Our Biggest Weaknesses Going Into The Draft Are The Same As Now

[OhExaulted1]

I don't see WR as being an issue. Jules, DA, Dobson, Harper with Thompkins an ink stain away and Lafell a couple weeks off. Our receiving core got instantly better when we signed Chandler and I think Lewis might be the guy to emerge as Vereen's replacement.

Grabbing 2 IOL addresed our other issue on O, but the Stork issue still hurts.. The Corner situation is the only concern I really have on D.

 

[slam]

Our Biggest Weaknesses Going Into The Draft Are The Same As Now

Yes, Goodell is still the Commissioner.

 

[sevengables_2207]

They have addressed all three positions during/after the draft.

Whether or not those positions are improved remains to be seen...

 

[50-yard-line]

LG
CB
WR

I think DT, 3rd-down RB, and 3rd DE were also up there.

DT is a spot you can fix with a rookie. DE, too, to some extent (plus Sheard!).

They brought in Lewis and Cadet for 3rd-down RB.

TO your 3: I don't think you can fix CB in the draft, at least not immediately. Tough position to transition into. They drafted Roberts, who has a decent chance to do something there, but they addressed the position by bringing in 4 vets, 2 of whom are likely to start. Fletcher and Brown aren't Revis, but who in the draft could possibly have done more than those two for this team this year?

WR is another tough one to fix in the draft, particularly when your second pick is #64! They brought in Gibson (tough luck there), and I don't think it's a big weakness anyway with JE and Jojo and DA and Dobson. And as someone pointed out, Chandler changes that equation quite a bit.

OG: they drafted two promising rookies. They've spent tons of draft capital on the OL over the last two years. If Stork comes back, this line will do well. If not, well, them's the breaks in teh NFL, adn they'll still be okay, I think.

I wouldn't trade the Malcom Brown pick with anyone in the draft after 31, would you?

 

[Fencer]

I don't think you can fix CB in the draft, at least not immediately.

We did have a rookie CB make the Pro Bowl at one point. For some odd reason, our DBs regress to regress as sophomores.

 

[mihap]

LG
CB
WR

Currently i dont see any weakness. just draft guy who is the best available
LG: drafted Mason
WR Stacked: Edelman, Lafell, Dobson, Amendola
CB Coleman/Roberts one od them will be starte next year.

Maybe LB with Mayo being to expensive,
LT/RT as Solders backup, we ll see how Fleming develops,
middle round big back RB, Blount will be round 30

 

[manxman2601]

I wouldn't trade the Malcom Brown pick with anyone in the draft after 31, would you?

I thought Brown was a second rounder and still do. With how the draft played out, personally I'd have traded up for Byron Jones and then taken a DT like Hardison, Grady Jarrett or David Parry later. I was fine with the Brown pick, but a #1 Freak athlete CB would have been the better pick from my perspective. Still, the Brown pick is fine and it's time to move forward.

Still, it would be nice to address the CB spot to get a #1 guy in the future (I think Butler's ceiling is a very good #2 or average #1).

 

[patfanken]

WoW! I find this thread boarder line depressing, and fairly typical for NE fans who see a cloud over every horizon. After one game I see more answers than questions in the areas indicated by MG.

WR- Edelman is uncoverable in this offense. Amandola was open as well most of the night. Dobson was targeted once, caught the pass, and we really don't know how he did, except to see that he wasn't a factor in last night's game plan. Also you cannot look at WR and not include Gronk and Chandler in the mix as well, since they are spread wide so often.

So in the end if they Pats had spent their first round pick on a WR, whoever that pick might have been, it is likely he'd have the same job as Harper has now. Playing ST's and sitting on the bench.

LG - This seems like an odd complaint since the 4th round brought us a starting rookie G, and a rotational offensive line man. Quite frankly we had more issues with the LT than we did the LG last night. So the questions become, would drafting an offensive lineman earlier than we did make the OL better? I don't think so. Hell doesn't anyone have a problem with the job Anderson did last night. He didn't even cost us a pick.

CB - This was a legitimate concern going into the draft for all of us, give we decided to dump our first 3 CB's from the superbowl season. Maybe if the CT kid had been there when we picked he might have been a good selection, but he WASN'T. Besides picking the best DT available is always the wise pick. DT is were good defenses are born. They are the rarest of commodities.

