Did you see the game? Suggs, Rice, Johnson, Ngata, the entire Ravens' OL. All Ravens' draft picks within the last five years. All made major plays or contributions today.
What did our recent draft picks do? Mayo couldn't get off blocks or make one-on-one tackles. The Ravens ran right at him. Merriweather took the James Sanders class of tackling angles. Maroney was a non-factor. And all the other draft picks didn't even play.
Sure, I saw the game. I was trying to get the thread back on track. And I don't disagree. I believe I said earlier in this thread that the only impact player I can think of that the Pats have drafted in recent years is Vince Wilfork, and I will also count Randy Moss and Wes Welker as great uses of draft picks, if not actual picks.
BTW, I would define "impact player" as one that other teams need to routinely game plan against. Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Tom Brady and perhaps Wilfork are the only ones on the Pats right now. When I think of the Super Bowl winning teams, the impact players who were drafted by this regime were Richard Seymour (6th pick overall) and Tom BradY (whom even BB/SP admit was a lucky pick). I will give a halfhearted nod to Asante Samuel. Other than that (and help me out here) have there been ANY other impact draft picks in the past 9 years?
The other impact players on those teams were Parcell's picks - (Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Tedy Bruschi, Troy Brown, Willie McGinest) - or free agents (Cory Dillon, Rodney Harrison), and even a (gasp) Bobby Grier pick, Kevin Faulk). (Ted Washington - was he a free agent or a draft pick trade?)
A lot of other pre-2009 picks have been solid (Mankins, Light, Koppen, Warren, Mayo, Graham) but I wouldn't put any in the impact category. Other teams, even other teams that draft low such as the Colts, seem to be able to find more such guys. For example, on the Colts I can think of Freeney, Matthis, their torpedo safety (can't think of his name right now), Reggie Wayne, Dallas Clark, etc. just off the top of my head.