Looking over this thread, I have a general question: is criticism of the 7th-round picks about the quality of the players themselves, or about positional need? And if it's the latter, what is the real meaning of "need" when it comes down to the bottom of the 7th and you've already made 9 or 10 or 11 selections?
Personally, by that point in the draft I assume I've done my roster-building already, and I now have 3 general categories I'm looking for regardless of position:
1. Straightforward value picks (players I had rated at 5th round or above)
2. "Swing for the fences" picks (longshots, often underexperienced, with a very high ceiling)
3. Developmental QBs (though you could argue this is just a subset of #2)
Looking at the 3 picks the Pats made late in the 7th, I have Deaderick as a category 1. (I rated him as a 5th rounder). Weston, an underachiever with ultra-rare physical qualities, is category 2. Robinson, obviously, is #3.
Left to my own devices I probably would have taken Deaderick, Blair White (another 5th on my board), and Tim Hiller as my QB, but the picks they made seem perfectly reasonable.