I'll adress this in another thread, but I was pretty happy with what I saw from the DB's last night. I thought they had good tight coverage most of the night. In fact I had more complaints about our supposed front 7 from the Steelers game than I did the secondary

 

[mgteich]

DT was one of the top weaknesses going into the draft, so not quite the same.

fair enough

not quite the same

 

[mgteich]

As all should know, I am not depressed about our prospects. We are a Super Bowl contender. I wrote the post going into the game. You prove me wrong by pointing out that Amendola played well at WR.

WR
How is WR not a weakness. We are HOPING that Amendola has his first solid season. Harper is only active because we are so weak.

LG
At LG, again the game was the proof for you. I did NOT say anything about RG. We had a starter before the draft in Wendell and one after the draft in Jackson. I consider Kline/Mason a weakness for 2015. I expect that it will work out, but the position is till a weakness.

CB
This is in the eye of the beholder. Harmon was often our nickel back instead of Arrington (congrats to him, he did very well). Fletcher was picked on and didn't do well. Butler was heroic one on one against the best, but didn't really do well. Brown was our best CB on the field last night. I agree that better play from the front seven would have made the secondary look better. Covering for 5.5 seconds is difficult indeed.

WoW! I find this thread boarder line depressing, and fairly typical for NE fans who see a cloud over every horizon. After one game I see more answers than questions in the areas indicated by MG.

WR- Edelman is uncoverable in this offense. Amandola was open as well most of the night. Dobson was targeted once, caught the pass, and we really don't know how he did, except to see that he wasn't a factor in last night's game plan. Also you cannot look at WR and not include Gronk and Chandler in the mix as well, since they are spread wide so often.

So in the end if they Pats had spent their first round pick on a WR, whoever that pick might have been, it is likely he'd have the same job as Harper has now. Playing ST's and sitting on the bench.

LG - This seems like an odd complaint since the 4th round brought us a starting rookie G, and a rotational offensive line man. Quite frankly we had more issues with the LT than we did the LG last night. So the questions become, would drafting an offensive lineman earlier than we did make the OL better? I don't think so. Hell doesn't anyone have a problem with the job Anderson did last night. He didn't even cost us a pick.

CB - This was a legitimate concern going into the draft for all of us, give we decided to dump our first 3 CB's from the superbowl season. Maybe if the CT kid had been there when we picked he might have been a good selection, but he WASN'T. Besides picking the best DT available is always the wise pick. DT is were good defenses are born. They are the rarest of commodities.

I'll adress this in another thread, but I was pretty happy with what I saw from the DB's last night. I thought they had good tight coverage most of the night. In fact I had more complaints about our supposed front 7 from the Steelers game than I did the secondary

 

[DaBruinz]

LG
CB
WR

MG - Are you feeling lonely? Are you not getting any love at home??

Seriously, your post borders on trolling..

Kline and Mason did fine last night at LG. Andrews did better than expected at C, though the REAL tests will be against Buffalo (Dareus/Williams), Jets (Wilkerson), Dolphins (Suh).

The CBs actually did well.. You just had two excellent players in Antonio Brown and Roethlisberger on the other side.. I would have like to have seen some help on Brown, but Butler was left there by himself most of the time.

WR - Really? You think the Pats need help there? Why? Because Edelman was getting open and so Brady hit him 11 times? Is that really the fault of Amendola, Dobson, and Harper? Especially if Edelman is his first read?

 

[BradyFTW!]

CB
This is in the eye of the beholder. Harmon was often our nickel back instead of Arrington (congrats to him, he did very well).

Arrington is in Baltimore now, so I'm going to go out in a limb and say he wasn't playing any nickel last night.

As for the rest of your post, it can be entirely summarized as "our depth is now less than ideal at positions where a starter is injured". Which is at best a pedantic point. Yes, some guys are hurt, and the team will be better when they come back. Injuries are a fact of life, though. No way to predict where they'll hit, just have to power through and hope they get healthy. When you play 2-3 more games every year than the average team, there is a cost.

 

[Deus Irae]

The season starts, and the dumbass homerism starts again with it...

 

[PatsBoy12]

LG

I'll give you that.

CB

I felt Butler and Brown were competitive all game long. They'll get better. Fletcher is a problem. I don't know what more some people want here. Revis and Browner are gone. Let's all learn to deal with it. We'll likely have to mix coverages more and , yes, the D-Line needs to do better but it was not terrible considering the talent the Steelers have at WR.

