Draft Do-Over: 10 Players the Patriots Could Have Drafted Instead of Ryan Mallett

Draft Do-Over: 10 Players the Patriots Could Have Drafted Instead of Ryan Mallett

Derek Havens

Looking back at Mallett's time in New England and his career since leaving, it's time to revisit the 2011 NFL draft. Here are 10 players New England could have selected instead of Mallett.

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To save everyone the process (I know oldrover was complaining about it yesterday)...

1. Richard Sherman
2. Jurrell Casey
3. K.J. Wright
4. Jason Kelce
5. Julius Thomas
6. Dion Lewis
7. Buster Skrine
8. Pernell McPhee
9. Jeremy Kerley
10. Byron Maxwell

Hindsight is 20/20, every team passed on Sherman 4 times, Carroll had knowledge about him as a player but also waited until the 5th round instead of pulling the trigger in the 2nd. No one could've known at the time he would become this beast.

The Mallet pick wasn't a bad pick, a backup QB is like medical insurance, you pay for the best you can afford hoping to never need to use. Of course Mallet wasn't a 1st round pick but the analogy works. Throw away the Houston experience when evaluating his QB play, BoB ****ed up everything he could in the QB department there, Mallet was doing all right in Baltimore in the end of the season and could've filled in for Brady in case of an injury. Of course there would be a drop off, damn it even Aaron Rodgers would be a drop off from Brady.

The irony is, every other team writes, "The One Player We Should Have Taken Over Everyone Else in The 2000 Draft"

Pick 199 - Tom Brady

I'll take our mistakes over theirs.

varjao said:

Hindsight is 20/20...

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True. And I certainly don't give Credit to those who stood silent when it happened...

But I was here on patsfan.com, screaming in Rage before it happened ~ because Lombardi announced it.

01 ~ Belichick is The Best In The Business. Is he smarter than the lot'f'm?? Yes. He is.

02 ~ Does that mean that he doesn't make Dumb-Ass Mistakes?? No. It doesn't.

03 ~ Brilliant people ~ Mad Bill is one'f'm ~ do do stupid things. Yes. Really.

04 ~ Are those'f us who criticize his Moves Belichick Haters?? No.

05 ~ We're just Fans who have the capacity to think.

For The Record: I have no use for any Fan who fails to stake out a Position early yet then squeals about how stupid Mad Bill is. Mad Bill's Record speaks for itself, and is the best of anyone in the League.

Anyone.

If you're gonna criticize Mad Bill ~ I do so all the time ~ fine. But support it.

Otherwise: Shut Your Pie Hole.



But neither have I any use for any Fan ~ I'm not saying you're one'f'm, Varajao ~ who simply and stupidly assumes that everything that Mad Bill does is smart and wise simply because Mad Bill does it.

"In Bill We Trust."

Sewage.

Only a drooling Idiot feels that way.

If you're like 99% of the Fans who aren't as consumed with this Game as pathetic Lunatics such's myself are, and consequently choose not to devote enough Time & Energy into this Game to forge Educated Opinions, I'd be the last guy to criticize you for prioritizing your Time accordingly: We all need to be that way about most Subjects, after all, and can only afford to invest the Time and Research to become Experts in a few.

But if that's the case, folks, please don't be one of those pathetic Chumps who hasn't developed enough Expertise to know what he's talking about, yet feels free to attack and insult those who have.

Be a Man.

Think for yourself.

And if you don't have the Guts or the Integrity ~ or the Time!! ~ to do so, at least have the Courtesy to Shut Your Pie Hole and not attack those who do have the Guts and the Integrity to think for themselves.

Teams should only be kicking themselves if.........

1.) They were seriously trying to decide between a few players and picked the wrong one.

2.) They feel they didn't take advantage of an opportunity to learn more about the player that would have put the player on their seriuos draft radar.

Other than that, the hypothetical redrafting is fun to discuss and ponder, but it's not worth beating yourself up over something you that wasn't even a thought for you at the time.........I apply the same logic to fantasy football.......

Scenario 1: All week I'm ponder who to start between Devonta Freeman and Justin Forsett. It would hurt if the one I went with puts up a stinker while the other one has a monster day. I would kick myself over that.

Scenario 2: I'm trying to decide between Freeman and Forsett. Then some schmuck at the bottom of my roster like Jonas Gray has a monster game. If I never even seriously considered starting him I'm not going to kick myself for NOT starting him.

ummmm......yeah.......we have a clean up in aisle 2009

who could we have had instead of Darius Butler and Ron Brace?

CONNOR F*CKING BARWIN

Off The Grid said:

True. And I certainly don't give Credit to those who stood silent when it happened...

But I was here on patsfan.com, screaming in Rage before it happened ~ because Lombardi announced it.

01 ~ Belichick is The Best In The Business. Is he smarter than the lot'f'm?? Yes. He is.

02 ~ Does that mean that he doesn't make Dumb-Ass Mistakes?? No. It doesn't.

03 ~ Brilliant people ~ Mad Bill is one'f'm ~ do do stupid things. Yes. Really.

04 ~ Are those'f us who criticize his Moves Belichick Haters?? No.

