I was thinking about the upcoming draft and it made me think about the Pats drafts of the late 90s and how brutal they were. Remember the year the Pats lost parcells and martin to the Jets. Pats got all of the those compensation picks and they wasted the majority of them. Here was the first 3 rounds of the pats draft that year:
1-18. RB Robert Edwards. Good pick. Solid rookie year (291-1115- 9 TDs). Career cut short by freak injury.
1-22. CB/S Tebucky Jones. Physical Freak (6-2, 220) that can’t cover or tackle and takes poor angles to the ball carrier. Pats could have picked SS Donovan Darius, SS Tony Parrish or CB Patrick Surtain
2-22. WR Tony Simmons. Awful. IN 3 years with the Pats he TOTALED 56 receptions for 981 yards and 6 TDS. Pats passed on WR Joe Jurevicius (233- 3,010-23) and WR Hines Ward (574-7,030-52)
2-23. TE Rod Rutledge. Makes Tony Simmons numbers look like Jerry Rice’s. In 4 years with the Pats he totaled 27 receptions for 204 yards and 1 TD. In fairness to the Pats, there were no productive TEs that year but if they chose to go in a different direction they might have drafted one of the following Pro Bowlers: C Olin Kreutz, ILB Jeremiah Trotter or RB Ahman Green
3-20. FB Chris Floyd. Barely lasted 3 years in the league and never did much. Could have taken Future Pro Bowl FB Fred Beasley.
3-22. DE Greg Spiers. Good pick. Would not fulfill his potential until he left the Pats and went to Tampa Bay.
In fairness to the Pats this was not a overly talented draft. Like I said there were no TEs that amounted to anything but still they had 6 of the top 83 picks and the best they could come up with was Edwards, Jones, Simmons, Rutledge, Floyd and Spiers. That is awful. I’d give Edwards the benefit of the doubt as he showed that he might have been a 1,200 yards, 10 TD back but the rest were below average to down right BRUTAL. This draft should have stocked the Pats for the next 4-7 years. Nope. Instead, when Belichick came along the Pats were one of the least talented in the league. Thank God the new regime has a better clue than the old.
By the way, looking back over draft the pick that hurts the most to me was the Pats 7th round selection. With the 22 pick in the 7th round (211 overall) the Pats took C Jason Andersen out of Brigham Young. 15 picks later the Arizona Cardinal took an undersized LB out of Arizona State and turned him into a hard hitting SS. That player was Pat Tillman.
1-18. RB Robert Edwards. Good pick. Solid rookie year (291-1115- 9 TDs). Career cut short by freak injury.
1-22. CB/S Tebucky Jones. Physical Freak (6-2, 220) that can’t cover or tackle and takes poor angles to the ball carrier. Pats could have picked SS Donovan Darius, SS Tony Parrish or CB Patrick Surtain
2-22. WR Tony Simmons. Awful. IN 3 years with the Pats he TOTALED 56 receptions for 981 yards and 6 TDS. Pats passed on WR Joe Jurevicius (233- 3,010-23) and WR Hines Ward (574-7,030-52)
2-23. TE Rod Rutledge. Makes Tony Simmons numbers look like Jerry Rice’s. In 4 years with the Pats he totaled 27 receptions for 204 yards and 1 TD. In fairness to the Pats, there were no productive TEs that year but if they chose to go in a different direction they might have drafted one of the following Pro Bowlers: C Olin Kreutz, ILB Jeremiah Trotter or RB Ahman Green
3-20. FB Chris Floyd. Barely lasted 3 years in the league and never did much. Could have taken Future Pro Bowl FB Fred Beasley.
3-22. DE Greg Spiers. Good pick. Would not fulfill his potential until he left the Pats and went to Tampa Bay.
In fairness to the Pats this was not a overly talented draft. Like I said there were no TEs that amounted to anything but still they had 6 of the top 83 picks and the best they could come up with was Edwards, Jones, Simmons, Rutledge, Floyd and Spiers. That is awful. I’d give Edwards the benefit of the doubt as he showed that he might have been a 1,200 yards, 10 TD back but the rest were below average to down right BRUTAL. This draft should have stocked the Pats for the next 4-7 years. Nope. Instead, when Belichick came along the Pats were one of the least talented in the league. Thank God the new regime has a better clue than the old.
By the way, looking back over draft the pick that hurts the most to me was the Pats 7th round selection. With the 22 pick in the 7th round (211 overall) the Pats took C Jason Andersen out of Brigham Young. 15 picks later the Arizona Cardinal took an undersized LB out of Arizona State and turned him into a hard hitting SS. That player was Pat Tillman.
