Patriots rookie of the year

mgteich said:

The choice seems to be a 1st rounder who played like a solid 1st rounder or 7th rounder who played like a solid 2nd or 3rd rounder. I choose Dennard.

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While your statement accurate and true, it does leave out that Dennard was considered a borderline 1st rounder and by all accounts a second rounder before his stock fell precipitously due to his arrest for nailing an off-duty cop in the grill..... Not that I am complaining we got him!

Definitely Jones with Hightower a close second. I think we should acknowledge Tavon Wilson though. This guy came in under a microscope because all the so called experts railed against Belichick and ridiculed him for the pick. Even someone on this board were talking about "How to blow your draft". Well, I think Belichick knows what he is doing better than us and Mel Kiper. Wilson had 4 ints, 2 fumble recoveries and proved to be a solid tackler. He needs to work on his coverage skills some but I think he performed like, well, a second rounder would be expected too.

To me it's Dennard and it isn't even close. Jones has been impressive, at times, but when Dennard was out there he was much more consistent than Jones. Not a knock on Jones I just think we got a big steal with Dennard who will hopefully be a starting corner for years now.

He's our next Ty Law.

I'm giving the edge to Dennard. He's outplayed Morris Claiborne, Stephon Gilmore, and Dre Kirkpatrick, as a 7th round pick! He has #1 CB potential if Talib Sadly leaves next season. I hope Talib/Dennard can be our duo for the next 3 years.

Dennard for sure, need to keep him and talib.


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Jones played very well at the DE position. He shows signs of being a very good starting DE - burst, size, speed, athleticism. Lacks power, but that can come. Clearly the best player in the rookie class.

Dennard looks like an average starting corner - which was terrific by comparison. He made some plays, and got beat occasionally. Hopefully he can survive the second-year trough in our secondary.

Hightower played a lot, was a good linebacker, but not yet a playmaker.

Tavon Wilson played a lot, and played badly a lot. He looked like an average Patriots second round pick. Literally.

My vote goes to Fonzie Dennard. He's awesome.

I would have said Chandler Jones but his injury really hurt him IMO. So I went with Hightower, who was solid all season long.

But either way, I'm pumped to have Jones, Hightower, Francis, and Dennard all here for years to come.

We have so many gr8 rookies this year that Nate Ebner doesn't even get a mention, and he's been useful.


And don't sleep on Markus Zusevics and Jeff Demps for next year!

The Gr8est said:

We have so many gr8 rookies this year that Nate Ebner doesn't even get a mention, and he's been useful.


And don't sleep on Markus Zusevics and Jeff Demps for next year!

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Very good points, Gr8!!!!

It's gotta be Jones for me. He made the most impact when he was healthy. Changed the entire feel of our defense. He's going to be a key player in the playoffs too. If we can get pressure on the QB, the entire secondary looks better.

I'm going to wuss out and abstain from voting. You know you had an A+ draft class when you read the arguments here. The sad thing for the rest of the league is these rookies are going to get better.

I voted for Dennard just because corner was our biggest problem the first few games of the season and we have little to no depth at CB.

On a side note, is there any team who had a draft nearly as good as ours? If they all continue to improve, this could be the best draft of the BB era.

Who the heck voted for Tavon Wilson?

Big-T said:

Dennard, pretty much for his draft position to production output, Hightower & Jones have been good too but Dennard was a 7th rounder and is one of the reasons for the improved secondary.

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I agree fully with this statement.

Just delighted that this choice is problematic! Happy New Years Pats Fans!

nabwong said:

I'm going to give it to Dennard. Why? Because he's awesome!

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Ball hawk!

captain stone said:

Who the heck voted for Tavon Wilson?

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Tavon Wilson visits this site with an alias........

Not being too familiar with Francis i wanted to see what his arm length was after the last game as he looked like he had some decent length and i was surprised to see he has almost 34' arms. That's pretty awesome for a guy who is 6'2. That's better than alot of bigger guys and many of the prospects from last year.

Bequette at 6'5 has 32' arms for example and looking over the numbers recently many of the high prospect busts have had the t-rex syndrome.

Many of the successful rushers also had a good 3-cone time and interestingly enough francis,bequette and chandler rated near the top in that drill.

Not sure how Jones doesn't get the nod here. He has been the most impactful rookie on this team regardless of draft position. People seem to forget that Dennard was considered a 2nd round talent but because of off field issues and past injury history he dropped like a stone. All three (Jones, Hightower, amd Dennard) have missed some time due to injuries this year. Jones has been the most impactful from the start.