Revisiting our 2009 NFL draft

[NG Pats Fan]

Traded out of 1st round- Clay Matthews/Hakeem Nicks still on the board

2nd round:

# 34 Pat Chung S

# 40 Ron Brace DT

# 41 Darius Butler CB

# 58 Sebastian Vollmer T

3rd Round:

# 83 Brandon Tate WR- Mike Wallace the very next pick

# 97 Tyrone McKenzie LB

4th Round:

# 123 Rich Ohrnberger G

5th Round

# 170 George Bussey G

6th Round

# 198 Jake Ingram LS

# 207 Myron Pryor DT

7th Round

# 232 Julian Edelman WR

# 234 Darryl Richard DT



Thoughts?


I think this draft has turned out to be one of the biggest flops of the BB era. Especially since we whiffed badly on our first 3 picks. Vollmer is a probowl caliber RT, but he is the only one we hit on. Thankfully, I think the 2010 patriots draft may have been the best in franchise history. In fact, with the emergence of Spikes and Cunningham to go along with the 3 probowlers, I would go as far to say it was the best draft out of any NFL team in the past 10 years. By the end of this season, we could have 4 pro-bowlers from the 2010 NFL Draft. That 2009 draft does look ugly for the patriots though.

 

[Big-T]

You can't complain about trading out of the first round then proclaim the 2010 draft great, if it weren't for that trade then there's no Gronk on the Patriots roster.

Edelman, Vollmer and when he's healthy Pryor were all good picks. Not the greatest haul but look at the 3 drafts since then.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Traded out of 1st round- Clay Matthews/Hakeem Nicks still on the board

2nd round:

# 34 Pat Chung S

# 40 Ron Brace DT

# 41 Darius Butler CB

# 58 Sebastian Vollmer T

3rd Round:

# 83 Brandon Tate WR- Mike Wallace the very next pick

# 97 Tyrone McKenzie LB

4th Round:

# 123 Rich Ohrnberger G

5th Round

# 170 George Bussey G

6th Round

# 198 Jake Ingram LS

# 207 Myron Pryor DT

7th Round

# 232 Julian Edelman WR

# 234 Darryl Richard DT



Thoughts?


I think this draft has turned out to be one of the biggest flops of the BB era. Especially since we whiffed badly on our first 3 picks. Vollmer is a probowl caliber RT, but he is the only one we hit on. Thankfully, I think the 2010 patriots draft may have been the best in franchise history. In fact, with the emergence of Spikes and Cunningham to go along with the 3 probowlers, I would go as far to say it was the best draft out of any NFL team in the past 10 years. By the end of this season, we could have 4 pro-bowlers from the 2010 NFL Draft. That 2009 draft does look ugly for the patriots though.

Thus far, I would give the draft a solid B, and I would give it a B+ if you consider their wisdom in trading out of the first round into 2010, which had a strong draft class. This was a notoriously weak draft from top to bottom. The Pats might have missed on not drafting Matthews, but you can make those arguments about every team every year. Obviously if everyone knew how Matthews would pan out, he would have been a top 5 pick.

 

[signbabybrady]

So this is BBs worst draft?

My thoughts would then be: it still produced 2 starters one Pro Bowl Worthy one Worthy of the bench in Vollmer and Chung. It also has a decent but injury prone back up in Ron Brace and another injury prone role player in Pryor. It also has one of the teams best STers and a guy who might be the future at slot WR in Edelman.

All and All it wasnt a great draft but later picks saved it and if this is the worst then it helps explain why we are where we always are.

 

[Deus Irae]

It's not the trade down. It's what was done with the trade down. Just as an example, given team needs and players who could reasonably have been taken (and often were lobbied for):

Sean Smith
Connor Barwin
LeSean McCoy
Vollmer

Nobody's looking back today and complaining about that draft if the trade downs result in those players being in New England


Laurinaitis was another player with a lot of supporters around here, while Maualuga met with more skepticism. I don't recall the board's general stance on Byrd or most of the other 2nd round picks.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

My problem with the 2009 nfl draft is we went 1 for 6 in the first 3 rounds.

 

[NG Pats Fan]

It's not the trade down. It's what was done with the trade down. Just as an example, given team needs and players who could reasonably have been taken (and often were lobbied for):

Sean Smith
Connor Barwin
LeSean McCoy
Vollmer

Nobody's looking back today and complaining about that draft if the trade downs result in those players being in New England


Laurinaitis was another player with a lot of supporters around here

Add Hakeem Nicks and Mike Wallace to that list. Brandon Tate? :bricks:

 

[Big-T]

The following 3 drafts might have left some fans feeling spoiled too:

Bold = on the roster

2010: Devin McCourty, Rob Gronkowski, Jermaine Cunningham, Brandon Spikes, Taylor Price, Aaron Hernandez, Zoltan Mesko, Ted Larsen, Thomas Welch, Brandon Deaderick, Kade Weston, Zac Robinson

2011: Nate Solder, Ras-I Dowling, Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley, Ryan Mallett, Marcus Cannon, Lee Smith, Markell Carter, Malcolm Williams

2012: Chandler Jones, Dont'a Hightower, Tavon Wilson, Jake Bequette, Nate Ebner, Alfonzo Dennard, Jeremy Ebert

11 starters + 3 players who are in the sub packages

As well as some good undrafted FA pick ups.

