Gosselin on Gholston

[NePatriots]

Below is an excerpt from my interview with Rick yesterday. If intersted on the non-patriots questions, feel free to visit.

NE Patriots Draft: In your first mock draft, you have the Patriots taking Vernon Gholston. What do you make of the reports that he is this year's Mike Mamula?

Gosselin: There are no sure things in any draft, be it the first overall pick or the 255th pick. You find that the higher a player is on the draft board, the more he gets criticized and picked apart leading up to the draft. No one cares that a pass rusher from Emporia State in the sixth round might be the next Mike Mamula. But put that label on a guy who got 14 sacks at Ohio Stateand folks will pay attention. Gholston also might be the next Hugh Douglas. History says a guy who collected 14 sacks at Ohio State should be a pretty good player. He also has the measurables the NFL likes, which is why he sits near the top of the draft board with the label best pass rusher in the draft. I gave him to the Patriots in my first mock because I thought he was a terrific value at the seventh overall pick.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Below is an excerpt from my interview with Rick yesterday. If intersted on the non-patriots questions, feel free to visit.

NE Patriots Draft: In your first mock draft, you have the Patriots taking Vernon Gholston. What do you make of the reports that he is this year's Mike Mamula?

Gosselin: There are no sure things in any draft, be it the first overall pick or the 255th pick. You find that the higher a player is on the draft board, the more he gets criticized and picked apart leading up to the draft. No one cares that a pass rusher from Emporia State in the sixth round might be the next Mike Mamula. But put that label on a guy who got 14 sacks at Ohio Stateand folks will pay attention. Gholston also might be the next Hugh Douglas. History says a guy who collected 14 sacks at Ohio State should be a pretty good player. He also has the measurables the NFL likes, which is why he sits near the top of the draft board with the label best pass rusher in the draft. I gave him to the Patriots in my first mock because I thought he was a terrific value at the seventh overall pick.

Hey - that's pretty cool that you had an exclusive interview with Gosselin. I'm not sure how others feel but I've always had a good amount of respect for his views.

As I said before I don't put too much stock in reports about Gholston being a bust or the rookie of the year at this time of year. NFL sources (and the Mediots are usually parrotting team sources) have an incentive to lie about a player being good and they have an incentive to lie about players being bad - either to cause them to slide, or to cause another player to slide - be it for their own purpose or to screw a competitor.

There's very little incentive for NFL organizaiton sources to tell the truth at this time of year.

Since BB's going to make the call on whether Gholston or anyone else is a good fit for the Patriots, I feel pretty good about our pick regardless of what happens.... but I do hope we come away from the draft with an excellent LB!

 

[NePatriots]

Well, like he said, his views are just what his NFL boys are telling him. I personally think that Gholston will be just fine in the right system.