2007 we got Wes Welker and Randy moss, and that's as good a use of picks as it gets. I would never argue that the Patriots are flawless in their drafting but i would argue that they have a system that researches every draft thoroughly, they arrive at an approach for that draft and then follow it through that draft. It usually results in a strong draft and it absolutely results in a team that is in contention each and every year, and they were actually able to completely rebuild their roster not once but several times over during this era without ever dropping off and without having to overspend in free agency to make up for gaping holes. So if the draft is supposed to be about team building and results on the field then there simply is no better team in the league at it regardless of what the critics want to say. They can piss and moan and b.tch and whine endlessly about who they should have taken and how much better they could have done but the results on the field are the final report card for the Patriots drafting, and given that they can only get an A+ for the Belichick era.
Like everyone else i wanted them to take a Jesse Williams or D'rick Rodgers or Quinton Patton etc... but the truth is that i am only taking a superficial look at a limited number of prospects and don't have anywhere near the information they do so in truth I really have NOTHING to go on other than the draft sites and magazines, which only give cliff notes, and trying to suggest that I or anyone else here knows better is really complete crap. That doesn't mean we can't say we wanted so and so as we obviously can, but actually trying to say you know better is idiocy. The truth is that team boards are radically different than Kiper's etc..., and that's why Nassib and Barkley are still sitiing there when the Ravens were taking Brandon Williams and the Patriots a safety from Rutgers who most didn't know much about, and the Dolphins and other teams were doing exactly the same. Once you get past the first round teams draft boards really start to vary greatly and that is always going to make fans nuts, because we are all following the herd that comes from the consensus of the draft sites and magazines.
Once again i will go into today hoping they take the names i know and like with their next pick, but like their last pick last night i will be braced for them to take someone i know nothing about, however that doesn't mean they made a bad pick, it only means that i don't know the draft as well as they do.
One lat point, for years Mike Brown of the Bengals refused to invest heavily in team scouting and instead went with the draft experts to inform his drafting, and the result was that they sucked, so don't put much stock in the general consensus because following it ends up with a team being Mike brown's Bengals or Matt Millen's lions, who routinely took the highly touted players but always ended up at the bottom of the standings.