 

[jmt57]

I suppose it depends on your individual point of view.


In the first sentence you mention Clay Matthews but neglected to mention that that very same trade is what resulted in the Patriots acquiring Rob Gronkowski.


While on face value that draft looks bad to me it also underscores the fact that drafts are a crapshoot and no sure thing. That actually reinforces the strategy of acquiring extra picks, like the Pats did. At the end of the day the number or percentage of "busts" is not what you are looking to avoid; instead it is the total number of hits that you gain in order to strengthen your team. The way I see it the Pats ended up with three solid contributors to their team from that draft, which is not including what they ended up with by trading the first round pick. While that is far from perfect that's not horrible either.


The Ravens for example are considered one of the best franchises at talent evaluation and drafting, but in that same year they could have had Matthews, Nicks, Lesean McCoy, Vontae Davis or Jarious Byrd instead of Micheal Oher. A year later they could have had Gronk, Jimmy Graham or Antonio Brown instead of trading back for Sergio Kindle. Just because it turns out with the benefit of hindsight that somebody else was available at the time, that doesn't mean it is realistic to expect this team or any team to be perfect with their draft picks.

 

[Don_the_patfan]

Thus far, I would give the draft a solid B, and I would give it a B+ if you consider their wisdom in trading out of the first round into 2010, which had a strong draft class. This was a notoriously weak draft from top to bottom. The Pats might have missed on not drafting Matthews, but you can make those arguments about every team every year. Obviously if everyone knew how Matthews would pan out, he would have been a top 5 pick.

Wow I would've loved to have you as a sub in my classes if I was failing one. Straight A student I would be. Since when is the draft graded based on the genius moves made to trade down and not the players picked? We all love BB but you really swimming in cool aid. That draft was horrendous but BB the coach saves BB the GM.

 

[SHOWTIME15]

when you consider that Vollmer is a great pick up and edelman being productive, the draft is just ok. it's better than most of the drafts from 2005-2008. I would give this draft a B-.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

I suppose it depends on your individual point of view.

In the first sentence you mention Clay Matthews but neglected to mention that that very same trade is what resulted in the Patriots acquiring Rob Gronkowski.

While on face value that draft looks bad to me it also underscores the fact that drafts are a crapshoot and no sure thing. That actually reinforces the strategy of acquiring extra picks, like the Pats did. At the end of the day the number or percentage of "busts" is not what you are looking to avoid; instead it is the total number of hits that you gain in order to strengthen your team. The way I see it the Pats ended up with three solid contributors to their team from that draft, which is not including what they ended up with by trading the first round pick. While that is far from perfect that's not horrible either.

The Ravens for example are considered one of the best franchises at talent evaluation and drafting, but in that same year they could have had Matthews, Nicks, Lesean McCoy, Vontae Davis or Jarious Byrd instead of Micheal Oher. A year later they could have had Gronk, Jimmy Graham or instead of trading back for Sergio Kindle. Just because somebody else was available that doesn't mean it is realistic to expect any team to be perfect with their draft picks.

The trade down from 26 (Matthews) netted Darius Buler and Brandon Tate as well as the third which was traded to Jax for thie 2010 2nd (44 which was used for Gronk).

Gronk was picked at 42, Patriots traded up from 44. They also had Tenneseee's pick at 47, they could have just as easily used that pick to trade up to 42.

They also could have of course used their 2010 1st rounder on Gronk.

Baltimore managed to get Ladarius Webb at pick 88 as well as Oher a starting tackle (and Kruger) out of that draft. That's not that bad.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Ouch, this draft looks worse with each year. Hopefully nothing happens to Vollmer or it'll be a total disaster. Edelman as much as I love the guy is okay, nothing special. Pryor if he could stay healthy is a big help but that is very rare.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

Wow I would've loved to have you as a sub in my classes if I was failing one. Straight A student I would be. Since when is the draft graded based on the genius moves made to trade down and not the players picked? We all love BB but you really swimming in cool aid. That draft was horrendous but BB the coach saves BB the GM.

Oh I see. So it is irrelevant which players are actually available? Did you happen to look at the 2009 draft? It was truly one of the worst drafts ever when you look at who came out of there. For every Clay Matthews, there are three Aaron Maybins- but I'm sure you hit 100% on your evaluations. It was obvious the Patriots identified an overall weak bunch of prospects (which turned out to be true) and opted to trade down, get more picks, and carry their first rounder into 2010. Oh, so they didn't take several players that (in HINDSIGHT) were all-pros, it was a terrible draft.

The Pats got a great right tackle (second team all-pro), a decent safety, and Edelman. Based on the overall crappiness and league wide low percentage of success in the draft, that's very decent, considering that they wisely carried their 1st round pick into the next year.

