Wheatley and Wilhite are no longer on the squad. Neither are Chung and Butler. Those four are whiffs because they either were not able to contribute in the Patriots secondary or they contributed very poorly. And Butler does not have his "**** together". He was lucky enough to find a role on a squad with a pretty bad secondary and made a couple of big plays last season. McCourty is a starting safety so that's one.
By definition, those picks are whiffs. If you take someone that has an injury history in college as a flyer with a high round draft pick, and that guy keeps getting hurt as a pro, you've whiffed.
No, it isn't. Those drafts that I listed, years later, are pretty widely regarded as bad drafts at DB for the team.
That's not true. There are plenty of pundits that have scouted or covered the draft professionally in the past. Most of those guys had Harmon going later than he actually went too.
Again, my problem isn't with Harmon in particular. It's where he went. He would have been a better value later on in the draft and, based on where the other safeties went after him vs. where they were projected, I have no reason to believe that he wouldn't have been available.
I remember very few people actually saying this. The majority said that he was somewhat of a project and may only *INITIALLY* contribute on special teams, but most that I read thought he would be a starting CB in his time with the Pats.
One of the reaches that worked out...
Initially maybe. Smith's value dropped before the draft. Some scouts still had them as a first round pick, but even they were admitting it was because some lost soul of a team could possibly trade up.
Not far off.
This one shocked me too.
I disagree with them on plenty of occasions. I do not on this one.
You should also keep in mind that, while these people miss a lot more often, they're usually as accurate as one can possibly get on a crap shoot of a concept such as the draft. They're usually able to predict the first few rounds pretty well. Listing a guy like Meriweather as a point of reference would only strength my position that Belichick's past DB selections lend themselves to scrutiny, especially after a reach in the third round.
That's fine. Like I said, he has the range, the skill, and he's smart. I would have loved to have him in the 6th or 7th while we built up the DL with a polished pass rusher such as Okafor. But to get him in the third is a widely regarded reach. Again, I didn't see any trend in the way the other safeties went after him that suggests that another team would have reached for him. His other UDFA projected comrade went in the 6th.
It had to. That was a can't-miss draft. 2009 otherwise looked like a team on the downslope of a dynasty. The 2010 draft was EXTREMELY refreshing.
Aye. I noted as much in my OP.
I think Harmon's selection could be an indictment on Wilson. Not that it will be. Time will tell. Also, it's too early for any of us to judge last year's selections, which is why I left them out of the OP. I only mentioned a possible indictment on Wilson as to why he was benched last season (blowing an assignment on the same play in quick succession, a mental error... the kind Belichick doesn't tolerate).
DB-wise, it's at 50% right now. McCourty is a good one. Dowling is a trending bust. IMO, we should wait another year for 2012's returns. The success rate at DB can either go way up then, or stay at 50%.
You don't have to. I will, though. And I've detailed why I can do so. Welcome back to PatsFans, by the way. Glad to see my argumentative nature brought you out of hibernation here.
...so did the Pats. :bricks:
