NFL All-Rookie Team

[PatsFanSince74]

four teams had more than one player on the team: Bills, Jests, Colts, Vikings. they're either lucky or know what they're doing.

 

[bradmahn]

Your reasoning is the justification for a Pats' draft that was the poorest

in recent memory. Three out of nine doesn't cut the mustard. The

Superbowl winners, the Colts, had all nine of their draftees make the

team and an undrafted rookie starts in their defensive line. This

refutes the theory that rookies can't make a good team.

The Pats simply don't seem to want to take the time to develop

young players at linebacker. Thirty eight year old Chad Brown makes their

53 man roster while Justin Rodgers is cut and immediately claimed by

another good team, the Cowboys. I don't know if the Pats can go on

forever without developing at least one young starting linebacker. Relying

on free agency too much is cost prohibitive.

You are ignoring where the teams were prior to the draft in both personnel already on the team and in drafting position by simply claiming that the Colts had all nine draft picks make their squad. The Patriots selected the bulk of their draft in the sixth and seventh rounds (6 of the 9). Compare that to the Colts who made eight picks in the first five rounds.

Trades both for players and future picks are part of the draft and it is pretty clear that the Patriots felt they could get more value by acquiring Wes Welker, Randy Moss, and the 7th and 68th picks in 2008 draft. That absolutely makes a draft successful.

 

[newton_tom_cat]

four teams had more than one player on the team: Bills, Jests, Colts, Vikings. they're either lucky or know what they're doing.

3 of those 4 didn't make the playoffs either, and prevalence of rookies in those cases is a reflection of rebuilding, to one degree or another. it's most impressive that the defending champs drafting lowest had multiple rookie contributers, including one that was undrafted. and they still finished 2nd overall.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

3 of those 4 didn't make the playoffs either, and prevalence of rookies in those cases is a reflection of rebuilding, to one degree or another. it's most impressive that the defending champs drafting lowest had multiple rookie contributers, including one that was undrafted. and they still finished 2nd overall.

lots of rebuilding teams have drafted dumb in the nfl. i agree re the colts.

 

[Lampshade]

Your reasoning is the justification for a Pats' draft that was the poorest

in recent memory. Three out of nine doesn't cut the mustard. The

Superbowl winners, the Colts, had all nine of their draftees make the

team and an undrafted rookie starts in their defensive line. This

refutes the theory that rookies can't make a good team.

The Pats simply don't seem to want to take the time to develop

young players at linebacker. Thirty eight year old Chad Brown makes their

53 man roster while Justin Rodgers is cut and immediately claimed by

another good team, the Cowboys. I don't know if the Pats can go on

forever without developing at least one young starting linebacker. Relying

on free agency too much is cost prohibitive.

The Colts also had to replace a bucket load of players due to free agency losses; the Pats didn't.

There was never any Chad Brown or Justin Rodgers decision. Neither made it passed the 53 cutdown. The choice would have been Rodgers or Seau/Woods/Alexander.

 

[Jimke]

four teams had more than one player on the team: Bills, Jests, Colts, Vikings. they're either lucky or know what they're doing.

The Colts do a terrific job each year both in the draft and in signing

undrafted free agents. This is why their defense is better this year even

though they lost defensive starters to free agency. The Jets, like the

Pats, realized that the 2007 draft was below par. Instead of drafting

a whole bunch of players with little chance of making their team, they

packaged their picks and obtained two very good players.

This year, the Pats are probably going to lose a lot of players to free

agency. It will be disappointing if they draft three offensive linemen

again and only three of their draftees make the team.

 

[FreeTedWilliams]

Your reasoning is the justification for a Pats' draft that was the poorest

in recent memory. Three out of nine doesn't cut the mustard. The

Superbowl winners, the Colts, had all nine of their draftees make the

team and an undrafted rookie starts in their defensive line. This

refutes the theory that rookies can't make a good team.

The Pats simply don't seem to want to take the time to develop

young players at linebacker. Thirty eight year old Chad Brown makes their

53 man roster while Justin Rodgers is cut and immediately claimed by

another good team, the Cowboys. I don't know if the Pats can go on

forever without developing at least one young starting linebacker. Relying

on free agency too much is cost prohibitive.

This is why the Colts have no depth, did you watch their second team last Sunday? They have a ton of money into a few players, the just gave Sanders another 20 million in bonus money, I'd hate to see how much of their cap space is taken up by five players.

Hell they are even paying a kicker who can't make a FG over 40 yards 3 mil a year.

 

[Jimke]

Am I blinded by 16-0, or, are you overlooking two key contributors on defense that helped lead us to 16-0??

I have to challenge both your statements.....I see Bruschi playing some really good football this year, leading the team in tackles. Is he Bruschi of 2003 or 2004, no, but he is better than "average at best".??

