why didn't they have a 14 year old draft for them? seriously a 14 year old could of traded up, and drafted monster defensive players. bill would rather pick a bunch of runningbacks, when he obviously doesnt need to in his offense. they run an offense where the patriots could just plug in myself to run up the middle for 5 yards.
Belichick is the Patriots' GM and Head Coach. When Pioli was here, he answered to Belichick. 100% of the football decisions, including personnel, rest with him. I could care less about what ESPN or NFLN analysts say, good or bad, so don't get me wrong here. Not defending any picks or disagreeing with you. I'm just saying you're wrong about the authority Belichick has. He has the final say on every player that walks into that locker room.
This is a good point. All the draft grades mean this week is how close to the consensus picks for your team/draft slot did you come. No one really knows shit at this point. That said, as a Jets fan, you guys had the ammo to get a truely scary draft and didn't. Bill did not adress your biggest need, that being your defensive front 7. There is still FA left to go so things could change and your team was 14-2 last year, so I'm not exactly predicting a big fall off. I'm more supprised that you didn't fix the glaring holes.
Yeah, you're dead on. That's also the sentiment among most of us Pats fans. I wouldn't have cared if that they grabbed the best available DE or OLB with that #28 pick and the guy ended up being a bust. At least they would have taken a shot at it. You never know what'll happen, but 100% of the guys you DON'T draft won't help your team! And with all those picks... I wouldn't have cared about wasting one on a guy who turns out to be a bust. The draft has been a pretty big letdown for us for a few years now. I wasn't too pumped about McCourty last year, but OK, my bad on that one. I think the last draft people got psyched about, ironically enough, was '06, when they took Maroney (1st) and Chad Jackson (high 2nd). Maroney is probably CFL bound and I'm not sure but Chad Jackson may have served me coffee this morning. Getting Ty Warren back (hip surgery, IR last year) may help the anemic pass rush a little, but he's more of a run stopper. I guess Belichick either feels OK about the development of the players he's already got, or will look to free agency. In all honesty I have little or no idea who's actually out there right now.
^ the answer as to who is out there right now at rush OLB, is nothing. The only guys really worth talking about, Wimbley, Hali and Woodley, all got franchised by their respective teams and would likely cost at least one of belicheck's #1's next year to get. Since he won't be doing that, nor will we, the market is completely bare...
Thanks... pretty lean out there, huh? Maybe Scott Pioli will trade Hali for a bucket of draft picks as payback for the sweet deal Belichick gave 'em in the Cassel-Vrabel trade. (Just kidding, but I wouldn't object!)
something funny i found. an afc east draft grade writeup on NFL.com Bucky Brooks blew the pats for getting future picks. even funnier he gave them an A and us a B and he loved our first four picks. yet we get a B for not addressing our needs. he then says "you really cant blame them considering who was available" yet the pats front 7 needs more help than ours and they get blown and no mention of them failing to fill big needs wasnt mentioned. heres the funny part, a few pats fans are blowing their load over belichecks "genius" some young girl shat on them all and shes a pats fan "Major Patriots fan and I am the opposite of dmcpatsfan on this one. Absolutely despise our draft. Why? The Patriots break even taking Solder, even if he plays to Matt Light's level. They took 2 medical concern players but didn't want Bowers (with pass-rush being such a depserate need), not to mention one is an oft-injured CB and the other is an OG that may not even see the field this year due to Lymphoma. They took a pair of RB--which is a need--but got a couple guys who *define* the word "average". Vereen was not nearly as highly rated as the back that went right after him, Mikel Leshoure, and not half the big-play threat as about a half dozen other backs in this draft (Rodger, Todman, Jones). Ridley from LSU is more of a *fullback*, and those typically go 6-7th round. And of course,t he Patriots got no pass-rush to speak of, despite having a shot at all but 2 or 3 of the top rushers in the draft class. "F" for fail. And Solder benchpressed less reps at the combine than many of the RBs, and at his size he needs a major strength boost just to avoid being run over when bullrushed. Furthermore, trading with the Saints looks good until you realize that it just pushes another 1st round pick into next year: which we have done for years and never bothered to ever spend. Also, the Jets were able to grab Wilkerson, who is a monster, b/c of the trade. Instead of us unleashing him on the Jets, the Jets will be unleashing him on us. Well done. Still think this is a great Pats draft? Think again."
Yeah, you'll see analysts continue to suck Belichik's cock when it comes to the draft, and that probably has more to do with the Brady pick than anything else. Not saying his draft ability is overrated, but people are so far up his ass that anything he does must have some sort of genius motive that layfolk will not understand. Whatever. We'll find out who had the better draft by the end of the season, or by 2012.
