Ras-I Dowling doing what he does best.

Lol at the 20 something year old girls wow.

ChrisR2223 said:

Lol at the 20 something year old girls wow.

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I'm 28, so that's pretty much what I'm used to hearing. That and I probably need another cup of coffee.

31 and I never met a woman who that age who would have intimate knowledge or care of past Patriots draft but then again I do live in PA.

ChrisR2223 said:

31 and I never met a woman who that age who would have intimate knowledge or care of past Patriots draft but then again I do live in PA.

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You are aware that 20-something year old women use the word "like" in front of a lot of other words when they are thinking, correct? I wasn't actually calling you a 20-something year old woman.

ChrisR2223 said:

Yeah I can't forget the image of Crable hopping over the lineman to show some ridiculous athletic ability.
Then the monster preseason game against the Ravens his rookie season we all thought he would put it together.
I forget which poster in here pointed out to his lack of lower body strength and he was dubbed chicken legs.
I remember making him a 99 in Madden his rookie year.
As far as Brock Williams wow that was a waste of a pick I can not remember him contributing a positive play at all.
Ras I hurts because he was like a first round pick in a insanely deep draft and I know most posters on here thought insane physical attributes team leader.
His coach said he's the kind of guy a father would want to see his daughter bring home.
There was just that one problem freak Injuries where I remember some posters were concerned and some posters dismissed it saying it was in the past and we wouldn't of draft him if we thought that he would be easily injured.
It's difficult to write this without tears in my eyes.

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I'd commented on his chicken legs in a camp report likening him to Chris Canty's chicken legged look, but I'd also said The Crab looked really good in that camp. EDIT: rushing the passer, NOT setting the edge

Ras-I was not a 1st but a 1st pick in the 2nd round, but like OffTheGrid says BB blew it because he could have gotten picks that year or next for #33. Ras-I is worse than O'Connell because he was taken so much earlier than Kevin a late 3rd round pick. So many other talents in that 2nd round or so many other picks had it been traded.

VrabelJr said:

The worst draft pick of the BB era can't be Dowling, T. Wilson, Bequette or Brace. Why? Because we actually remember their names. Does anybody remember Shawn Crable?

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I don't think Bequette and Wilson should be categorized as bad picks until they are no longer on the team. They are both young players and reportedly both having strong training camps. Player do not always bust out of the gate, developmental time is different for every player.

My vote is for Ron Brace.

Nothing he did in his college career suggested that RB had exceptional abilities and nothing he did in his NFL career showed otherwise. Take him in a late round by all means (Brandon Deaderick, Myron Pryor) but Round 2? No thanks.

I'm at peace with the O'Connell pick. Here's my reasoning

There is nothing more valuable in the NFL than quarterbacks. A competent starter -- I don't mean a Hall of Famer, but someone who can lead a team for 6 to 10 years (say, Eli or Matt Ryan or Rivers) -- is worth, at a conservative estimate, three first-round picks. Just ask those teams who've been using pick after pick to find one (the Jets -- hee! hee!).

And, what's worse, it's the hardest position to project. OK, Peyton Manning and Luck were clear choices. But beyond that?

So, if you have someone whom you think has a realistic chance of being a solid starter at the position and it would only take a third-round pick, then, even if you don't need him immediately, it's a great gamble to take. Who knows how reasonable that was in O'Connell's case (I've seen him interviewed in retrospect and he said that he just didn't appreciate at the time what was needed to succeed)? But you can't win every bet.

Brady6 said:

I don't think Bequette and Wilson should be categorized as bad picks until they are no longer on the team. They are both young players and reportedly both having strong training camps. Player do not always bust out of the gate, developmental time is different for every player.

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Even if Wilson develops into a good player (which I hope) they would still have overpaid. You see a house that needs fixing up -- if you spend $200,000 it will be worth $1,000,000. If the expected auction price is $400,000 you don't offer $700,000 just because you'd still be making a nice profit. (And, no, I can't prove that no one was waiting in the wings for TW. But can anyone seriously believe it?)

