We have four Day One picks. Almost all of us have us drafting an OLB and a S with two of the picks. Most of us have a backup OL or two in the top 100 (this need could be met in the 3rd and 4th rounds).
This is pretty substantial agreement. However, we also have great room to disagree.
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For example, we could reasonably meet the above needs with an OLB at 34 and a safety at 57, leaving us MANY, MANY options for the 23rd and the 47th pick.
If you knew that we had met our OLB, S, OG, and OT needs as noted above, how would you use 23 and 47?
We clearly need at least one OLB and one S prospect. You are absolutely right, we could potentially fill them quite well later on - for example, we could probably get Cody Brown and Chip Vaughn with our #58 and 89 picks (possibly requiring a slight trade up from #89) and they might be extremely solid players for us, quite possibly becoming examples of more Pats values. They're very nice prospects, and in another year we might be grateful to have them available in the draft (such as last year, when we picked at #63, 69 and 78).
The problem is that we have such an abundance of early picks in an year where there is so much depth, particularly at those two positions. It's hard to focus on the value of Vaughn in the 3rd round when Delmas, Sean Smith, Will Moore and Chung may be available in the 2nd. It's hard to focus on the value of Cody Brown (or possibly Lawrence Sidbury) in the late 2nd/early 3rd when Barwin, English, Maybin, Everette Brown, Ayers, Michael Johnson, Matthews, Cushing and Sintim are all within reach if we decided we really wanted one of them.
Similarly, there are some great OT and OG options that are likely to be available in the late 2nd and 3rd rounds: Jamon Meredith, Troy Kropog, Gerald Cadogan, TJ Lang, Andy Levitre, Trevor Canfield, etc. So if we miss out on Beatty, Britton, Max, Unger or Wood all is not lost.
So we're not under any pressure to fill any of those needs with our top 3 picks. The question is how much value the FO puts on some of the top prospects at those positions, and how highly they prize some of the prospects at positions of lesser immediate need. There's no doubt that Hakeem Nicks, Darius Butler and Knowshon Moreno would be terrific Pats picks; the only question is whether they stand out enough to justify taking them as early as is required when their positions are not immediate needs and other equally talented players are available at positions that have greater need.
I'm sure the FO will figure it all out. And we'll probably be surprised at some of their moves. And we'll probably all come to appreciate them down the road, for the most part.