AD has been solid, no linebacker comes into this system and flourishes in year one - he has done a decent job as well. Don't forget, he has been shuffled between two positions and has fought off an injured ankle all year.

My biggest fear with regard to the playoffs is whether the defense,

especially the linebackers, can hold togerther for three more games.

In the Giants game, we did a decent job against the run but had virtually

no pass rush. Also, our defensive backs are far from infallible. We made

all stars out of the Eagles, Ravens, and Giants quarterbacks.

 

[newton_tom_cat]

My biggest fear with regard to the playoffs is whether the defense,

especially the linebackers, can hold togerther for three more games.

In the Giants game, we did a decent job against the run but had virtually

no pass rush. Also, our defensive backs are far from infallible. We made

all stars out of the Eagles, Ravens, and Giants quarterbacks.

it was our linebackers wearing down (and especially bruschi in the middle) cost us the AFC title game last year. its still our #1 weakness, thomas from ravens was the wrong move to address it

 

[Jimke]

The Colts have no depth? If ever there was a year that depth was prominently on display it was this year. All-Pro receiver out, Gonzalez steps up. McFarland unexpectedly goes down. Ed Johnson becomes the surprise of the FA signings. All-Pro Tarik Glenn unexpectedly retires, rookie Tony Ugoh steps up in a huge way. The linebackers were shuffled all year long due to injuries and we still ended up 13-3 with one giveaway game. Seems pretty dang deep to me.

Although we are on different sides, I agree with you. Bill Polian is a

rat fink but he does a real good job of drafting players and signing

undrafted players. This is how the Colts can lose key defensive

players and actually improve on defense. The Colts re- sign Bob Sanders

for big money but they will offset his salary with their draftees and

UDFAs.

 

[Mangold74]

I still don't understand why the Pats didn't go hard after Harris. I know that your front office doesn't like to take linebackers early in the draft but at some point you make an exception. Once he got on the field Harris was probably the Jets best defensive player.

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

This is why the Colts have no depth,
.......................

Hell they are even paying a kicker who can't make a FG over 40 yards 3 mil a year.

Actually that kicker made ONE field goal over 29 yards in the last ten games of the season.......Should be interesting come playoff time....
http://www.nfl.com/players/adamvinatieri/gamelogs?id=VIN196019

 

[fgssand]

My biggest fear with regard to the playoffs is whether the defense,

especially the linebackers, can hold togerther for three more games.

In the Giants game, we did a decent job against the run but had virtually

no pass rush. Also, our defensive backs are far from infallible. We made

all stars out of the Eagles, Ravens, and Giants quarterbacks.

The hope is that our prolific offense continues to pile up points which keeps the pressure on all challengers to match our output.

We sure did seem to make stars out of middle of the pack QB's, but remember, teams were playing us as if it were their superbowl. They had nothing to lose and all the stress was on NE. It won't be that way in the playoffs as far as stress - every team is the same now - lose and it's season over. That helps us at this point.

The question is indeed if our defense can play well enough to hold the opposition to field goals in the red zone and not TD's.

I think we score 30 without a doubt - I hope we can hold teams (including Indy) to less that 24.

 

[Deus Irae]

Your reasoning is the justification for a Pats' draft that was the poorest

in recent memory. Three out of nine doesn't cut the mustard. The

Superbowl winners, the Colts, had all nine of their draftees make the

team and an undrafted rookie starts in their defensive line. This

refutes the theory that rookies can't make a good team.

The Pats simply don't seem to want to take the time to develop

young players at linebacker. Thirty eight year old Chad Brown makes their

53 man roster while Justin Rodgers is cut and immediately claimed by

another good team, the Cowboys. I don't know if the Pats can go on

forever without developing at least one young starting linebacker. Relying

on free agency too much is cost prohibitive.

Simple exercise for you...... Break down the Patriots pre draft roster position by position and find which spots had competition available and at what level (starter, backup, #3 guy). For example,

QB = No shot at competition for starter, not worth wasting a pick for backup
RB = Set at levels 1-4
WR = Set at every possible level
etc....


Breakdown the whole team, couple that with the Patriots theory that you win and lose at the line of scrimmage, and you'll start to understand why New England drafted as they did. Then, do the same thing with the Colts and you'll start to understand why they drafted the way they did and why those draftees have played as much as they have.

