelt shot back. “‘Hey, Scott, we’re going to do draft grades.’ No, we’re not. ‘You don’t want to do a draft grade?’ No, I sure don’t. ‘Why not?’ Because nobody has a f*cking clue, including the teams that just took the players. Why do we do this? … Say anything. Just make up anything. Who gives — it doesn’t matter. And you don’t have a clue. ‘They don’t have a clue.’ That’s a little Andy North. Inside, inside, inside, the beltway.”
Don’t ask @notthefakeSVP to give any draft grades 😂 pic.twitter.com/AoWIatYMoF
— SVPod (@_SVPod) April 22, 2025
And speaking of Andy North, the guy’s never had a clue. Seriously, Google “Andy North clue” — you’ll see that phrase pop up more than a few times.
It’s his go-to.
And it seems to be Van Pelt’s, too, if anyone dares ask him about NFL Draft grades.
“But, truly, people can’t possibly know,” Van Pelt said. “I don’t mind the speculation. The speculation’s fun — it’s the fuel for the engine. But the grade bit, you can miss me with that forever.”
You can miss Van Pelt with that, and you can miss us with that, too. Grading drafts right after they happen will always and completely be meaningless. It’s a fun exercise based on where analysts have players pre-ranked, but it shouldn’t replace actual analysis. The most consequential draft in Seattle Seahawks history, which bore fruit in the form of blossoming NFL careers like Bruce Irvin, Bobby Wagner, and Russell Wilson, was given an “F.”
And neither has the rest of the sports media, which is why Scott Van Pelt continues to oppose assigning draft grades. He’s not alone in his stance. Many analysts and fans alike have seen the futility of assigning grades to something so fluid and uncertain so soon after the event.
Perhaps we should stick to grading mock drafts instead. We’re not saying don’t analyze the picks, but you can’t definitively judge them in real-time, just like you can’t claim Brian Thomas Jr. will be a better NFL wide receiver than Marvin Harrison Jr. after one season.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.
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