SCPatBoy

I don't think the Pats have done a very good job in the draft over the last 3 years. outside of Mayo, and he is probably Overrated to this point, what impact players have come out of the draft? I mean it seems as if we passed on alot of players who have turned out to be impact players for other teams to only secure future draft picks every year while only drafting depth players, and yet our team seems to get worse and worse. Especially the defense and the Offensive line. Our Secondary is suspect, and it seems several corners chosen after Butler are performing better to this point. We have no Pass Rush to speak of and I don't see any immediate help there. Our O Line gets beat consistently by 3 man rushes and I cant count the number of quality O lineman we have passed over. These past draft classes are really starting to give me flashes of the Bobby Grier days. I don't think we are any longer smarter then the rest of the guys when it comes to talent evaluation as we seem to have missed alot more then we have hit the Target lately.

pats1

Huh? 2009: Chung, Butler, Brace, Vollmer, Tate, McKenzie, Ohrnberger, Bussey, Ingram, Pryor, Edelman, Richard.

That's at least one solid starter (Vollmer), five solid contributors (Chung, Butler, Edelman, Ingram, Pryor), two injured guys (Tate, McKenzie), and four developmental guys (Brace, Ohrnberger, Bussey, Richard).

The only real question mark to this point is Brace. And personally, I think he'll make in impact in 2010 after this front seven is restructured.

Yes, the 2006-2008 drafting sucked. Outside of Mayo and Meriweather, it was terrible. But the 2009 drafting did not.

I addressed this topic a few months back:

Current status of all BB-era draft picks

Jimke

Right on. The trouble is that the 2006-2008 draftees should be filling

some of the starting positions.

PATSYLICIOUS

This year has potential to be a great one.

2007 we got Merriweather, Welker, Moss, hard to complain about that output.

2008 we get Mayo, Wilhite both starters and Guyton as a UDFA he contributes.

It's hard to complain considering we are typically towards the bottom end of each round.

pats1

Right, I went in-depth on that a year ago:

Romeo or Charlie: Which one would do you think would be more likely to come back?

pats1

We're talking about actual draft pick selections here. I wouldn't count Moss, Welker, and Guyton. We're talking about the guys that the Pats decided to pick when they were on the clock.

mayoclinic

2009 was a fabulous draft. 2003-2005 were very good drafts. We got excellent value at the #32 position in 2005, which was the weakest draft of this decade - Mankins, Hobbs, Sanders, Cassel, and an extra 3rd in 2006.

Our 2006-2008 drafts had issues, as far as I am concerned:

1. 2006. Maroney was an OK pick, but he hasn't overwhelmed. The trade up for Chad Jackson bombed. Dave Thomas did nothing for us in 3 years at TE, and Garrett Mills was cut. O'Callaghan and Jeremy Mincey weren't particularly good picks. Gostkowski was by far our best pick. We could have picked up guys like TE Owen Daniels, DE Ray Edwards, DE Mathias Kiwanuka, WR Greg Jennings, CB Richard Marshall, and RB Maurice Jones-Drew.

2. 2007. Meriweather was a fine pick, and trading #28 for what turned out to be Mayo and Moss was brilliant. Trading our 2nd round pick for Welker was equally brilliant. But the rest of the draft stunk.

3. 2008. Mayo was a terrific pick. Trading #69 for a 2009 2nd round pick was also brilliant, though less so if Ron Brace turns out to be a dud. The result of the draft has been underwhelming - Terrance Wheatley at #62, Shawn Crable at #78, and Kevin O'Connell at #94 in particular. Jonathan Wilhite has done OK for a 4th round pick. Matt Slater was a reach. Gary Guyton was a steal as a UDFA.

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"OVER Loading at ANY position can create a Fatal Advantage. THAT is what interests ME. Attacking With Concentrated Force. THAT is what WINS. In the words ~ more or less ~ of General Patton: 'I'm fighting a WAR, here. Let the B*****ES worry about their FLANKS.' " - Off the Grid

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DocE

I thought it was telling that after the "left behind" inactives (presumably due to injury) the only two healthy inactives were 2nd round picks Wheatley and Brace. The Pats have also gotten no production from two third round picks in O'Connell and Crable from '08 and another 2 3rd rounders, McKenzie and Tate from '09. Obviously injuries are a big factor with 3 of the 4 recent 3rd round picks, but it's still a disappointing lack of production. The failure to hit on any of the late round picks in the '07 draft also hurts. You can't expect to hit on many of those guys, but the Pats had a ton of picks in round 4 and later in '07 and none of the players panned out.

HEY BRO! WHAT UP?

As of right now, Vollmer has the most promise and the rest are a bunch of question marks. Their drafting since 2005 has been pretty bad. I've said this many times and have gotten ripped for it. The trading out works when you had veterans still contributing like McGinest, Vrabel, Bruschi, Colvin and Harrison. However, the Pats have made a trend in trading out of the rounds when they're clearly weak at several positions. Delaying the future (trading away draft picks) but picking up veterans instead has put them in the position they are today. Their defense is an absolute mess and the O-line needs help.

At this point, I'm not too excited about Mayo and agree he may be overrated. He doesn't offer much other than tackling ball carriers 3-5 yards after the line of scrimmage. I rarely see this guy doing anything else. However, It might be their weak scheme that is holding him back.

Don't get me wrong, I've been wanting fresh blood at LB for quite some time, but I didn't agree with taking a LB like Mayo with the 10th selection.

FredFromDartmouth

There is a new sheriff in town and Pioli is off to KC. This is a rebuilding year...