Fencer

Obvious question to raise:

In other years, how high did great-fit Pats-style DL get drafted? (Or great ones in other schemes who would obviously be good in the Pats' system as well.)

Richard Seymour -- 6, but would probably go higher today as the league has gone more 3-4

Ty Warren -- 12

Vince Wilfork -- 21

Haloti Ngata -- 12

Suh -- 2

Peppers (if you count him) -- 2

It can be argued that the existing talent is enough. But if we think that it's worth the investment to try to get back to the days of Seymour/Wilfork/Warren, then ... well, I'll leave it there, because my list of players is obviously incomplete.

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patchick

Casey Hampton fits, too.

But for a major counterexample, Jay Ratliff was drafted in the 7th.

SanAngeloState

You're just selecting good players who were drafted high. What about the good ones who were undrafted or drafted in lower rounds? You could probably construct a list of great 3-4 players who were UDFAs. So does that mean we should look soley in that direction?

cstjohn17

Aaron Smith - 4th round
Aaron Keisel - 7th round
Ted Washington - 25th overall
Trevor Pryce - 28th overall
Luis Castillo - 28th overall

patchick

Could you? Feel free to try! Highly athletic 300-lb men are generally drafted high, on both sides of the ball. Plus over the past several years, the draft advantage that 3-4 teams used to have in looking for "tweeners," etc. has turned 180 degrees -- there are now so many 3-4 defenses that players who fit the mold are getting overdrafted. (Think Tyson Jackson #3 overall.)

convertedpatsfan

If we're talking Pats 3-4, might as well look at KC.

DEs:
Glenn Dorsey, 1st round, 5th overall
Tyson Jackson, 1st round, 3rd overall

NT:
Ron Edwards, 3rd round, 14th pick

Box_O_Rocks

Rather then just limit the search to "excellent," some "very good" players should also be considered.

Brett Keisel - #242 overall
Aaron Smith - #109 overall
Casey Hampton - #19 overall
Shaun Ellis - #12 overall
Mike DeVito - UDFA
Kris Jenkins - #44 overall
Shaun Rogers - #61 overall
Ahtyba Rubin - #190 overall
Kelly Gregg - #173 overall
Kendall Langford - #66 overall
Kyle Williams - #134 overall
Jamal Williams - 2nd 1998 supplemental draft
John Henderson - #9 overall
Tommy Kelly - UDFA
Luis Castillo - #28 overall

And that's just the AFC.

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jeffbiologist

In the 80s San Fransisco was constantly drafting at the bottom of the draft yet got guys like Stubblefield and Bryant Young in the late 20s..

Ochmed Jones

Smart teams place a premium on DL talent and that is why a majority of the top 3-4 DL in the NFL today have gone early in the draft.

That being said however, there has to be talented DL Players available in a draft class to take early in the draft.

Guys like Suh do not come along every year. The unique thing about this draft is that there is only 1 true 3-4 DE stud and that is Dareus.

However there are a lot of guy that could project to be 3-4 DE types. Are any worth a 1st round pick? Not in my book.

So should BB trade up for Dareus?

Sciz

I don't even like Dareus. I really want Watt late in the first. Get an OLB at 15 and then Watt at 32 or whatever.