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Dowling Injury Woes Continue, Fletcher Remains Out
By: Derek Havens

Patriots rookie cornerback Ras-I Dowling's injury woes continue as he was not spotted at the start of practice and Dane Fletcher is out for the third straight day. ...

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Darolyn72

This draft pick could haunt this team. Given this piece of glass can't even practice, it probably makes sense to IR him when they have to activate Deaderick and Brace. FIVE GAMES LAST YEAR. ONE GAME THIS YEAR.

He was the FIRST pick of the 2nd round. They traded their other first round pick away for basically nothing since New Orleans will be drafting about 29th this year.

They passed on Sheard, they passed on Brooks Reed, and 5 guys at the end of the first round for Dowling. And when he doesn't play this week it will be his THIRTEENTH missed game of his team's last 19 going back to Virginia.

I would love to hear Bill's rationale for the non-pick at 28 and this pick at 33. Did they look at this guy's medicals??

Darolyn72

And when I say haunt, this team has two flaws, pass rush and pass defense. He could have helped both. His absence hurts both.

moosekill

I think he missed a few games in elementary school, you might want to add those in too!!!!

Haunt I say

Haunt!!

JackBauer

Brooks Reed? Are you serious?

Shelterdog

It's the same thinking as they used when they got Gronk

Guess how many games Gronk missed due to injury in college: 16.

Guess how many games Dowling has missed in college due to injury? 8 or 9. You add up all his injuries for four years of college, his PG year, and his two years on the varsity at deep creek and it adds up to only 17 or 18 games missed over 7 years.

2010: 7
2009: 1
2008: 0
2007: 1* (I'm not sure if this was for injury or because it was the first game of his freshman year and he wasn't ready to play yet)
2006: 0 (he was at prep school and played the whole year)
2005: 4 games (knee injury)
2004: 5 games (broken hand)

The rationale for the pick is pretty simple: you're getting a discount on top half of the first round kind of talent, one who can start from day one, and who was actually pretty healthy for four years straight leading up to 2010.

Look, it clearly hasn't worked out so far but that doesn't mean it was stupid at the time.

D-Money

Dowling is looking like Mr Glass.Too early to say that the pick sucked but its not looking good

Darolyn72

Don't be such Honks. What was the rationale in Vereen over Murray?

Murray played in a better conference had more TD, Yards and Receptions than Vereen in college.

One guy is a star, one guy is a benchwarmer. Also if they took Murray they would not have to have drafted Ridley.

The thing you Patriot honks don't get and its in another thread. Is with Bill's drafting its not an aberration its a trend. Get him out of the 1st round and he misses all the time. He's better with undrafted players than with drafted players. Tate over Wallace is another example. Tate had an ACL injury in college. But yet they took him anyway.

Good comparision with Belichick and Theo when it comes to Free Agency and post first round draft picks. Theo's free agents probably cost the Sox two championships and Bill's poor drafting since 2006 has cost them 2 titles MINIMUM.

RJB87

My thoughts exactly Darolyn. You take flyers on guys like Dowling in the 3rd-4th round, not 33rd overall. I mean crap, even Da'Quan Bowers dropped from a top 5 pick to the middle of the 2nd rounder because of his surgery on his knee and he didn't even miss a whole year unlike Dowling. Oh, and Bowers is actually playing right now.

We missed out on so many other picks to get Dowling. I don't fault us on the New Orleans trade because that got us Shane Vereen but passing on Sheard and Reed looked bad back then and even worse now.

edit: I do disagree with you on the Murray vs Vereen statement though. The Patriots never just shove RBs into the starting lineup. You're part of protecting Tom Brady. BB and staff make sure you've got blocking down before they even consider handing you or passing you the rock.

sbpatfan

PatsFans.com really pushing out the depressing articles.