bbell31

Do what we have to do to get Brandon carR to solidify the corner spot then draft Fletcher Cox and Steven Hill n the first and then either Jamell Fleming jayron hosley or Gilmore as a free safety corner type in the second

midwestpatsfan

Hills performance at the combine was sensational, but lets temper the excitement just a little bit. He ran the worst 3 cone drill of all the wide receivers and it was not even close. I do not want the Patriots to draft a guy who will be limited to running the 9 route. Obviously we as fans do not have the luxury of sitting this kid down and getting him on the chalk board or out to do some additional route running drills, but for him to jump to 1st round is a little much for me.

Deus Irae

According to NFL.com, Hill ran the 3-cone in 6.88, which is good enough for 10th overall, the same as Sanu, and nowhere near the worst (McNutt and Criner at 7.15).

NFL Events: Combine Tracker

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patsderoer

He meant the short shuttle, where Hill was by far the worst performer. Not even close. Lateral agility is very important, it heavily influences the ability to gain separation, and Hill had the worst showing in the short shuttle among all WRs.

jmt57

Rather than corner what about safety? I think a big part of the problem the Pats corners had was that they were getting so little support from their safeties.

I'm trying to get a handle on the options at safety; they seem somewhat limited whether it be through free agency or through the draft. Markelle Martin and George Iloka appear to be two possibilities. Wide receivers are a sexier topic due to the position, but I'd really like to see the Pats upgrade the safety position prior to the draft, in order to avoid the possibility of ending up with very limited choices on draft day. The problem is that there aren't too many free agent defensive backs out there, which is going to drive their prices up. What other teams are looking to upgrade at safety either in FA or early in the draft?

Better performance from the safety position will help the corners out immensely.

rabidfireweasel

There is remarkably little correlation between short shuttle speed and nfl success for wide wr's. If there was, you would see the players with top times have some nfl success. That is not the case

2011 top 5 Austin Pettis 3.88, Jeffery Maehl 3.94, Dane Sanzenbacher 3.97, Terrence Toliver 4.03 and Cecil Shorts 4.07.

2010 Top 5 Blair White, Scott Long, Emmanuel Sannders, Stephen Roberts and Andre Roberts.

2009 Kevin Ogletree, Kenny McKinley, Tiquan Underwood, Brian Hartline, Johnny Knox.

2008 Arman Shields 3.96, Andre Caldwell,Harry Douglas, Ryan Grice- Mullen, Jaymar Johnson 4.18

2007 Mike Mason, Anthony Gonzallez, Paul Thompson, Chris Davis Chansi Stuckey.

Meanwhile, some very successful NFL wr's have had poor scores:
AJ Green (19th rank) 4.21, Julio Jones (25th rank) 4.25, Stevie Johnson (13) 4.26, Jordy Nelson (26th rank) 4.35, Sidney Rice (30th) 4.34, Marques Colston (32nd rank) 4.44.

There simply is not cut-off number like there is 40 times (4.7+ is a deal breaker for a wr).