ctpatsfan77

Here's an interesting question for you: last year, the Pats entered the draft with four late comp picks, and a fairly clear understanding that there would be no comp picks in 2008.

Yet, after taking Brandon Meriweather and then trading away four consecutive picks, the Patriots then used every single remaining pick on players that--to any rational observer--had little chance of making the roster.*

So, my question with respect to 2007 is this: which do you think is more likely, that this was the Pats' strategy entering the draft, or that they tried to trade into 2008, and just couldn't find any good offers?

And now, in 2008, the Pats enter the draft knowing that--in all likelihood--they will once again be flush with comp picks in 2009 (and even better than the ones in 2007). Do you think that will affect their utilization of the late picks?



*Yeah, I'm still bitter that the Pats lost Justin Rogers because of Belichick's older LB fetish. (Just what the hell did Chad Brown contribute that was more worthy of a roster spot? ) But it's not all that germane to my argument.

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"Momentum was quickly snatched away by New England, who once again proved that any Patriot, at any moment, can make a play." —Inside the NFL, Packers v. Patriots

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BradyManny

This is sort of the question I asked recently on the main board - looking at their roster, there's so much talent, there aren't many spots.

I asked if the strategy is then to draft players on Day 2 that have the potential to be every down players, but can contribute enough on special teams to knock players like Alexander, Ventrone, Eckel, etc. off of the roster?

BelichickFan

People can say what they want about the strength, or lack thereof, of last year's draft but I saw second day players contributing for the Giants in the one loss we had this season. There is no way to describe last year's second day as anything but an embarassment and I doubt Belichick and Pioli are happy with it. Maybe Richardson will show some upside this year; and Gutierrez may work out as a UDFA. But we can't be pulling that ***** every year, it was horrible. Of course, when I say "last year's second day" that includes decicions made later like cutting Rogers and Brown; I'm talking about the end result of them all being gone.

ctpatsfan77

That's like arguing that John Hannah played guard for the Patriots back in the '70s, so he should be able to play guard for them today.

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"Momentum was quickly snatched away by New England, who once again proved that any Patriot, at any moment, can make a play." —Inside the NFL, Packers v. Patriots

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DaBruinz

When people say this sort of garbage, I have to just LAUGH. It was only an embarrassment if you bury your head in the sand and ignore the fact that the Patriots had a stacked team going into the draft and then they made it even stronger with the additions of Meriweather and Moss. The Giants had HUGE holes on their team and HAD to have their 2nd day players contribute.

I've asked this question of EVERY single person who has *****ed about the 2nd day of the draft last year and NOT ONE has answered it. So I will ask you as well.

Who would YOU have drafted on the 2nd day last year? Which player(s) would they have beaten out to make the Pats roster and contributed?

BTW, why mention Brown? He made the team and it was only because of injuries to the TE position (Thomas going to the IR and Watson going down) that the Pats needed to cut him to make room for another TE.

I will agree that I didn't like the Pats cutting Rogers, but they did so to try and get him to the practice squad. Unfortunately, they didn't realize how well the Boys had scouted Rogers..

Now, lets be realisitic, also. Picks from the 4th round on have less than a 25% chance of making the roster to begin with. The Pats had some REALLY GOOD years, but they also had some bombs. 2001. 2004. 2007. To act like its a thing that happens every year isn't being realistic.

BelichickFan

No it's not, there were plenty of good players on day two - I used the shaky argument of the Giants but there were other good players who we all knew about who were productive and showed upside last year for other teams. However weak you want to say last year's draft was, you can't throw away an entire second day of a draft. I know we came out fine due the the trade for Moss, etc, but we have to do better than this :

4 Kareem Brown - Cut
5 Clint Oldenburg - Cut
6 Justin Rogers - Cut
6 Mike Richardson - IR
6 Justise Hairston - Cut
6 Corey Hilliard - Cut
7 Oscar Lua - Cut
7 Mike Elgin - Cut

Do you think Belichick and Pioli are happy with that ?

BelichickFan

I can't answer that because 1) I usually only can handle learning the players 3-4 rounds deep, 2) just because a player could play for one team doesn't mean he could play for the Patriots and 3) the Patriots aren't going to get every sleeper in every draft.

However if you had Belichick and/or Pioli under a truth serum and asked if they were happy with how last year's second day went (after the Moss trade) I highly doubt they'd consider it a success.

Clonamery

Where does your frustration lie? With the players chosen or the number of players or that they weren't good enough to make the squad?

__________________
Paul Brown: A winner never whines.

DaBruinz

Why is everything black and white to you? Just because they aren't happy, it doesn't mean they are pissed off or anything. They know the draft is a crap shoot. Particularly in the later rounds. They had a FULL ROSTER prior to going into the draft. There have been plenty of rumors that have come out that the Pats DID try and make some trades (move up in the 3rd round for Bradley) or get picks into this year. Problem was that 4 of the picks weren't tradable.

When you have a roster like the Patriots did going into the draft, you CAN'T have expectations that your draft picks are going to all make the team. Its not realistic in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the Pats knew that the likelihood of more than 4 players making the team out of that draft was about 10%. Just because of the roster they already had.

BelichickFan

Eventually, cutting an entire draft class except for one will catch up with you.

We've generally gotten some useful players in round 4 and later :

2000 - Brady (6)
2002 - Green (4), Givens (6)
2003 - Samuel (4), Koppen (5), Banta Cain (7)
2005 - Sanders (4), Cassell (7)
2006 - O'Callaghan (5), Smith (6), Andrews (7)

I know most of the good ones there were higher than round 6 where we had most of our throwaways last year but I refuse to call a draft even average when the entire class makes it less than 12 months on the roster other than the #1 and a guy who was on IR all year.