Mike the Brit said:

Even if Wilson develops into a good player (which I hope) they would still have overpaid. You see a house that needs fixing up -- if you spend $200,000 it will be worth $1,000,000. If the expected auction price is $400,000 you don't offer $700,000 just because you'd still be making a nice profit. (And, no, I can't prove that no one was waiting in the wings for TW. But can anyone seriously believe it?)

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I highly doubt another team was waiting there in the 2nd or 3rd (or 4th or 5th) rounds for either Wilson or Harmon. If they were, neither has, to date, shown that it would have been a huge loss.

KontradictioN said:

I highly doubt another team was waiting there in the 2nd or 3rd (or 4th or 5th) rounds for either Wilson or Harmon. If they were, neither has, to date, shown that it would have been a huge loss.

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We're agreed then.

ChrisR2223 said:

Not trying to be defensive just saying I knew he was the 33rd pick In the draft and it could of gone for so much more.

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No, not really.

When the 49ers moved up from #45 to #36 to get Kaepernick, they only gave up a 4 and a 5. IIRC from the "war room" video, the Pats wanted a 3.

People are being way too quick to judge that he won't be an amazing cornerback for t̶h̶e̶ ̶P̶a̶t̶r̶i̶o̶t̶s̶ the Jets. There is no such thing as being "injury prone." Clearly, some people at Patsfans.com are just chicken littles who cannot stop criticizing BB.

AndyJohnson said:

Dave Stachelski retired in camp in his rookie year.

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No he didn't. He was having personal issues, left camp for a bit, returned to camp, was cut by the Patriots and then caught on with the Saints for a couple of years.

Off The Grid said:

I'm afraid that you're mistaken, my friend: It's been widely reported that the Miners made a substantial Offer for #33 before trading a nice Package of Picks to the Broncos for #36 to get Colin Kaepernick.

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By "no takers", I meant "no suitable offers". The Patriots could have dumped the pick to any of the 31 other teams if they lowered the asking price enough.

The kid has talent but his career has been ruined by injury, unfortunately.

I swear some on this board argued vehemently that despite his injury problems in college he was not injury prone.

I'll always be perfectly fine with this pick. Kid had talent, showed talent at tc, and even in the few games he played. He just had no chance because of the injury bug.

Yes some players are more prone than others, but sometimes its just bad luck too, which I think is partially to blame for whats happened to this guy.

I agree that the Ron Brace pick was always one of the more perplexing picks i've ever seen. I don't even mind the Tavon Wilson pick, b/c I think one sophomore slump doesn't necessarily mean anything, and he has st value.

realtime said:

Plus, the Pats tried to trade the pick but had no takers.

Wilson was a fringe roster player at best even when 100% healthy.

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Off The Grid said:

I'm afraid that you're mistaken, my friend: It's been widely reported that the Miners made a substantial Offer for #33 before trading a nice Package of Picks to the Broncos for #36 to get Colin Kaepernick.

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realtime said:

By "no takers", I meant "no suitable offers". The Patriots could have dumped the pick to any of the 31 other teams if they lowered the asking price enough.

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Accepting the generous Offer that the Miners were reported to've made would've scarcely been "dumping" the Pick. So that's hardly as if we "tried" to trade the Pick but found "no takers", as you claimed.

Sounds more like the Miners were hot for the Pick, but weren't willing to pay a King's Ransom for it.

Brace and Raji were a formidable duo at BC, and one big question predraft was whether either player was making the other look better than he actually was. At this point, the answer appears to be that neither player is as good as expected. Brace didn't work out, while Raji is a one-year wonder who has spent his last 3 seasons as a 337 pound player who pass rushes like he's 437 and stuffs the run like he's 237.

Off The Grid said:

Accepting the generous Offer that the Miners were reported to've made would've scarcely been "dumping" the Pick. So that's hardly as if we "tried" to trade the Pick but found "no takers", as you claimed.

Sounds more like the Miners were hot for the Pick, but weren't willing to pay a King's Ransom for it.

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49ers gave up a 4th and a 5th to move up. Interestingly, the 4th rounder was used to select a guy who makes Ras-I look like Cal Ripken and 5th was used to select current Pats TE DJ Williams.