WR

Did you watch the game last night? Brady threw 19 straight completions at one point. Did you see the TE and Dion Lewis? Did you also see how often our receivers got behind the defense and had the ball just off the fingertips? Still, why throw outside when you're destroying a team on the inside? Why stop throwing to Gronk if they're not stopping him? Don't you realize by now that the Pats keep doing a particular thing until the other team proves they can stop it? So who cares about a single individual unit when the whole is functioning at a high level. Football is a COMPLETE team game. No one person or unit necessarily needs to shine when the unit is functioning well as a whole.

 

[DaBruinz]

As all should know, I am not depressed about our prospects. We are a Super Bowl contender. I wrote the post going into the game. You prove me wrong by pointing out that Amendola played well at WR.

WR
How is WR not a weakness. We are HOPING that Amendola has his first solid season. Harper is only active because we are so weak.

LG
At LG, again the game was the proof for you. I did NOT say anything about RG. We had a starter before the draft in Wendell and one after the draft in Jackson. I consider Kline/Mason a weakness for 2015. I expect that it will work out, but the position is till a weakness.

CB
This is in the eye of the beholder. Harmon was often our nickel back instead of Arrington (congrats to him, he did very well). Fletcher was picked on and didn't do well. Butler was heroic one on one against the best, but didn't really do well. Brown was our best CB on the field last night. I agree that better play from the front seven would have made the secondary look better. Covering for 5.5 seconds is difficult indeed.

Clearly you watched a different game than everyone else..

WR - Not a weakness. Harper is better than you give him credit for. And him getting snaps is not a sign of weakness at the position. Amendola caught both balls thrown to him..

LG - They did well last night. Again, not sure what you watched but they kept Brady clean..

CB - Fletcher and Butler both ended up covering Brown at different times. Guy is arguably the best WR in the game currently..

 

[BTTA]

As all should know, I am not depressed about our prospects. We are a Super Bowl contender. I wrote the post going into the game. You prove me wrong by pointing out that Amendola played well at WR.

WR
How is WR not a weakness. We are HOPING that Amendola has his first solid season. Harper is only active because we are so weak.

LG
At LG, again the game was the proof for you. I did NOT say anything about RG. We had a starter before the draft in Wendell and one after the draft in Jackson. I consider Kline/Mason a weakness for 2015. I expect that it will work out, but the position is till a weakness.

CB
This is in the eye of the beholder. Harmon was often our nickel back instead of Arrington (congrats to him, he did very well). Fletcher was picked on and didn't do well. Butler was heroic one on one against the best, but didn't really do well. Brown was our best CB on the field last night. I agree that better play from the front seven would have made the secondary look better. Covering for 5.5 seconds is difficult indeed.

Some of the disagreement in this thread (and absurd hostility) seems to be focused around the definition of "weakness." Is it weakness in relation to the other teams, or in relation to the other positions on the team?

For example, LG is definitely a weakness in relation to other positions on the team. It may, however, turn out to be average for the League. Both can be true at the same time, because of the Pats' general excellence.
And it may develop strongly so that it isn't a weakness on the team.

When compared to LB, S, DE, and DT, CB is a weakness and will probably stay that way all year. We don't know yet if it will be a weakness compared to other teams' CB play. That'll take much of the season to determine.

 

[mgteich]

For many posting, we are the patriots. We have no weaknesses. We have either all-world players or strengths.

 

[PatsBoy12]

Yes, Goodell is still the Commissioner.

If I could've have rated this more than once, I would have!

 

[mgteich]

Did you watch the game last night? Brady threw 19 straight completions at one point. Did you see the TE and Dion Lewis?

Do you even understand what a WR is?

I didn't say our passing game was a weakness. Of course, our passing game was a strength. I didn't say that our receivers are a weakness. You make believe that I criticized Brady. That is against board rules. In any case, I didn't do that. Brady was awesome.

Edelman, Gronkowski, Chandler and Lewis were awesome.

So, let's see. Were our #2 and #3 receivers a relative strength or a relative weakness? We're one injury away from disaster at WR. For me, the position is certainly a weakness, and yes, MORE of a weakness than before the draft.

 

[IcyPatriot]

The term WR is a possible misnomer for this team ...

As some have said earlier ... look at who the targets are ... is more accurate for this offense.