This the the perfect example of when a site successfully transitions from being the best football blog on the internet to a clown car.
<honk>, <honk>
Your commentary on the site is ten times more hilarious, given that you've been banned from here and have had to sneak back on.
Despite his really creepy fixation on male hip fluidity
Actually, hip fluidity is a great measurement for a safety that, as you said yourself, has to play in open space. It's a great guage of their coverage abilities.
it's also an excellent example of why ex-football players do a generally poor job of analysis.
Now it all makes sense. You've never played football before.
Let's take a look at your realities...
A) As Urban Meyer proved, Belichick will gravitate toward drafting players from programs where the coach has a freindship/collaboration.
Name me one ex-Gator that was as big of a reach as Harmon was.
B) Greg Schiano, while at Rutgers was a very close friend/collaborator. Schiano has stated on numerous occasions that his program was modeled after the Patriots
That's cool. His ex-starting safety was graded as a 7th rounder at the earliest. I would have loved to have had him there. I don't see any reason so far that suggests we couldn't have had him there outside of "BRO U DON'T KNOW OTHA TEAMS DRAFT BOARDS", a statement which completely ignores that the person that said it doesn't know them either. Further, if we missed out on him and couldn't have had him there, would it really have been such a huge loss? Didn't think so.
c) The Patriots have already drafted Rutgers players.
Aye. All going pretty much where they were supposed to, or a little earlier. Not 4+ rounds earlier.
d) Safety was identified as an area of need.
Indeed it was. The Patriots chose to trade out of positions where it would have netted them prospects with high level experience, such as the SEC, then chose to reach multiple rounds for one that didn't get invited to the combine. They did much the same last season, and the result was two play action bombs, a blown assignment, and a loss. But that's only to date.
e) A great indicator of success is success in a similar program. Success can translate easier than from a completely different program.
This is completely untrue. If it were, the Patriots would be selecting only players out of Alabama, since that's the only true "similar" program in college football. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if you even watch college football. Tell me, pfip, what outside of Belichick and Schiano's friendship makes the two programs similar?
So we have a coach with a history of selecting players from collaborative programs and he selects a position of need from a collaborative program that's modeled after his program AND...........SOME ARE STUNNED.
You're still lost. People are stunned because he probably could have waited to go safety again and instead spent a day two selection either bulking up the DL or selecting a pass rusher with relative high value instead of reaching for Harmon. They could have instead taken the chance that Harmon would be there later, making it a great value pick.
This player is taken in the third round BUT he was projected to go in the sixth round; yet some people are stunned despite the fact that.......the Patriots didn't have a fifth or sixth round pick.
No, but they could have traded back into it if they liked him that much. Especially since, barring the apocalypse, there will be another draft again next year where the Patriots also have more picks.
Yet some are stunned that the Patriots drafted a player with the exact qualities they wanted and that would no doubt escape the notice of pundits because the pundits don't look for those qualities.
You're still lost. Very few people actually have a problem with the player himself. What people have a problem with is where he was taken vs. where the team probably could have gotten him. It's a really simple concept.
Can you imagine if Belichick listened to this in 2010 when drafting TE's?
I'm not sure how the TE's are at all relevant to this conversation or Reiss' article. Both were selected with very good value. The Harmon pick was not. For a coach whose draft style is supposedly all about value, this one pick in an otherwise solid draft looks like a head scratcher.
EDIT: At this point, I'm going to learn my lesson from before and ignore you as you offer very little quality football commentary. I'll continue my discussion on this matter with those that do.
