jeffbiologist

Too often when discussing draft trades we bring up say the Oher spot trade where we netted several players that helped our team. But when I look at Vereen and my posts from 2008....I cant help but think of what could have been:Jamaal Charles. At the time we had lost our 2nd #1, taken Mayo and Wheatley and were sitting on 3 3rds. We traded our first #3 to SD bypassing Charles, a position I thought obvious need. Yes we got BJGE that year(so we needed a RB!), and we traded that pick for a 5th round pick(Slater)and #47 that we added a 4th and a 6th to get Brace. Looked at another way:

Brace, Green Ellis & Slater for Charles, 4th rd pick(Louis Murphy---there is our deep threat!)and a 6th(DE Strykar Sulak)

If we had Charles we most likely dont take 2 RBs this year so it may also save a roster spot. Yes its 1000% hindsight, but an example why 2007-2009 draft classes werent as poor as they had to be.

NFLroughdraft

Wow. Nice work tracking that. I agree with you.

Ochmed Jones

If we had Charles instead of Green Ellis, why wouldn't BB still draft two RB's in this draft?

Oswlek

Barring a player becoming a Seymour-esque HOF type player, hindsight will always help you find a better alternative.

Find me a bunch of people saying NE blew it by not picking Charles back then and I'll tip my cap.

__________________
"They have one objective," said Washington cornerback Shawn Springs. "They whoop people's [backsides]. If you understand that, it answers all your questions. They might not lose [this year]."

reamer

While I fully agree Charles is a better player than the guys we picked up, the problem is that we can all do this with every pick. Sure, sometimes our picks work out better; I wanted Mike Wallace, who went one pick after Tate. Looks like I probably got that one right. To be fair, I also got suckered by Gholston back in the day.

In the draft you've referenced, I really wanted us to take Cliff Avril. He was available, but we passed. So it goes.

I suggest changing perspective: lead a forward-looking life, not one obsessed with the mistakes of the past. We can't redact history, but we can change our attitudes and actions in the future.

/philosophical tirade

jsull87

In reality you can't even include BJGE in that because he was an UDFA. I still think we would have taken 1 RB in this draft. In saying all this it's a massive roster ripple effect. We probably wouldn't have woodhead on the team now but would still have BJGE. It's a hard thing to track but its also quite easy to do alot of this after the draft e.g pick mike wallace, MJD, brandon marshal e.t.c

patriot lifer

I just got the fact that your user name is jeffbiologist and the title of the thread includes the word "Evolution." The Universe just made a lot more sense.

__________________
2013 Season:

Nate Solder (6'8" 320 lbs)
Seabass (6'8" 320 lbs)
Rob Gronkowski (6'6" 265 lbs)
Jake Ballard (6'6" 275 lbs)
Logan Mankins (6'4" 320 lbs) (100% recovered)
Dan Connolly (6'4" 320 lbs)
Marcus Cannon (6'5" 340 lbs) (Switch to Guard??)

RB: Ridley, Vereen, Washington, Bolden

convertedpatsfan

Obviously Charles should have been drafted higher, just as Brady should have been. But I'm not a fan of looking at an individual pick within a vacuum without any context.

Yes, we should have drafted him. You could even say we should have taken him with the #2 instead of Wheatley. But I'd counter by saying KC was fortunate he was still around. He was the 10th running back off the board, and I count at least 3 or 4 teams who did draft a RB higher than Charles who regret that. And before we give full credit to KC, one might argue he was even more worthy of one of their 2 1st-rounders that year, Glenn Dorsey and Branden Albert.

Plus we had just broken a ton of scoring records the season before with a still-promising young RB in Maroney. The defense was old, and so it's understandable why the first 3 picks were on that side of the ball.

I'm not trying to defend the poor drafts mind you. Just saying that it's not really fair to criticize one team for missing when everyone missed on the same kid multiple times.

smg93

Says 31 other NFL Teams:

"Man in 2000 I had all these first, second, third, fourth, and fifth round picks I could have used on Brady..."

Hindsight is 20:20

JerseyDevil26

Yep, while I agree Charles would be a nice asset...you can't "what-if" every draft pick scenario. "What if" we took Michael Oher instead of trading down? What if we took Clay Matthews? Hindsight is always 20-20. We've done a pretty good job of drafting overall, and with the sheer number of picks we've had over the years you're bound to miss on some. Law of averages.