Well this has helped me I hope its helped you as well. Comments as usual, are actively solicited
I disagree with much of this. However, it was helpful, as always.
BEFORE THE DRAFT
I expected to get a couple of offensive linemen. In addition, I expected help in a couple of other places, depending on where Belichick saw the need: DT, OG, RB, WR, DE. At CB, it was basically 32 or nothing.
THURSDAY
The draft seemed to be going as expected with the patriots set up to trade down with HOU or BUF as I expected, unless a top player fell. Well, a top 20 player did indeed fall. AWESOME!
FRIDAY
I had a really bad feeling when I saw the randomness of the picks. So many picks seemed to be from left field. I was getting the feeling that the GM's thought that the real quality was gone.
And then Belichick drafted a 4th-5th rounder. Oh well, I guess we needed a backup 2016 safety who would replace Ebner or Wilson. Belichick had already signaled the likelihood of trading out of 96. And then, we drafted a 5th-6th rounder to compete with Buchanan and Moore. ????
I was glad that we had no more picks on Friday.
BTW, I posted Friday night that we would draft a couple of players on SAT that we would think could have been drafted on FRI and all would be much better.
SATURDAY - 8 PICKS!
Well, first we drafted FLOWERS, a DE who could have been drafted in place of Grissom and indeed had Round 3 grades. This meant that Belichick really, really want help for the front seven. So much for us having a solid top notch front seven before the draft. Belichick followed up with Jackson who could have been drafted at 64, although I would have preferred a LG to a RG. OK, I was fine for the day. We had now had THREE contributors.
And then came MASON, our draft board binky to eventually replace Wendell (a C/G). And so came the end of the first four rounds, the picks that make the team. As a whole, I was fine with what we got. Obviously, the order was somewhat strange.
NT - starter
SS - backup safety and solid special teamer
DE
DE
OG
OG
AND THEN COME THE LONG SHOTS
Belichick is about 10-15% on these, which is better than anyone else. We usually bring in about 20 UDFA's a late round draft picks and 2-3 make the team.
LS CORDONA - a starter as soon as he is able to play for us
LB WELLS - a coverage linebacker who might have gone undrafted
TE DERBY - a one-year TE who might have gone undrafted
AND THEN
two players who were rated by cbssports as highly as Richards and Grissom. It seems that they should have a real chance to compete for roster spots.
CB ROBERTS - a 5th-6th rounder
DE ****SON - a 4th-5th rounder
BOTTOM LINE
2015 or 2016 starters - BROWN, JACKSON, CORDONA
likely contributors - RICHARDS, MASON, FLOWERS
less likely contributors - GRISSOM, ROBERTS, ****SON
PS material at best - DERBY, WELLS