patsfan55

A lot of you in here told me to calm down when I freaked out that we selected Cunningham over his more accomplished teammate Dunlap. Most told me to stop looking at the highlights and that Cunningham was the steadier of the players. Mike Reiss told me Dunlap wasn't the "type of player" the Pats would look at. Well, after what Dunlap did at the end of last year, and how much havock he wreaked today for Colt McCoy, as well as the fact that we'll be running more 4 man fronts, would anyone like to have that pick back? I know I would.

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reflexblue

I thought Cunningham played very well last year, but Yeah i'm starting to think passing on Dunlap was a mistake.

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ausbacker

One has been playing as a defensive end the other as a linebacker.

patchick

I was a big Dunlap fan in the draft, and was plenty surprised when they took Cunningham instead. That said, I thought Cunningham had a pretty good rookie year -- and 2010 was the Pats' leadership-focuses offseason where they cleared out the malcontents and drafted a full slate of team captains, to good result. If that's what ruled out Dunlap, it's understandable.

Sciz

The right pick was made at the time. There are a hundred draft hypotheticals that make much more sense than worrying about taking a guy who fits the defense that they weren't even running at the time.

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NinjaZX6R

Carlos Dunlap 6'6 285lbs ~
JC-6'3 250lbs.

When JC was taken, he fit in the mold of a 34 OLB. Dunlap had no certain fit in a 3-4 defense. He was too big for a 34 OLB and if you look at his body, he is too lean to fit as a 3-4 DE.

Dunlap fit well in the Bengals Defense because of his weight. They play, mostly, a 4-3 under defense and he is their 43LDE and switches to 43 DT on 3rd downs. Their LDE usually weighs around 270-290lbs. Justin Smith is a good example and so is Odom. Smith playing weight w. the Bengals was around 290. Odom was around 275lbs.

BB liked JC when he came down to UF during JC's sophomore year. At the time of the pick, we ran a 34 defense. Now, if we were a 4-3 U defense back in 2010, you could make an argument.

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patchick

Not sure where you got those numbers. At the Combine Cunningham weight in at 266, Dunlap at 278. That's just a 12 lb. difference, pretty much to be expected given the 2 1/2" height difference.

BillBelichickFan79

Cunningham looked good at times for the Pats last year, but he's not made the impact that Dunlap has.

It's the same thing every year. Fans try to convince themselves that their team made the right choice by listing the alleged positives of their new player vs the alleged negatives of the player the team didn't choose. For all those saying he can't fit in a 3-4, then why you did you want Peppers so badly two years ago? How is Mario Williams possibly playing OLB? There is no evidence that Dunlap couldn't have played in the 3-4. It was just an excuse for why the Pats passed on him.

I actually liked Cunningham in that draft and he was solid in limited play last year, but I was surprised too. Dunlap was the consensus better player in all pre-draft talk among scouts/media members. Dunlap was the bigger difference maker when you watched Florida play. Dunlap had that freakish size and athleticism that guys like Mario Williams and Peppers display.

But the Patriots are smarter than everyone else, right? They saw something no one else did and took Cunningham. It's the same thing every year. It's like when the Pats traded down for Butler rather than taking Vontae Davis who was more highly touted and clearly more physical when you watched them play. Davis had a bad attitude and poor technique, while Butler was so athletic, etc. It's the same thing when the Pats took Ron Brace. He was the one clearing the space for BJ Raji to wreak havoc.

That's just the way beat writers and fans think. They want their team's decision to be the right one. I can guarantee you Jets fans were saying the same thing when they took Gholston. Oh he fits perfectly and Keith Rivers and Sedrick Ellis are just overhyped USC prospects that don't fit the scheme. Dominque Rodgers Cromartie and McKelvin didn't play tough enough competition. Etc.

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PatsFanStnfrd

As someone who started a thread on this very subject in June (the dogdays of the lock out) (see:Did BB make a mistake bypassing Dunlap for Cunningham last year...), I believe the question of whether BB made a mistake in choosing Cunningham over Dunlap is very much a legitimate question. And of course, the answer is yet to unfold. The fact that Dunlap plays well while Cunningham is nursing numerous injuries does not aid the latter's case.

Of course if you read the posters on that thread, you will soon learn that there are some on this board who fancy themselves as the judges of players who "fit" BB's system as they define it and those players who are deemed "unfit" or "unsuitable". These posters by virtue of their voluminous posts (and their clear passion for the Pats) have set themselves up as the interpreters of BB's defensive philosophy and scheme for the rest of us. In fact, fortunately for Pats fans everywhere, BB turns out less wedded to any particular defensive ideology/scheme and quite eager to change what is NOT working and to experiment/innovate the defensive philosophy this season to one that is aggressive, proactive and effective. This must be disconcerting to some of BB's fans on this board who vigorously defended BB's orthodoxy. Maybe they don't know him as well as they thought.

BB has shown that he is capable of changing. He recognizes his mistakes and importantly gets rid of them (or rectifies them) as he did with Butler and others. I am sure that with another year he will evaluate Cunningham and act accordingly.

I for one am rooting for Cunningham to prove BB right. For Cunningham, this year is "show me" time.

Sciz

For all the hate on Cunningham relative to Dunlap, remember that he did have more total pressures than Dunlap a year ago. Now, he had fewer sacks and more just "hurries," but he impacted the QB more than Dunlap did.

My new favorite stat, though, is 7. That would be the number of tackles on running plays that Dunlap had last season. Cunningham had 31. And I'd be willing to bet that Cunningham dropped into coverage around 10 times as much as Dunlap did last season.

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