I am in the minority opinion here, but I have no problem with the Pats drafting the kicker. If they felt that he was not going to last into the later rounds, OR if they simply believed he was the best player available based on his inherent skills, than so what?
I realize that it can be argued that he was not the BPA and that he would be available later in the draft, but we are trying to replace a Legend with a Ghost, and the Pats felt it was the right move.
Let's reserve our skepticism for some of the guys that don't end up working out. The Pats have a history of some big hits and big whiffs in the draft, with more of the hits coming recently.
I feel like they only gave up value on the kicker as the sum difference between where he was drafted, end of round 4, and where he actually might have been taken, i.e. perhaps round five, and that the Pats were comfortable to give a small premium for him. Looking at the rest of the picks, they got great value at almost every spot. Add up the value picks they got and then subtract the difference in value given up by the kicker, and get back to me! Then we'll know something. Or at least we will have something to debate further about said kicker.
Let's hope Ghost is the real thing!