Does any one disagree with what he says about these draft picks?
2004
Safety Guss Scott (third round) – Started his only two NFL games with the Patriots in 2005; was out of football by 2006.
Safety Dexter Reid (fourth round) – Started two games with the Patriots in 2004 before two uneventful years with the Colts in 2005 and 2006.
Cornerback Christian Morton (seventh round) – Never played in a Patriots uniform; spent four years as a backup with the Falcons, Redskins and Panthers.
2005
Cornerback Ellis Hobbs (third round) – Spent four largely uneventful years (8 INTs) with the Patriots. However, he did start 49 games and was a spectacular kick returner. Best remembered for being toasted by Plaxico Burress for the game-winning score in Super Bowl XLII and was traded to Philly for two fifth-round picks in 2009.
Safety James Sanders (fourth round) – A serviceable safety, who was been a fulltime starter for two years (2007, 2008) with five picks in his five NFL seasons.
2006
Cornerback Willie Andrews (seventh round) – In a very bad draft that went almost exclusively to offense, the Patriots waited until their last pick to grab a player in the defensive backfield; Andrews spent two years as a back-up and special teamer and was busted for marijuana possession with intent to distribute two days after New England's loss in Super Bowl XLII. He was busted six months later on firearms charges. He's now out of football.
2007
Safety Brandon Meriweather (first round) – So far, the promising No. 1 pick has been largely a disappointment, though he did appear to come into his own in 2009, starting all 16 games for the first time, with 5 picks and a TD. But he's yet to live up to the expectations of a No. 1.
Cornerback Mike Richardson (sixth round) – Spent most of his two years with the Patriots on the taxi squad. He was signed by the Chiefs last year, after the Patriots released him. Started one game last year with Kansas City.
2008
Cornerback Terrence Wheatley (second round) – Wheatley saw some playing time as a rookie, but was injured halfway through the season. To say he's had no impact (three tackles in two years) would be an understatement.
Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite (fourth round) – He started the last four games of 2008 and eight games in 2009; with there picks in his limited playing time.
2009
Safety Patrick Chung (second round) – A college teammate of safety Jairus Byrd, who led the NFL last year with nine picks, Chung started one game and recorded a single INT in New England's 59-0 destruction of the Titans.
Cornerback Darius Butler (second round) – Developed fairly well during his rookie season, ending the year with five starts and 3 picks, including a 91-yard TD return in the season finale against Houston. Byrd, a safety, was taken with the very next pick in the draft.
And that doesn't even get into the DB disasters in free agency, at least since the Rodney Harrison signing – back in that same 2003 offseason that produced Asante Samuel.
A few things jump out at me. First, he's labeling 6th and 7th round picks that didn't last as busts. How many 6th and 7th round picks have long NFL careers, or last long on a defending league champion? Interesting that he talks as much about them as the early picks, and they make up 25% of the list.
Second is some of the judgements he comes up with. I didn't realize Meriweather was a disappointment, Hobbs was nothing more than a kick returner, or more should be expected out of a 4th round pick than what Sanders has provided. He points out Meriweather had five picks, as if that's a bad thing. He doesn't mention that was 4th in the league for a safety, but does mention league-leader Byrd, implying every draft pick should do what Byrd did.
Third is the 20-20 hindsight of some other draft pick (Byrd) having a better year. Guess what, I can do that with all 32 teams and "prove" that every one of them is "bad" at drafting.
Fourth is his jumping to conclusions about the '08 and '09 draft; the general consensus is that you have to wait three full seasons to evaluate a draft, but CHFF has already come to the conclusion that the draft that took place 13 months ago was not very good.
Lastly, note his comments about 2003. He concedes 2003 was good, but decides to start his analysis the following season. Wonder why that is? Maybe it's because he's looking for stats to back a theory, rather than searching through stats impartially to reach a conclusion. In other words the author already had his mind made up before he did his research and then found information to back his claim. That's poor research and poor analysis.
CHFF started out as a decidedly pro-Patriots site, finding ways to put the Patriots in general and Tom Brady specifically in a good light. The last couple of years they have been the opposite, especially in regards to Belichick. Don't let the name of the site fool you. They take a side then find stats to support it rather than doing research and then reaching a conclusion.
For example, if I wanted to make an anti-Raiders column, I could focus on the fact that they have seven straight seasons with 11 or more losses. If I wanted to make a pro-Raiders column I could point out that they have more wins than any other team that was ever in the AFL, 8th best win-loss percentage in the history of the NFL, and are in the top five in playoff appearances in the last fifty years.
I'm very skeptical of anything CHFF has to say, regardless of what they say.