i was more entertained with some young girl who shit on her fellow pats fans excitement of their draft class
The thing about "you gotta eventually use all these picks - not trade down" is wrong. The reason the Pats have all these draft picks every year is because they trade back every year... They traded #28 for a draft pick which could be much higher next year and can't be much worse (28 to 32 is a small gap). So that much was value neutral at worst, and picked up the 56th overall pick in the process. Then next year, they'll do it again, etc... By never using both first round picks, they have an extra second round pick every single year. Yes they could have had Mark Ingram there, but I bet you they're better off with a free second round pick every year than a single Mark Ingram. As good as Ingram may be, he's unlikely to be better than a steady supply of 2nd rounders. The reason they do this and nobody else is that Belichick is the only coach who has the job security to actually reap the long term benefits of a free second rounder for the length of his career. Everyone else in the league could be gone 2 years from now. Belichick is there as long as he wants to be. I can only hope that Tannenbaum eventually gets that kind of job security and can start doing that too. I don't think the Pats had a particularly good draft, but I didn't think they had a good draft last year either. People thought they reached for a special teams player (McCourty) instead of drafting Dez Bryant or Kyle Wilson. They got roasted for letting Sergio Kindle fall to the Ravens and drafted Gronkowski instead. Everyone gave them shit about Brandon Spikes for being too slow, but they got a 2 down starter there. At the same time, they whiffed on Jermaine Cunningham over Carlos Dunlap and Taylor Price didn't see the field at all. They're probably no better or worse at drafting than anyone else. They make up for it by having all sorts of extra draft picks ever year, and they get those draft picks by trading down... I don't know if Nate Solder can play or not, and I don't know whether Ras I Dowling is the next McCourty or will play 2 games before breaking his leg again. Shane Vereen is either a crappy Woodhead clone or the next Ray Rice depending on what analyst you listen to, etc... I dunno, but it's really worth remembering that just because we've heard of Bowers, Sheard, Harris and Houston doesn't mean any of those guys are any good. I dunno. The draft is a crapshoot. For a long time the Colts couldn't miss with a draft pick, then they've gotten little out of it for a few years. The Pats sucked for a few years, and they have had 2 good drafts in a row. Nobody really knows what rookies will put in the work to meet their potential. It's all random.
The patriots are the best drafting team of the past decade. You can read it here. Is the writer right? http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110430/SPORTS/104300339/-1/rss45
If you truly believe that the draft is a crapshoot then Belichick strategy is the correct one (stockpile picks and use the law of averages). I think that strategy is too low risk. You can maintain talent that way but it's no good if you are coming up (just) short year-after-year.
Why is it low risk? There is high upside talent available in the second round - it's usually just more high risk than the first round guys available. Either they're more raw (Ducasse) or more of an injury risk (Gronkowski) or have a behavior issue (Ellis). This isn't the NBA where in the 2nd round you're hoping to get a rotation player at best. The NFL has superstars in every round every year.
Many people seem to think that the Pats should have invested heavily in defense this draft. We had (one of?) the youngest defense(s) in the NFL last year and allowed the 8th fewest points (I know, also the 8th most yds...). That defense was also missing some of our most important contributors from the year before (Ty Warren, Leigh Bodden), who will be returning. I don't think it is unreasonable to expect better results this year as is. Between Ras-I and Bodden, we should be able to pick out at least one decent CB#2 to play opposite McCourty, which in itself gives our defense a HUGE upgrade over Arrington/Butler's play last yr. Also, the biggest criticism after this draft (and last year's as well) was the failure to address the pass rush. It seems to me that BB does not hold this as high of a priority as many other coaches and analysts. Perhaps it really is not our biggest need seeing as we were able to force more QB poor decisions (interceptions) than any other NFL team without a formidable pass-rush. That is not to say that it is not important, a pass rush does many other things besides force picks. However, I wholeheartedly agree with the decision to address O-Line before defense.
The pats offense led to those interceptions. The team would build such a big lead early and force the opponents QB to start flinging it downfield to play catch up
Yeah, I guess I can agree with that. I was just pointing out that the stats don't show a glaring problem with our pass rush the way that most people make it seem. To further that point, our sack total puts us at #14 in the NFL... middle of the pack. In either case, I think it makes a lot of sense to make sure our QB (who gave us all of these early leads) is well protected before worrying about one particular defensive weakness that we are usually able to mask. I also think that picking CB before pass-rush is justified... when it comes to our two RB picks I'm not going to argue anyone's opinion.
I hope this is exactly what the Pats were thinking. Interceptions are partly the result of bad decisions, but they're also largely the result of good luck. That's why the teams that lead the league in picks tend to regress to the mean extremely sharply in following years. The Pats pass rush stunk. The defense ranked as among the worst of any playoff teams. It wasn't much better against the rush either, but being weak against the pass just tends to be a more glaring weakness is all. People notice 3rd and 12 being converted a lot more than they notice that every rush results in 2nd and 7 rather than 2nd and 8. That extra yard matters too, but it doesn't show up until later often. Going O-Line over defense may have been correct, but that's not because the Pats defense was secretly any good. It wasn't. There may have just been a better fit available with Solder than any defensive player. (I dunno - just speculating about Solder.)
What bothers me the most is that even at the positions they picked (which were already questionable) there were better prospects available than the guys they selected. They could have had such a sick draft even by trading down. Amukamara + Ayers + Leshoure + Rackley/Reid Now that would've been sick!!!!
` You're assuming the guys they picked aren't as good as the guys the "experts" say are better. The experts said here were a 3 or 4 better corners than Mccourty last year... were there? The Pats are always rapped for reaching for OL on draft day, yet they almost always hit the nail on the head with these picks. Alot of "experts" think the Pats should have taken Castanzo instead of Solder, but the Colts wanted Solder, and took Castanzo because he was gone....
