Three years out—rate the 2010 Patriots draft

Rob0729 said:

Mesko a mediocre punter? Huh?!? Mesko is a pretty damn good punter. His numbers may be low, but that's because he was 29th in the league in punting attempts. I would rank Mesko in the top 5-10 punters in the league.

BTW, I may agree Cunningham was not a great pick, but why would Tate be a good pick. He is a mediocre WR. Personally, the pick they should have made was Sean Lee who is outstanding and was only picked two spots later. But hindsight is always 20-20.

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Even pretty damn good Punters (and PlaceKickers, too) can be, and are, signed as UDFAs
...unless we're talking about Uncle Al Davis. The Zoltan isn't a field-position changer or a
coffin-corner finder. I would rank him closer to 11-16.

Cunningham should not even have been considered until at least the end of the 3rd round,
where edge players like Everson Griffen & Corey Wootton were still available.

Golden Tate, coached in this offense at ND by Charlie Weis, would be the #3 WR here behind
Welker & Lloyd. And haven't people been asking for a legit #3 WR instead of Edelman, Branch,
Stallworth, OchoStinko et al.?

No argument from me if Bill decided to draft Sean Lee instead of Cunningham/Tate.

Seels said:

Tate sucks and would be a #4 or 5 on this team. All he is is a name.

Mesko isn't a mediocre punter.

Who cares about 7th rounders or Thomas Welch.

The TE alone make this an A+.

Any of you not giving this at least an A- I'd really love to know what the Pats could have done better aside from something silly like taking Geno Atkins over Taylor Price. This is arguably the best Pats draft in history.

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Golden Tate does not suck, and would be the #3 WR on this team.

Mesko is over-rated.

And I care about 7th-rounders.

Only don't like the Cunningham and Taylor Price picks. But it's a pretty epic draft overall. We got 5 starters out of it - mccourty, gronk, hernandez, spikes, and mesko.

If only 2009 had been as good, we might be looking at another Lobardi right now. But you know the draft is unpredictable but out of the teams out there, the Pats are among the tops at mining for picks. They have their share of misses but they also have been hitting on a great deal of picks lately as well.

Ted Larsen should have never been cut either.

captain stone said:

Golden Tate does not suck, and would be the #3 WR on this team.

Mesko is over-rated.

And I care about 7th-rounders.

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i like mesko, he pins people before the 20 quite well and can boom it when he needs to

a good starting FS/CB in #34 the the two best TE's in the AFC and a good punter and good dept in cunningham and deadrick the best Draft by any team in 2010 IMO... and i forgot Spikes was in that draft to thats 5 starters and 3 pro bowlers in one draft

captain stone said:

Cunningham at 52 is a fail. Golden Tate should've been the obvious choice.

A 5th-rounder for a mediocre Punter, when SS Reshard Jones (among others) was still available? Meh.

Trading Up in the 7th round for Tom Welch? Why?

I gave the draft a B+. Some VG picks (McCourty, Gronk, Spikes, Hernandez); the rest, not so VG.

I wish I had the rest of the voters as my teachers when I attended Boston Latin.

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And as night follows day, Captain Stoner turns up to tell us who should have been drafted.

Are you going to post who we should Draft this year? Or can we expect that in 5 years?

captain stone said:

Golden Tate does not suck, and would be the #3 WR on this team.

Mesko is over-rated.

And I care about 7th-rounders.

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Dude, you suck.

Tate is the very definition of mediocre. Mesko was a fine pick.

And the fact you think 7th Round picks can make or break Draft is the very reason why your opinion on such matters should always be ignored.

Guys, I want to make this as obvious as possible.

Ask Captain Stoner who we should pick this year in the Draft. Ask him for his top 5-10 players at each position, ask him whether he would trade that first round pick and nail him to an answer on everything.

I doubt you will though, he never tells us what the best option was until it really doesn't matter any more.

The guy is a complete fraud.

captain stone said:

Even pretty damn good Punters (and PlaceKickers, too) can be, and are, signed as UDFAs
...unless we're talking about Uncle Al Davis. The Zoltan isn't a field-position changer or a
coffin-corner finder. I would rank him closer to 11-16.

Cunningham should not even have been considered until at least the end of the 3rd round,
where edge players like Everson Griffen & Corey Wootton were still available.

Golden Tate, coached in this offense at ND by Charlie Weis, would be the #3 WR here behind
Welker & Lloyd. And haven't people been asking for a legit #3 WR instead of Edelman, Branch,
Stallworth, OchoStinko et al.?

No argument from me if Bill decided to draft Sean Lee instead of Cunningham/Tate.

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First, you are complaining about the Pats taking a punter in a fifth round and continuing to make a case for a back up WR (your own words) in the second round. I said there are better choices in the second round other than Cunningham (Lee was my choice), but I disagree on Tate.

Second, just because Tate succeeded in a similar system in college doesn't mean he would succeed in the Pros. Prior to the draft, there was a lot of doubt that would succeed in the Pros no matter what system he was in. The Pats could have gotten a better #3 WR in later rounds. Eric Decker (3rd round) and Antonio Brown (6th round) were both drafted after Tate and are better receivers than Tate.

Third, plenty of teams draft a punter in the 5th round or higher. Here are all the teams that drafted punters drafted in the 5th round or higher over the last decade:

• This year, the Jags drafted one in the third round.
• In 2009, both the Bengals and Saints drafted a punter in the 5th round.
• In 2007, both the Steelers and Jags drafted a punter in the 4th round. In 2005, the Chiefs drafted on in the 3rd round.
• In 2004, the Packers drafted one in the 3rd round.
• In 2003, the Chargers drafted on in the 5th.
• In 2002, the Ravens drafted one in the 4th.

