DonBlackmon55
2nd Team Getting Their First Start
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Okay, let's review - with some context. Of the 37 guys acquired by the Pats during the BB Era who have been "designated" as WR on the roster, only 9 were drafted (less than one in five). The nine includes a 5th-rounder (Slater) and a 7th rounder (Edelman) who didn't actually play WR in college (IOW, they weren't "young WRs" to begin with). Slater rarely even played on offense at UCLA.
The list, by draft round order, is as follows:
2nd:
Branch - 2002 - WINNER
Chad Jackson - 2006 - He certainly had the pedigree coming in (success under Urban Meyer at Florida; great Combine). He did okay [13/152, 3 TDs, 11.7 ypc] while missing all of camp and several games during the season with a couple different injury issues. AFAIK, he hadn't been "injury prone" in college, so this wasn't really predictable. And then he tore his ACL in the 2006 AFC-CG. When he came off PUP in 2007, he had nothing. There's no way to tell whether he'd have been good or not. INCOMPLETE.
Bethel Johnson - 2006 - BUST
3rd:
Brandon Tate - 2009 - After a "redshirt season", he turned in the second best KR season in the BB Era and 4th best in Pats history. He also did well catching passes on the deep post [24/432, 3 TDs, 18.0 ypc, 52.2% CR] - the seventh best first-season yardage of the 37 (just 57 yards short of Deion's first season, and he produced one more TD than Deion did). Unfortunately, it appears that the deep post was pretty much the only route Tate could run with consistent effectiveness. Not a WINNER, but not really a BUST. Call it a 1/2 WINNER.
Taylor Price - 2010 - BUST.
That's the "high" picks. For the rest:
5th:
PK SAM (6'3"/210) - 2004 - Truly a "flyer" pick on a big guy who'd only started to have success at WR as a Senior. 1/2 BUST (if a 5th-round flyer can actually BE a "BUST")
7th:
David Givens - WINNER
So, 7 selections of college WRs over 11 years:
2.5 WINNERS (Tate was a decent contributor during his short stay)
2.5 BUSTS
1 Injury casualty.
You may still think that sucks, but I'd guess that if you took any seven consecutive WR selections by every team, you'd rarely find a significantly superior success rate.
1. How exactly was Tate a decent contributor for a 3rd round "flyer" ?
2. Chad Jackson is incomplete ? Wow, keep grasping for straws. A bust is a bust. He showed nothin before the injury. Zip
3. PK Sam - yes can be said was a flyer
Julian Edelman and Matt Slater were drafted as late round WR's, though neither of them are WR position players, mostly special teams or in case of Edelman also DB.
Simply put Pats do not know how to spot WR talent in the draft ot for that matter develop WR's
WR's like Jennings, Boldin, Wallace, Bernard Berrian, Bureleson were easily available for them in the draft, WR's who had produced well in college but were passed for smurfs or injury prone ones
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