CB Alphonso Smith a reach at #23?

[PATSNUTme]

Senior Bowl weigh-in: 5' 8 7/8"

Was he wearing heels?

Another smurf, but I'll give him 5-9 which is probably minimum. He does have a solid build and his verticle can make up a few inches.

 

[JoeShmoe]

Why is no-one mentioning a safety? We were getting burned over the middle most of last year (TE's esp) and both Sanders and Merriweather made some blunders. I'd like a real hard hitting SS to play alongside BW as I think Wheatley and Wilhite played pretty well and have upside

I think our biggest needs this year our CB and SS and I expect to use at least 2 of the 3 first day picks in the secondary. We have an OLB rookie already in Crable and I hope Vrabel has a better year. At ILB we have Guyton, Bru, Mayo and if Rodney comes back he'll be in some packages for sure

If we could get Smith, Chung and Barwin say id be absolutely delighted

 

[VJCPatriot]

Safety has been discussed ad nauseum. But the consensus is that there is no 1st round safety talent in this draft. A safety won't be picking till rounds 2-4 of the 2009 draft. There are a few 1st round corner talents on the board where the Pats could be picking though. Alphonso Smith appears to be one of those guys that could be viable in the 1st round.

 

[PATSNUTme]

Safety has been discussed ad nauseum. But the consensus is that there is no 1st round safety talent in this draft. A safety won't be picking till rounds 2-4 of the 2009 draft. There are a few 1st round corner talents on the board where the Pats could be picking though. Alphonso Smith appears to be one of those guys that could be viable in the 1st round.

Actually myself and a few others have said that Sean Smith, even though listed at CB, would be worth taking at #23 as a Safety.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Actually myself and a few others have said that Sean Smith, even though listed at CB, would be worth taking at #23 as a Safety.

Let's just hope we're not looking at the Tebuckey Jones experiment in reverse... No offense to Sean Smith intended.

 

[JoeShmoe]

Actually myself and a few others have said that Sean Smith, even though listed at CB, would be worth taking at #23 as a Safety.

Id love Sean Smith at 23 as he's a versatile player ... There's also the possibility that the Pats have a higher value on someone like Will Moore, Rashad Johnson, Chung etc or indeed that any of these fly up the boards after the combine (my own view is Smith and Chung will go up but we'll see)

 

[PATSNUTme]

Let's just hope we're not looking at the Tebuckey Jones experiment in reverse... No offense to Sean Smith intended.

Yes that thought has crossed my mind, but this is BB not Bobby Grier.

 

[mayoclinic]

Actually myself and a few others have said that Sean Smith, even though listed at CB, would be worth taking at #23 as a Safety.

I'm one of those who has been touting Smith as someone worth looking at, possibly at #23.

I was looking back at some of the threads and prognostications last year around this time regarding the draft. Vernon Gholston was by far the #1 candidate on most people's list. Mayo wasn't on anyone's radar. For example, this link is to Mike Mayock's evaluation of OLB/ILB candidates:

NFL Video Galleries

His top 5 OLBs: Keith Rivers, Erin Henderson, Xavier Adibi, Tavares Gooden, and Ali Highsmith. Henderson and Highsmith went undrafted, and Adibi went in the 4th round.

His top 5 ILBs: Dan Connor, Curtis Lofton, Spenser Larson, Beau Bell, and Jolunn Dunbar. Dunbar went undrafted, Larson in the 6th round, and Bell in the 4th.

Note what name was conspicuously missing: Jerod Mayo. And Mayock is clearly one of the better draftniks around.

All I am saying is that at this still early stage of the draft process there are no certain bets, and the player who we may take at #23 may be on no one's radar right now, just like Mankins and Mayo were at this time.

 

[PATSNUTme]

I'm one of those who has been touting Smith as someone worth looking at, possibly at #23.

I was looking back at some of the threads and prognostications last year around this time regarding the draft. Vernon Gholston was by far the #1 candidate on most people's list. Mayo wasn't on anyone's radar. For example, this link is to Mike Mayock's evaluation of OLB/ILB candidates:

NFL Video Galleries

His top 5 OLBs: Keith Rivers, Erin Henderson, Xavier Adibi, Tavares Gooden, and Ali Highsmith. Henderson and Highsmith went undrafted, and Adibi went in the 4th round.

His top 5 ILBs: Dan Connor, Curtis Lofton, Spenser Larson, Beau Bell, and Jolunn Dunbar. Dunbar went undrafted, Larson in the 6th round, and Bell in the 4th.

Note what name was conspicuously missing: Jerod Mayo. And Mayock is clearly one of the better draftniks around.

All I am saying is that at this still early stage of the draft process there are no certain bets, and the player who we may take at #23 may be on no one's radar right now, just like Mankins and Mayo were at this time.

At this time last year I do remember Mayo being a late 2nd rounder on most rankings and mocks.

 

[mayoclinic]

At this time last year I do remember Mayo being a late 2nd rounder on most rankings and mocks.

Mayo was a 2nd rounder on most rankings a year ago until the combine, when he ran around a 4.54. After that he was listed frequently as a late 1st/early 2nd rounder until a few weeks before the draft, when he climbed steadily up draft boards. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was a 2nd/3rd rounder until the Senior Bowl last year when he stood out and became a late 1st/early 2nd round prospect, and then at the combine he solidified himself as a 1st rounder and continued to rise. Brandon Albert started out as a late 1st/2nd round pick and jumped up considerably after the combine. Those were probably 3 of the players most seriously considered by the Patriots, and none of them was dominating draft conversations this time last year.

My point is that it is still very early in the process, and that there will likely be a lot of movement up and down draft boards before things are done. Someone like Sean Smith, who has terrific size and potential, may end up as a second round pick, but could also very possibly make a big jump up draft boards similar to Mayo or DRC last year. Or he may not, it's too early to tell. But every year there are players like Alphonso Smith or Clint Sintim who get embraced by many people as being ideal fits, and frequently these early favorites do not end up being in the picture. This is not to detract from Smith or Sintim, who are both solid players. Last year Cliff Avril was getting similar attention to Sintim as a probable Pats kind of guy, and we passed him up 3 times (with #63, when we took Wheatley at CB; with #69, when we traded for SD's 2009 2nd round pick; and at #78, when we took Shawn Crable over Avril as an OLB).

Right now the "conventional" wisdom favors Alphonso Smith and Clint Sintim for the Pats. Based on past experience, the odds are that these will not be the picks.

 

[cubedoggy]

Please no Chungs in the first round; the last one didn't work out so well.

 

[BPF]

Please no Chungs in the first round; the last one didn't work out so well.

Don't worry this Chung has no chance at going in the 1st. That was many eons ago anyway under Sam Jankovich but the Director of College Scouting at the time was Charlie Armey, who made some pretty good picks in his day.