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The patriots are bad talent evaluators at the WR spot but yet the steelers money at it
Antonio brown was drafted in the 2010 draft in the 6th round pick 195 and he is now the best WR in the league.
Martavis Bryant was drafted
NFL draft: 2014 / Round: 4 / Pick: 118
Great deep threat with great speed good route runner plays like his height of 6 feet 4
Sammy Coates didn't play much but he will be a good WR
NFL draft: 2015 / Round: 3 / Pick: 87
the patriots missed on all these guys
It pains me every year teams find WRs and the patriots always have flops
Other teams don't find WRs every year. And especially the Steelers. Last summer, I did a comparison that showed just how many WR picks the Steelers make in comparison to how many are successful and it surprised many people. Same with the Packers. And I used the same criteria with the Pats. And low and behold, come to find out that they all had about the same success rate.
When I did my evaluation, I ignored the year 2000 since Belichick was using Bobby Grier's scouting information and not his own. I went from 2001 through 2015, listing out the picks used for both teams. However, I gave incompletes for players with less than 3 years experience unless they'd already been cut from the team and weren't on a practice squad.
Lets look at just how many picks the Steelers have used on WR since 2001 and compare it to the Patriots:
Steelers:
2001 - Chris Taylor - 7th round pick
2002 - Lee Mays - 6th round pick
2003 - None
2004 - None
2005 - Fred Gibson - 4th round pick
2006 - Santonio Holmes - 1st round pick , Willie Reid - 4th round pick
2007 - Dallas Baker - 7th round pick
2008 - Limas Sweed - 2nd round pick
2009 - Mike Wallace - 3rd round pick
2010 - Emmanuel Sanders - 3rd round pick, Antonio Brown - 6th round pick
2011 - None
2012 - Toney Clemons - 7th round pick
2013 - Markus Wheaton - 3rd round pick, Justin Brown - 6th round pick
2014 - Martavius Bryant - 4th round pick
2015 - Sammie Coates - 3rd round pick
Please note that I am not including Antwan Randle-El because he was drafted to be a QB primarily, not a WR. Sammie Coates is incomplete. I had previously given the Steelers credit for 4 successes in 12 (33%) picks because I had Wheaton and Bryant as incompletes. They are now at 6 successes in 14 picks (42.9%) because I think it's safe to say that both can be considered successes.
Patriots:
2001 - None
2002 - Deion Branch - 2nd round, David Givens - 7th round
2003 - Bethel Johnson - 2nd round
2004 - P.K. Sam - 5th round
2005 - None
2006 - Chad Jackson - 2nd round
2007 - None
2008 - None
2009 - Brandon Tate - 3rd round, Julian Edelman - 7th round
2010 - Taylor Price - 3rd round
2011 - None
2012 - Jeremy Ebert - 7th round
2013 - Aaron Dobson - 2nd round, Josh Boyce - 4th round
2014 - Jeremy Gallon - 7th round
2015 - None
The Patriots have used 12 picks on WR. Just like I didn't include Randle-El, I'm not including Slater as a "WR". Dobson and Boyce I considered incompletes.. So, that is 3 in 10 that are successes. One could argue that Bethel Johnson was mediocre, but there is no sense. Who knows what will happen with Dobson and Boyce.
Where does the 25-30% rank with other teams over the last 15 years. You can do the math if you want to find out. But I think you'll find that the Patriots are closer to the rule than the exception..