rookBoston

There is no panic in Belichick. I agree with the sentiment that the draft went down exactly to plan.

The not-so-secret secret is that BB doesn't draft BPA. He drafts for need (shocking!). And he doesn't draft BPA at those need positions, he drafts specific individuals that he wants on his team, at the spot where he thinks their value kicks in. He'd rather risk over-drafting the guy he wants, then let him go by the board and draft the next-best option. Getting the right player is part of the reason why the locker room atmosphere works so well in Foxboro. The entire team was drafted for a specific mindset, professionalism, passion for the game. Almost all Belichick's draft picks were captains of their college team.

Going into the draft, we discussed the fact that the roster is so strong and deep, there really weren't roster spots for more than 4 or 5 rookies, max. That was why we thought this might be a year to move up, as high as #10 overall. Drafting 5 players in the first three rounds would have been a waste. It would have meant cutting quality players from the roster just to make room for the rookies.

We all knew that DE, OLB, S and DT were the key needs. BB drafted DE, OLB and S, at the spots where he felt he needed to be to be sure to get them.

The only crazy thing is that no one had ever heard of Tavon Wilson.

The trade down from 62 was not unexpected. If BB had used the pick, the draft would have been over for the Pats, with only four rookies. He traded back twice to swap the one pick for four players. Bequette is a nice find at the end of the 3rd. Personally, I would have preferred Brandon Thompson, who would have been good competition for Ron Brace. But BB loves double drafting-- maybe it makes the teaching easier-- or maybe he likes Brace on the team.

The other three players were just a matter of getting ahead of the UDFA circus. He spent his 6th and 7th rounders on special teamers and long shots. I'm sure that was the plan all along. Fill out the draft class with a few guys like Ebner, who catches your eye and you'd love to try to coach up, and Dennard, who is a market anomaly we can take advantage of.

__________________
"We want to build a big, strong, tough, smart, fast, disciplined football team that will consistently compete for a championship."
-- Scott Pioli, from the Patriots scouting manual

ZoisKing

Nice posts mayo and rook.

When I first looked at the original post, I really didn't have much to say, but its certainly worth reading more to see a few posters really indulge in a retort. I appreciate the effort. It keeps me coming back for more.

Why?PJ

yup BB is one of the worst football hc's in human history, he only has more SB rings than every NFL franchise except 2 or 3. How horrific...

I bet you ascribe this same logic to him drafting a qb in the 6th round and keeping him as a 4th qb.

__________________
Silence is Golden
I have been broken
Safe in my own skin
So nobody wins

bbell31

Jamell fleming would have been my pick at 48. Maybe Dwight Bentley n 3rd with a trade back . Hopefully tavon greatly exceeds expectations. I think he can b a really solid player but not great. Sadly I c a lot of merriweather n him on utube tape

fester

You do know that the Patriots have Michael Bishop as a great developmental prospect, so why did BB take a guy who could not even hold onto his starting job when Mel Kiper says there were at least three guys with 3rd round grades still available. Brady will be lucky to make it to camp before he gets cut [end Stone]

__________________
Come on over to the Newshoggers for blogging on economics, football, policy analysis,and beer:


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

patfanken

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but do you understand how idiotic you post sounds. You make a definitive evaluation based on what, a 5 minute youtube clip, and suddenly compare him to Mayweather. Lets compare that with the HOURS of coaches tape the Pats looked at, plus the private workouts,

Now listen, I thought the pick was curious at best, just the rest of Patriot Nation, but there HAS to be a point where we as fans have to recognize that the Pats put a lot more effort into this pick than we do. We have to recognize that they KNOW more about what's best for the team than we do. That they had their reasons for picking him at this spot, and they had a lot more information at their hands than we did.

Now, just like every other pick in the draft, only time will tell if the pick turns out well. If history tells us anything, roughly 50% will, in some way, disappoint. We can argue ad nauseum about the individual picks, but we certainly can't complain about the end result.

patfanken

I think BB went into the 2nd round with 2 goals. The first one was adding a DB. Clearly he had Wilson higher on his board than the mediots, but he wasn't alone with this evaluation. There were a few other teams who liked him and needed S help. He also wasn't as comfortable as I would have been with just 4 picks. So his 2nd goal was to trade down at some point with one of the 2 picks add at least one more player.

Unlike their first 2 picks the Pats took their full allotment of time before selecting Wilson, which can reasonably lead us to speculate that they were soliciting offers for the pick. With SD picking next, needing a S, and one of the teams who were familiar with Wilson, BB must have had a plan B for the pick, to be looking to trade out. Evidently they couldn't get an offer enticing enough to risk losing a player they clearly targeted, so they make the pick.

Now that they have the DB and none of the other players available at 62 know their socks off, BB looks to trade down. Only now he can't find a trading partner looking to move up. Only GB makes a weak offer, and without options BB pulls the trigger. The most intriguing question in all of this is why Elway didn't make the same offer to BB that he made just a few picks later.

The curious thing about the shock of the 2nd day was that despite the out of the box player and the 2 badly valued trades, the actual players the Pats ended up with look pretty good. They got 5 players who will stick and who look like they can contribute right away, and 2 intriguing "athletes" who are perfectly positioned to play their first year on the PS, and be ready to replace those 2 lost picks we have in 2013, when the roster is likely to open up a bit more.

patchick

So you don't believe "rumors," you trust in "reports" that a guy talked to a guy who knew something. Gotcha.

Whenever a player is snubbed by the Combine, pre-draft rankings of him become utterly unreliable. Team by team grades are likely to be more divergent too, as the info available to them will be even more varied than usual.

Remember how Vollmer was widely described as a 4th/5th-round project who the Pats reached for? No doubt there were, in fact, plenty of teams that had him graded that way. BUT, any team that attended the Houston pro day knew better. And it only takes one other team to make waiting for "good value" a losing move.

Did the Wilson pick look weird from the outside? Heck yeah. Was it, in fact, too early? No way of knowing. Is there any shred of evidence to even hint that the Pats "panicked"? Not even close.

ctpatsfan77

To this day, it still amazes me that the Pats had Scar go down and run Vollmer's pro day, and yet that didn't set off any alarm bells with any of the other teams. . . .

__________________
"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

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

everlong

The Pats picked at 48 and at 55 was Atlanta who had brought in Wilson a few weeks before the draft. I'm sure they figured their draft grade couldn't be that different than Dimitroff's so they pulled the trigger on the player they wanted. No conspiracy theory. Nothing to see here, move along.

__________________
"When Peyton Manning was a kid he used to go to bed at night and dream about throwing the winning touchdown for the Saints in the Superbowl. And on Sunday he did."

There's only two conclusions for Patriots fans on rookies. They are either a bust or being fitted for their bust in Canton.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.