Also, for the record, 18 of the 19 players drafted by the Patriots in the last 2 drafts were either on an NFL roster or a practice squad when I broke that down a few weeks back. I believe that's still the case, although I'm not 100% positive and I'm not going back to re-check. What people like you are ignoring is the amazing team, and depth, that's been put together in New England.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

it was our linebackers wearing down (and especially bruschi in the middle) cost us the AFC title game last year. its still our #1 weakness, thomas from ravens was the wrong move to address it

It was the flu, playing on the road including cross country against a mega talented D the week before, the loss of Harrison again as well as Seau for the stretch run and playoffs, an injury to our rookie RB, lack of talent at the WR position and inability to play for 60 minutes on either side of the ball that cost us the AFC title game last year.

 

[bradmahn]

It was the flu, playing on the road including cross country against a mega talented D the week before, the loss of Harrison again as well as Seau for the stretch run and playoffs, an injury to our rookie RB, lack of talent at the WR position and inability to play for 60 minutes on either side of the ball that cost us the AFC title game last year.

No it was Reche Caldwell and don't try to tell anyone on this board otherwise.:bricks:

 

[DarrylS]

it was our linebackers wearing down (and especially bruschi in the middle) cost us the AFC title game last year. its still our #1 weakness, thomas from ravens was the wrong move to address it

This is the second time you have said that Thomas was the wrong move or was a bust, you initially base this on stats, this is not a stat driven defense and often D stats do not tell the whole story.

Secondly, Thomas was hurt mid season and during the Giants game seemed to have somewhat returned to form.

Thirdly, Thomas went from inside to outside, when Colvin went down..

This has been discussed before, Colvin was an intregral part of this system/rotation.. when he went down changes and adjustment had to be made.. the initial rotation which worked so well and had to be scrapped.

There are no quick fixes for this older LB crew, to have just brought in another rookie and assume he would do the same is erroneous.. cannot be done. I agree they are getting older, but will take the football savvy of Bruschi and Seau any day over a rookie who will make 100+ tackles.

When someone like Willis makes all these tackles, need to look at the whole defense.. there is a reason for him doing so.

 

[maverick4]

I was wrong about Leon Hall and Patrick Willis, those guys are awesome.

David Harris was a major sleeper who we could have used this season.

 

[maverick4]

This site was impressive in how accurate it got a lot of these players:

http://www.nfldraftcountdown.com/archive/2007/07rankings.html#ilb

 

[mgteich]

Davis Harris was many things this year and in last year's draft. The one thing he was NOT was a sleeper. The vast majority of us would have been happy with him being picked instead of Meriweather or instead of trading into 2008. Most of us predicted him with our second pick in the 1st round, although some would have tried to trade down to get him. The jets traded up for Revis and from Harris. They evaluated well in a very poor draft. And just BTW, some here wanted Beason instead of Harris. He ALSO worked out pretty well. Finally, the rest of us wanted Leonard. I DO UNDERSTAND that the 2007 draft was a lousy draft. I just don't think we did very well with our actual nine picks made. People mention that we had late picks. Aren't Belichick and Pioli supposed to be the experts on late picks?

To say we were geniouses for trading a 4th for Moss and that makes our draft great is simply ridiculous. Moss blackmailed Oakland and would only come to the patriots. The bottom line is that we made 9 picks. The bottom line is that some perfectly aweful players made our final 53. Meriweather was our draft, along with a couple of late draftees that will hope to make the 2008 squad.

In the end, it doesn't matter. We are 16-0. We didn't NEED Meriweather to be a difference maker. We wouldn't have won any more games with Harrris, Leonard or Beason. I do NOT think Meriweather will be a bust, but neither do I believe he was worth a 1st round pick. Now, as then, I believe that one of these three would make the patriots a better team. And yes, as a practical matter, we could have traded down a few picks from 24 and still picked up one of the three (or four if Meriweather was still included as a possible choice).

We can wait another 3 years to make final evaluations between two strategies

STRATEGY ONE
Pick Meriweather and whoever was of most value in the fourth (ended up being Brown) and three OL's just in case on of our nine signed starter quality linemen broke their legs. Yes, I know we still might get lucky with Richardson or Lua. IMHO, Lua would have gone the way of Rogers.

STRATEGY TWO
As many of us suggested AT THE TIME, trade down next to our other first round choice, pick up a draft choice and choose Harris, Meriweather, Leonard or Beason. I do understand that the resultant 3rd or 4th rounder, even when combined with the 4th rounder we had probaby wouldn't have produced anything, given our evaluation of this draft. But just possibly, the extra pick from moving down would be enough combined with the 4th to move up to get a second serivicable player.

BOTTOM LINE

We all loved 2007 DRAFT DAY. After all we ended up with Welker, Moss, a 2008 mid 1st and a 2008 top 3rd.

Why must we continue to ignore the fact that the brain trust didn't do a very good job using the picks we actually made?

I was wrong about Leon Hall and Patrick Willis, those guys are awesome.

David Harris was a major sleeper who we could have used this season.