05 ~ We're just Fans who have the capacity to think.

For The Record: I have no use for any Fan who fails to stake out a Position early yet then squeals about how stupid Mad Bill is. Mad Bill's Record speaks for itself, and is the best of anyone in the League.

Anyone.

If you're gonna criticize Mad Bill ~ I do so all the time ~ fine. But support it.

Otherwise: Shut Your Pie Hole.

But neither have I any use for any Fan ~ I'm not saying you're one'f'm, Varajao ~ who simply and stupidly assumes that everything that Mad Bill does is smart and wise simply because Mad Bill does it.

"In Bill We Trust."

Sewage.

Only a drooling Idiot feels that way.

If you're like 99% of the Fans who aren't as consumed with this Game as pathetic Lunatics such's myself are, and consequently choose not to devote enough Time & Energy into this Game to forge Educated Opinions, I'd be the last guy to criticize you for prioritizing your Time accordingly: We all need to be that way about most Subjects, after all, and can only afford to invest the Time and Research to become Experts in a few.

But if that's the case, folks, please don't be one of those pathetic Chumps who hasn't developed enough Expertise to know what he's talking about, yet feels free to attack and insult those who have.

Be a Man.

Think for yourself.

And if you don't have the Guts or the Integrity ~ or the Time!! ~ to do so, at least have the Courtesy to Shut Your Pie Hole and not attack those who do have the Guts and the Integrity to think for themselves.

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ringrish preeze

One of the things that makes BB a good GM is that he realizes that it's a game of chance. There's only so much you can predict, based on scouting, interviews, testing, etc. The more chances you give yourself, the better off you are, and don't worry about the misses. Cut your losses and move on.

brdmaverick said:

Teams should only be kicking themselves if.........

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I actually have a different pair of criteria for getting angry at picks:

(1) There was no logical explanation for the pick (*cough* Ron Brace *cough*). [Even if you argue that they needed Wilfork insurance, the human tub of goo that was Ron Brace was not remotely similar.]

(2) Repeating the same mistake (e.g., I would be angry if the Pats tried to draft a WR who has to red-shirt this season.]

It's incredible how much better Garappolo was as a rookie than Mallett was as a 4th year QB. That being said, I felt Mallett was a good pick at the time, looked like a stud prospect with a cannon arm. Unfortunately he had 10 million dollar talent and a 5 dollar brain.

we should've drafted Hammer instead of Mallet!

ctpatsfan77 said:

I actually have a different pair of criteria for getting angry at picks:

(1) There was no logical explanation for the pick (*cough* Ron Brace *cough*). [Even if you argue that they needed Wilfork insurance, the human tub of goo that was Ron Brace was not remotely similar.]

(2) Repeating the same mistake (e.g., I would be angry if the Pats tried to draft a WR who has to red-shirt this season.]

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I see where you are going and don't disagree, I was just taking it from a different perspective. I was approaching it from a Pats GM perspective in which I'd like to think they had a logical explanation for drafting the players they chose (and even for considering the ones they didn't choose). So while we may not know the logical reason for Ron Brace, I'd like to think the people actually making the selection did (but mabye they didn't crazier things have happened).

Im not against drafting a qb early but i was borderline upset at the Mallet pick. I was strongly pro-Hoyer at the time and I didnt like the idea of having another immobile qb. I envision our future qb to easily outrun a fatass dt such as pot roast.

scott99 said:

It's incredible how much better Garappolo was as a rookie than Mallett was as a 4th year QB. That being said, I felt Mallett was a good pick at the time, looked like a stud prospect with a cannon arm. Unfortunately he had 10 million dollar talent and a 5 dollar brain.

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Am I missing something? I don't understand the coronation of Garoppolo. What exactly did he show as a rookie that made him incredibly better than Mallett as a 4th year QB?

While I didn't agree, I at least saw the logic in drafting Mallet, the potential heir to Brady's throne.

In hindsight that looks silly that we were looking for Brady's replacement in 2011 when we see that he is still playing at an elite level even today. Had management known Brady would still be elite at this point I think they would have gone with the cheap, savvy 'veteran backup' route and spent the 2nd round pick on another position.

TBR said:

Am I missing something? I don't understand the coronation of Garoppolo. What exactly did he show as a rookie that made him incredibly better than Mallett as a 4th year QB?

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I agree. He led a TD drive in mop up duty in Kansas City but I think people are reading too much into that.

this makes me think of when we draft Ras-I Dowling

we could have had Jabaal Sheard or Akeem Ayers

varjao said:

Hindsight is 20/20

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It's not hindsight. When will people figure that out and stop tossing out that canard? The days of draft gripes being hindsight ended a long time back, when the drafts began getting televised and people began following that while mocking their own drafts.

Mallett was a horrendous pick, and "Bag of footballs" would have been a better selection.

TBR said:

Am I missing something? I don't understand the coronation of Garoppolo. What exactly did he show as a rookie that made him incredibly better than Mallett as a 4th year QB?

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Granted, it's the preseason, but he had as many TD passes as all other rookie QBs under Belichick combined.