Crazy Patriot Guy
In the Starting Line-Up
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- Sep 13, 2004
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I can still remember the article by John Clayton after Day 1 of the 2008 draft. He had the Pats as one of his Day 1 losers, saying that Jerod Mayo will be a pro bowler for us but we could have traded down again and still landed him, therefore his contract wouldn't be as much. Seriously? We landed a pro bowler but it's bad because we could have saved a couple million dollars?
I try not to put so much stock into draft value, especially after some of the other players we've "reached" for have payed off so well. (Samuel, Branch, Mankins, Vollmer) Look at some of the past drafts. Look at the position rankings, then look at where they end up being taken. They fall all over the place ever year at almost every position.
Sure, we've seen some reaches for us that have missed. The most famous is probably Bethel Johnson when Anquan Bolden was still there. However, looking at the rankings, Bolden himself was a major reach by the Cardinals.
There's plenty of cases of this. In 2006, Brandon Marshall was taken before 9 higher ranked WRs, some of whom went undrafted altogether. Taking a glance at 2005, Frank Gore, Michael Roos, Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill were all taken with multiple higher ranked players available at their respective positions. In 2003, you've got Osi Umenyiora and Lance Briggs to go along with the already mentioned Bolden and Samuel.
My point is that you just don't know. It's easy to assume that someone we pick would still be there later. Look at the past though. All the players that I just mentioned "should have" been there later.
This draft is loaded and deep. Because of that, I think we'll see a good handful of players we fans grade as 2nd rounders going in round 1, possibly in the teens. The same goes for 3rd round grades going in the 2nd. With some teams having 50 players with 1st round grades, it's obviously not going to go down just as we expect.
Don't get me wrong, I have limits. I'm not saying it's ok if the Pats take Jordan Shipley at #22. However, I'm not going to call it a bad move if we take someone at that spot just because a lot of mock drafts had him high in the 2nd round. Sure, moving back and landing the guy anyway while picking up a 3rd rounder sounds great. But if we pick someone there and he pans out, just as Mayo has, it's all that matters. The 2nd round is no different.
I try not to put so much stock into draft value, especially after some of the other players we've "reached" for have payed off so well. (Samuel, Branch, Mankins, Vollmer) Look at some of the past drafts. Look at the position rankings, then look at where they end up being taken. They fall all over the place ever year at almost every position.
Sure, we've seen some reaches for us that have missed. The most famous is probably Bethel Johnson when Anquan Bolden was still there. However, looking at the rankings, Bolden himself was a major reach by the Cardinals.
There's plenty of cases of this. In 2006, Brandon Marshall was taken before 9 higher ranked WRs, some of whom went undrafted altogether. Taking a glance at 2005, Frank Gore, Michael Roos, Lofa Tatupu and Leroy Hill were all taken with multiple higher ranked players available at their respective positions. In 2003, you've got Osi Umenyiora and Lance Briggs to go along with the already mentioned Bolden and Samuel.
My point is that you just don't know. It's easy to assume that someone we pick would still be there later. Look at the past though. All the players that I just mentioned "should have" been there later.
This draft is loaded and deep. Because of that, I think we'll see a good handful of players we fans grade as 2nd rounders going in round 1, possibly in the teens. The same goes for 3rd round grades going in the 2nd. With some teams having 50 players with 1st round grades, it's obviously not going to go down just as we expect.
Don't get me wrong, I have limits. I'm not saying it's ok if the Pats take Jordan Shipley at #22. However, I'm not going to call it a bad move if we take someone at that spot just because a lot of mock drafts had him high in the 2nd round. Sure, moving back and landing the guy anyway while picking up a 3rd rounder sounds great. But if we pick someone there and he pans out, just as Mayo has, it's all that matters. The 2nd round is no different.