I'm surprised that jmt57 in his EXCELLENT analysis did not include the inimitable Ger Schwedes in his worst ever.
This 1st ever Pats pick carried 10 times for 14 yards (and you newbies trash Maroney!)
Caught one pass and had one KR for 0 yards in his 2 seasons with the Pats
Yeah, at the very least Schwedes should be included in the 'on the bubble'/'dishonorable mention' category. I was ready to include him, but if I recall correctly wasn't Schwedes designated as the Patriots 'regional' pick? If so, while he was technically the franchise's first draft pick, it was more a regional designation. Boston College was not as big a football program as it is now (they still played Holy Cross as their big rivalry game until after Doug Flutie was their QB in the mid-80's), so the AFL designated Syracuse as one of the Pats' regional teams to select a player from.
For those not familiar, Schwedes was captain of the 1959 Syracuse football team that had Jim Brown and Ernie Davis on their roster; they defeated Texas in the Cotton Bowl to win the national championship that year. Two minutes into the game Syracuse was on their own 13 and HB Schwedes took a pitchout from the QB, passed the ball to Davis who caught it at midfield and ran it in from there for a TD; here's a link to that play:
http://www.mmbolding.com/bowls/Cotton601.wmv
Ger Schwedes (16) with Ernie Davis (44) at Syracuse
While Schwedes did nothing as a pro, he actually wasn't a bad college football player. And while Schwedes could be labeled as a bust, the same could be said for that entire inaugural draft by the Patriots. The vast majority of those drafted either didn't make the club, weren't interested in the AFL, or signed with the NFL (Dee Mackey) or CFL (Pat Dye, future coach at Auburn). Harvey White deserves mention as well. White was the first player to sign a player contract with the Pats; the QB appeared in nine games (3 as a QB) in his only season, throwing the ball in just one game (3-7, 44 yards). That 1960 team was almost exclusively NFL castoffs. Ron Burton was the only player by the pats in '60 that ever had any impact with the Pats; interestingly the pats had much more success that year with their rookie undrafted free agents: Jim Lee Hunt, Larry Garron and Ross O'Hanley all went on to be productive players with the Patriots over the next several years.
