I didn't even know this fact until I saw the Felger/Mazzhole show
Josh Boyer became a coach for the first time at King's College in PA ....King's College is just about 2 freaking miles from my home,King's is a little P.O.S. school that had done absolutely nothing in sports since I was born...
I don't know where Belichick found this guy,albeit I still don't think Boyer is totally responsible for the suckage that roams the secondary,its simply drafting JAGS or in Mccourty's case,one year wonders.
It's both, I'm afraid.
Boyer is obviously incompetent and deserves to be fired ASAP, so I'll get that out of the way first.
There's also the drafting issue, in both over-drafting someone and in drafting someone at all.
2006: Bill had 3! chances in the 6th!! round to draft Geno Wilson's future replacement, Antoine Bethea.
I find this to be the beginning of the end of Bill's ability to consistently and correctly evaluate DB talent.
2007: Stomper Meriweather was a mistake from before the beginning, as I & others on the Draft forum
have noted before Bill even chose him. One of the LBs David Harris, Jon Beason or the Poz should've
been the call. Stomper wasn't even the best Safety available; that would've been Eric Weddle, whom
SD I thought somewhat over-drafted early in the 2nd round. (LaMarr Woodley was thought to be
too small for Bill's system, so I didn't give him a lot of 1st-round consideration.)
CB Tarell Brown at the end of the 4th round, when he was one of the better BPAs regardless of position,
would've been a smart low-risk choice instead of the slob Kareem Brown.
And big, athletic STer/SS John Wendling, thought by some to be a top-120 talent, would've been a better
risk/reward choice at the top of the 6th round than the unknown, UDFA-level DE/OLB Justin Rogers.
He just might've made the "need" to trade up for Matty Slater the following year superfluous.
2008: Lil' Terry Wheatley was a huge (by almost 2 rounds) over-draft, as was over-matched and
under-talented Johnny Wilhite. Terrell Thomas was the best CB available at the end of round 2,
as was Orlando Scandrick at the end of round 4.
2009: I was on board with the Butler pick, but didn't realize how little instincts for the position he had
as a former WR. A day late & a dollar short was his epitaph. Too bad; the athleticism was there.
As with Brown in '07 & Scandrick in '08, DJ Moore at the end of the 3rd round would've been a low-risk
value choice instead of homesick, square peg LB Tyrone McKenzie. Moore was once considered to be
late-first-round material, but slow combine times at his smaller size dropped him almost 2 rounds.
2010: There was some debate on the Draft forum over McCourty v. Kyle Wilson at the end of the 1st round.
It appeared that the verdict was clearly reached by the end of that season. Perhaps a mistrial should be
declared, and a re-opening of the case considered.
And at the end of the 7th round, instead of wasting 2 of those comp picks on the never-will-be-ness
of Kade Weston & Zack Robinson, Bill should've dipped into the DB pool again, to bookend the draft
by taking a low-risk chance on DB/KR AJ Jefferon from FOB Pat Hill's Fresno State.
2011: Dowling ahead of Jabaal Sheard or Brooks Reed? Inexcusable. I would've waited until the end
of the 2nd round for him; if he was gone by then, no biggie, I'll have Torrey Smith, thank you.
And wouldn't selecting S/PED user Tyler Sash from another FOB Kirk Ferentz' U of Iowa have been
a far better use of an end-of-6th-round pick than the little-known & out-of-football Markell Carter?
2012: I realize it's early, and signs are encouraging, but I'll go to my grave believing that
Tavon Wilson would've been available with the pick used to select Jake Bequette, if not later.
None of the aforementioned additions were unattainable, top-20 selections, so the "We draft at the end
of the first round every year" argument doesn't wash. Unfortunately, even if Bill had indeed drafted
all/some of Bethea, Brown, Wendling, Thomas, Scandrick, Moore, Jefferson & Sash, they would
quite possibly have been mal-coached into ineffectiveness by Boyer nonetheless.