FredFromDartmouth

I know a lot of us were dissapointed after the 2011 draft, and oddly enough, we were right. The draft was not a disaster, but the Patriots came into it with a ton of picks and a desperate need for a pass rushers but came away with a lot less than most of us expected. The strength of the draft was the pass rushers but somehow BB whiffed on them all.

Compare the Patriots draft with what the Ravens did. With practically half the draft ammunition, the Ravens came away with a starting CB in Jimmy Smith and a very talented WR in Torrey Smith. In addition they got six sacks from Pernell McPhee who they stole in the 5'th round. The Patriots needed a WR, CB, and pass rusher; they could have gotten all these guys but BB was whiffed.

Solder was good as befits his lofty position at 17. Although he is a moose, he had trouble with speed rushers.

Dowling has talent but came in with an injury history which does not work well with the hard surface at Gillette. He may turn out to be a great picks but it is still too early to tell. If McCourty returns to form and Ras-I can shake the injury bug, the Patriots will have found their outside anchors.

Shane Vereen was the Big Whiff. Instead of taking Torry Smith they took Vereen, an indecisive runner. BB should never ever be involved with WR and RB picks again; he got it right with Ridley but that is unusual for him.

manxman2601

You are aware that you don't draft players for just one year right?

FredFromDartmouth

Sure but I would feel a lot better about the future if the Patriots had Jimmy Smith and Torrey Smith and Pernell instead of what they got. The Patriots got some question marks and some tomato cans and some JAGs; a disappointing haul after entering the draft with all those picks and it was a draft loaded with pass rushers.

All this trading down is great but it does not make any sense if you muff the extra picks you get. And there have been a lot of muffs with the bonus picks....

Big-T

Solder - going to be protecting the franchise (Brady and then whoever will follow him) for the next decade

Dowling - looks good in man coverage, if he can stay healthy it's a good pick.

Vereen - Will be Faulk's replacement.

Ridley - Stop fumbling and will be a good runner.

Mallett - First round talent, BPA and has a chance to be Brady's replacement.

Cannon - First round talent but fell due to cancer, looked good playing tackle and will probably slide inside to guard.

Smith - Didn't make the roster,

Carter - Project, practice player of the week most weeks during the season, interesting prospect.

Williams - Strange pick at the time.

So it wasn't a bad draft at all, especially picking up Cannon late in the draft and if Carter can develop into anything then he could be a steal.

Jimmy Smith is/was a headcase so was never going to be drafted by the Patriots, Torrey Smith is a one trick pony who also has the dropsies, again not exactly someone who screams Patriots.

UK_Pat37

You can't put a grade on a draft until a good few years after it happened.

I was over joyed with the draft and expect Solder, Vereen, Ridley, Mallett, Cannon and Dowling to be solid hits.

You're calling these guys muffs after one year? When all these guys got on the field they looked like bonafide NFL players.

Heck if Mallett pans out this draft, like the 2010 class, this one will be exceptional. I think you expected too much after seeing the 2010 draft class excel like it did in year one. IMO drafts like that are exceptionally rare!

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Gronkandez

Gillette doesn't have a hard surface. It's not like they play in the old Vet.

Sfpat

We all know that a Pats draft pick is a bust if he is not a pro-bowl starter three games into his career, which is why every draft by the Pats suck. Doesn't matter that the Pats are perennially a SB contending team.

Wilfork#75

While it is way too early to judge the 2011 draft, I still don't understand the back to back RB's. I don't like the idea of drafting any RB high, so to draft 2 in the top 75 picks doesn't make sense to me. Especially when neither guy projects to be a feature back, so 2 top 75 picks for role players at RB seems like poor value to me. RB's are a dime a dozen, and I don't see Ridley or Vereen being special enough to warrant those picks.

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UK_Pat37

The Pats don't use feature backs and many teams don't any more. The idea is to bring in 3, maybe even 4, guys who's different skill sets enable you to utilise them in different packages. Ideally your #1 guy wants to have a dual threat capability obviously so you don't become predictable when he's out there, but ideally this is the way teams go now.

Your Adrian Peterson's, your Arian Fosters...they all bow out of the league early. Feature backs have a short shelf life. The 'two back approach' is something many teams opt for now...it's much better than having that one guy.

I liked the picks....I was surprised by back-to-back ones, but I expected a RB to be taken reasonably high.

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Wilfork#75

I understand the RB by committee approach, and I think its a better system than relying on a single player like a Chris Johnson who could **** the bed and ruin your offense. But I think that devalues the positions, which is why I didn't like the amount of resources used on them. With this approach you are limiting each players time on the field, decreasing their importance. I would compare them to sub package players or a pass rushing specialist on defense. They have a limited role and limited playing time, but would BB draft a pass rushing specialist in the top 75?. I know its not a perfect comparison, but its kind of the way I look at RB's on this team. You wan't your best players on the field as much as possible, and your high picks should be your best players. I would have been fine if they used 1 high pick on a RB because it was a need, but I think using 2 was a waste of resources.

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