The 2009 draft was pivotal for this football team this season, especially with the retirements of Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison and the aging of Mike Vrabel on defense.
Belichick and his crew hit the books hard.
They crammed and reviewed.
They stockpiled picks and trade assets - most notably Matt Cassel.
Then April came around, and the Patriots froze.
Did they actually refuse the No. 2 pick overall for Cassel, settling on a second-rounder? Did they really deem it prudent to ignore linebackers like James Laurinaitis, Clay Matthews and Rey Maualuga repeatedly as they dealt their way back into the second round?
In the end, I will weigh the 2009 draft in one simple equation. Do Pat Chung, Darius Butler, Ron Brace and Sebastian Vollmer come anywhere close to the potential impact Maualuga and Matthews might have had?
Vollmer is big, strong and athletic, oozing potential. He was also the fifth wheel on an offensive line yesterday that couldn't run the football with only six Ravens in the box and couldn't keep Brady upright and in the pocket against a four-man rush.
The rest? Chung and Butler couldn't crack into a feeble secondary, while Brace spent half the season as an inactive, registering six solo tackles for the year.
The personnel hemorrhaging never ended.
Belichick threw his free agent money to Fred Taylor (269 rushing yards), Shawn Springs (four healthy scratches) and Joey Galloway (axed in Week 7).
He traded for Greg Lewis, who caught eight balls this year — all for the Vikings — after he couldn't make the roster out of training camp.
New England handed Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs and then boa(Please be quiet - edited)lly jettisoned Richard Seymour to the Raiders, a week before the season.
Anyone happen to notice where the Ravens did their business yesterday?
Right between the tackle-guard gap on the defensive right where Seymour carved out five Pro Bowl nominations in eight years.