As someone pointed out, the "trade downs" you think are so laughable eventually led to landing Gronkowski (and a further trade down led to them landing Hernandez.) Bottom line is, had they not traded out of the first round in 2009, Rob Gronkowski would not be a Patriot.

 

[Deus Irae]

...Bottom line is, had they not traded out of the first round in 2009, Rob Gronkowski would not be a Patriot.

The above is not necessarily true.

 

[mgteich]

3 of these players play a major role on the 2012 patriots. Vollmer is pro-bowl quality RT. Chung is an average starting safety. Edelman is our #4 receiver, punt returner, and backup slot receiver. And we trading out of the first and got Gronkowski in 2011 for our troubles.

Brace and Pryor have combined to be a minor contributor on the roster during this time period.

The quality of talent available in this draft was pretty awful.

Yes, we missed on Wallace at 83, but obviously so did a lot of other teams.

Given our needs, we did very well in that draft.

Traded out of 1st round- Clay Matthews/Hakeem Nicks still on the board

2nd round:

# 34 Pat Chung S

# 40 Ron Brace DT

# 41 Darius Butler CB

# 58 Sebastian Vollmer T

3rd Round:

# 83 Brandon Tate WR- Mike Wallace the very next pick

# 97 Tyrone McKenzie LB

4th Round:

# 123 Rich Ohrnberger G

5th Round

# 170 George Bussey G

6th Round

# 198 Jake Ingram LS

# 207 Myron Pryor DT

7th Round

# 232 Julian Edelman WR

# 234 Darryl Richard DT



Thoughts?


I think this draft has turned out to be one of the biggest flops of the BB era. Especially since we whiffed badly on our first 3 picks. Vollmer is a probowl caliber RT, but he is the only one we hit on. Thankfully, I think the 2010 patriots draft may have been the best in franchise history. In fact, with the emergence of Spikes and Cunningham to go along with the 3 probowlers, I would go as far to say it was the best draft out of any NFL team in the past 10 years. By the end of this season, we could have 4 pro-bowlers from the 2010 NFL Draft. That 2009 draft does look ugly for the patriots though.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Again when you have a team that annually has a chance to play in the SB, roster spots on the Patrots are harder to come by for rookies.

Plus I think BB is not afraid to cut a high draft pick if an UDFA is playing better than the high draft pick. It's all about performance on the field with BB.

I do think that BB used to rely too much on veteran retreads, but the debacle of the mid 2000's drafts has helped enlighten BB to the need for a better blend of veterans and youngsters on his roster.

 

[Armchair Quarterback]

Oh I see. So it is irrelevant which players are actually available? Did you happen to look at the 2009 draft? It was truly one of the worst drafts ever when you look at who came out of there. For every Clay Matthews, there are three Aaron Maybins- but I'm sure you hit 100% on your evaluations. It was obvious the Patriots identified an overall weak bunch of prospects (which turned out to be true) and opted to trade down, get more picks, and carry their first rounder into 2010. Oh, so they didn't take several players that (in HINDSIGHT) were all-pros, it was a terrible draft.

The Pats got a great right tackle (second team all-pro), a decent safety, and Edelman. Based on the overall crappiness and league wide low percentage of success in the draft, that's very decent, considering that they wisely carried their 1st round pick into the next year.


As someone pointed out, the "trade downs" you think are so laughable eventually led to landing Gronkowski (and a further trade down led to them landing Hernandez.) Bottom line is, had they not traded out of the first round in 2009, Rob Gronkowski would not be a Patriot.

Not true, it took an additional two trades to get that pick 41, they could have used their 1st on him or they could have traded up from 47 as opposed to trading up from 44.

 

[Deus Irae]

3 of these players play a major role on the 2012 patriots. Vollmer is pro-bowl quality RT. Chung is an average starting safety. Edelman is our #4 receiver, punt returner, and backup slot receiver. And we trading out of the first and got Gronkowski in 2011 for our troubles.

Brace and Pryor have combined to be a minor contributor on the roster during this time period.

The quality of talent available in this draft was pretty awful.

Yes, we missed on Wallace at 83, but obviously so did a lot of other teams.

Given our needs, we did very well in that draft.

1. The Gronk claim is misleading, as there was no 1:1 there
2. You're overrating Chung
3. So far (and this can still change), Edelman is Brandon Tate running shorter routes
4. There were players available that would have fit Patriots needs
5. Other teams missing isn't the issue

To date, 2009 has been a pretty significant disappointment. While people's first choices weren't taken (I wanted Sean Smith as the CB chosen, not Butler, for example, and there was the famed Connor Barwin warfare in the Draft forum trenches for another), there was still a lot of optimism about the draft, because it seemed as if positions of need were being drafted. However, most of the bloom is off the rose, because most of the picks have failed. Vollmer's a great pick. The rest could all have been cut before ever even going into a camp, with little to no negative overall effect on the team. The play level of Chung, Edelman, Pryor, Brace, et al... has not gotten above "easily replaceable".

 

[jbb9s]

Vollmer is a probowl caliber RT, but he is the only one we hit on.

with all due respect, are you kidding? i don't watch o-line film, but i never really thought vollmer was a pro bowler. tell me i'm wrong.