The Patriots drafts in the early Pioli years were exceptional. Since then he's had some whiffs, but it's hardly been a disaster. You want to see a disaster? Look at the Detroit Lions' drafts. Look at the Bengals' drafts.
I don't know how anyone can say 2005 was a bad draft. 2005 was an outstanding draft. They got a Pro Bowl lineman with the last pick in the first round. They picked up two starters, Ellis Hobbs and Nick Kaczur, with late third-round picks. Neither of these guys are great players, but they were both starters on a 16-0 Super-bowl team. Hobbs, in case you haven't noticed, is also one of the best kickoff returners in the league.
James Sanders has been a good player for them. Matt Cassel isn't great, or even good, but he's a quarterback who won't lose the game for you and they got him at the end of the seventh round. There are franchises who've been looking for a non-disaster at that position in ANY round for a decade.
Seriously, think about it. If I were to tell you that you're going to get one Pro Bowler and four solid contributors from every draft, you wouldn't take that? Really? Most teams are lucky if they have three or four Pro Bowlers/impact players on their roster total. That's exactly how you win, you get a core of impact players and surround them with guys who can just do the job -- guys like Hobbs, Sanders, and Kaczur.
Any team that could pick up one impact player every year, and be sure of having them cost-controlled, would be a dynasty for sure. That's how you measure a good draft. One extra-base hit and four singles is a pretty good day at the park.
Okay, so let's look at 2006. Not their best effort for sure. But they got an excellent kicker in Gostkowski (not that it means that much, but if you had to vote right now, wouldn't he be the AFC Pro Bowl kicker?) and a solid second tight end in David Thomas. Then there's Ryan O'Callaghan. Callaghan started six games at right tackle as a rookie. Remember that game where the Patriots played against the vaunted Minnesota front line and basically didn't run it the whole game? They didn't give up any sacks that game, ran for over 5 yards per carry, and Callaghan was your starter. He started in the last regular-season game against the Giants last year and didn't give up any sacks to that vaunted front line either. Is he a star? no. Is he injured this year and therefore not helping? Yes. But he's a serviceable right tackle for a playoff team whom they got in the fifth round.
Now maybe the difference between where the Pats are now and where they were five years ago is that they used to get Dan Koppen in the late rounds, and now are getting Ryan O'Callaghan. But there are a lot of teams that would kill to get anyone at all who can play tackle beyond the third or fourth round.
And by the way, you're wrong about all of these draftees who aren't on the Pats anymore being out of the league. Justin Rogers is still playing for Dallas. Garrett Mills is on the Vikings. Kareem Brown is on the Jets. Corey Hilliard is on the Colts. Jeremy Mincey is on PUP with the Jaguars. Clint Oldenburg is on the Rams' practice squad.
I admit 2007 wasn't a good draft. And Chad Jackson was a major bust. And Marquise Hill looked like one even before he died. And maybe Maroney wasn't a good pick. We get it. But this team just came off a 16-win season and is in contention for its division with a backup quarterback. They've been hurt by some weakish drafts but so has everyone. Look at Tennessee. They whiffed on two top-10 picks in just the last few years and they're an undefeated team built almost entirely on home-grown talent. In fact from 2003 to 2006 their first-rounders were Andre Woolfolk, Ben Troupe, Pacman Jones and Vince Young. All wasted picks. That's the way the draft works -- it's a guessing game. Some teams guess a little better than others. You'd have to be crazy to say the Pats don't guess better than most, even now.