DraftHistory.com

So that is eight teams drafting nine punters over the last decade in the same round or higher as the Pats when they took Mesko. Considering teams only have one punter and a punter's career (even for an average one) is over a decade long, that is a lot of punters drafted in the fifth round or higher.

Fourth, Mesko is better than you give him credit for. He does a pretty good job getting the ball inside the 20 and boots it when he needs to. There is no such thing as a coffin kicker in the NFL anymore. Mesko's numbers suffer from the Pats' offense that scores on more drives than most teams and, when they are forced to punt, they are kicking closer to midfield or on the other side of the field more often than other teams.

Mesko single handedly won us the Ravens game a couple seasons ago (in OT?).

Mesko is a great punter. It's just that the Patriots go 3 and out less than any other team in the league so it's rare that he has the opportunity to just rip it and kick it as far as he can (like a team like the Raiders). He usually is punting at best, from his own 40, and it'd probably be just as likely the opponents 40 as his own.

I wouldn't put him top 3, but he's certainly approaching top 5.

The Taylor Price pick is the difference of this draft being an A instead of an A+. The Cunningham pick wasn't great but he's still on the team and has made some plays.

I wouldn't say that you have to nail all of your picks to get an A+ but I think all of your top picks should prove to be somewhat productive players.

Hern
Gronk
Devin
Spikes
Mesko

Also, It bugs me that some people here are talking about the "obvious picks". As if they should have been the ones drafting the players since they are so knowledgeable on scouting draft prospects. They weren't obvious back in April 2010.

Deus Irae said:

Ask a guy like Tannenbaum how important it is not to blow draft picks. The "could have had...." is a way of seeing blown picks in light of the available talent in that year's draft..

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In one respect courtesy of Tannenbaum, you can add Woodhead to that list, even though he was picked up after being cut by the Jets. He outplayed McKnight in training camp but Ryan/Tannenbaum weren't about to cut their 4th rounder in favor of an UDFA when they only had 4 picks....

A+ draft. Can't expect much better.

Best TE in the league. (Gronk)
One of the best WR/TE/RB hybrid (Hernandez)
Emerging safety (McCourty)
One of the best punters in the league (Mesko)
One of the best run defending LBs in the league (Spikes)

Claremonster said:

Ted Larsen should have never been cut either.

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While I felt at the time that Larsen should have been retained over Nick Kaczur, on the other hand had that been the case then there would not have been room on the roster to sign Donald Thomas (or Nick McDonald). It's about an even trade-off when you consider the roster opening that releasing Larsen created.

I'd rather have had G/C Larsen than G/C McDonald.

jmt57 said:

While I felt at the time that Larsen should have been retained over Nick Kaczur, on the other hand had that been the case then there would not have been room on the roster to sign Donald Thomas (or Nick McDonald). It's about an even trade-off when you consider the roster opening that releasing Larsen created.

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mgteich said:

I'd rather have had G/C Larsen than G/C McDonald.

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A year ago I would have disagreed, but not today; McDonald did not progress as I had hoped in 2012. How much of that was from an early training camp injury, who knows; hopefully he can get back on track in 2013. Would be nice to see McDonald make a step forward the way that Thomas did in 2012; Thomas played the best of the three last year.

On a side note Larsen's base salary for 2013 increased to $1.323 million based on incentives (I would assume playing time) in his original contract. larsen saw plenty of playing time because both Carl Nicks and Davin Joseph went on IR; barring another major injury, Larsen will likely be back on the bench.

A+ easily. Gronk will probably become a Hall of Famer if injuries don't ruin him. Hernandez is a top 5 TE at least. Spikes is a very good linebacker who inspires others to play better. McCourty is one of the better cover safeties in the league I'd say. Mesko is pretty good, Cunningham is an okay player just drafted way too high.

F terrible draft didnt get any big tall fast physical receivers, a big safety who can lay the wood, or 3 darrelle revis's absolutley garbage.

Rob0729 said:

First, you are complaining about the Pats taking a punter in a fifth round and continuing to make a case for a back up WR (your own words) in the second round. I said there are better choices in the second round other than Cunningham (Lee was my choice), but I disagree on Tate.

Second, just because Tate succeeded in a similar system in college doesn't mean he would succeed in the Pros. Prior to the draft, there was a lot of doubt that would succeed in the Pros no matter what system he was in. The Pats could have gotten a better #3 WR in later rounds. Eric Decker (3rd round) and Antonio Brown (6th round) were both drafted after Tate and are better receivers than Tate.

Third, plenty of teams draft a punter in the 5th round or higher. Here are all the teams that drafted punters drafted in the 5th round or higher over the last decade:

• This year, the Jags drafted one in the third round.
• In 2009, both the Bengals and Saints drafted a punter in the 5th round.
• In 2007, both the Steelers and Jags drafted a punter in the 4th round. In 2005, the Chiefs drafted on in the 3rd round.
• In 2004, the Packers drafted one in the 3rd round.
• In 2003, the Chargers drafted on in the 5th.
• In 2002, the Ravens drafted one in the 4th.

DraftHistory.com

So that is eight teams drafting nine punters over the last decade in the same round or higher as the Pats when they took Mesko. Considering teams only have one punter and a punter's career (even for an average one) is over a decade long, that is a lot of punters drafted in the fifth round or higher.

Fourth, Mesko is better than you give him credit for. He does a pretty good job getting the ball inside the 20 and boots it when he needs to. There is no such thing as a coffin kicker in the NFL anymore. Mesko's numbers suffer from the Pats' offense that scores on more drives than most teams and, when they are forced to punt, they are kicking closer to midfield or on the other side of the field more often than other teams.

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Fair enough points re Mesko, though I still disagree re Golden Tate.