Draft insight from Bill Polian

[captain stone]

The Eagles traded out of the first round when the Pats picked Meriweather in front of them.

Just to add, when was the last time New England missed on a first rounder??

You've already answered your own question.

 

[1960Pats]

Jimmie Johnson's advice—which seems relevant here—is not that you should only have 25 players on your board, but that you should focus on about 25 or so players, across all rounds of the draft, and then manipulate your draft picks to land as many of them as feasible.

For example, back in 2009, Edelman was almost certainly one of their 7th round targets, just as Cassel was in 2005.

In my days of drafting players, I eventually learned to just put the players on a list and stick to it. Whenever I strayed from that strategy it turned into a mistake. I'm surprised that Bill or Ernie haven't called asking my advice. If I run into either of them I'll have to run it by them.

 

[1960Pats]

I had to laugh at the "secret sauce" comments. The last time I heard that was 2 years ago when Seth Waugh from Deutsche Bank got a little tipsy at the TPC Boston volunteer appreciation dinner, and kept using it over and over.

 

[captain stone]

The wife says that some of her girfriends back in the '80s used to refer to a certain something
as "tangy man-sauce"...