Patriots Off-Season Review - Pre-Draft Edition

[DaBruinz]

In my 3rd installment of these reviews, we are a week away from the draft.
The first part of free agency is done and the Patriots were very active. The biggest shocker was the Pats trading Matt Cassel and Mike Vrabel to Kansas City for the #34 pick in the draft. Many of us felt the Pats would trade Cassel to KC, but many felt they'd get multiple picks. No one saw the trade of Vrabel coming. The Pats also released Darrell Robertson, who immediately was signed by the Chiefs.

Additions to the Patriots are the following: Chris Baker - TE, Leigh Bodden - CB, Shawn Springs - CB/S, Al Johnson - C/G, Nathan Hodel - TE/LS, Joey Galloway - WR, Greg Lewis - WR (via trade with Eagles), Damane Duckett - OT, Tully Banta-Cain - OLB, Fred Taylor - RB, Brad Listory - TE.

Returning to the Patriots are Tank Williams - LB/S, Wesley Britt - OT, Eric Alexander - ILB, Ray Ventrone- S/WR, Chris Hanson - P, James Sanders - S, Mike Wright -NT/DE, Russ Hochstein OG/C/TE/FB/LS.

Players not returning: Jabar Gaffney - WR (Denver), Lonnie Paxton - LS (Denver), Larry Izzo LB/ST (NYJ), Heath Evans - FB (New Orleans), Lamont Jordan - RB (Denver),

Of the signings, only Johnson will count against the Patriots in terms of compensatory picks. Gaffney, Paxton, Izzo, Evans, and Jordan should all count in terms of compensatory picks, though likely only a 7th rounder for each.

Players of note for the Patriots who are still UFA include, Harrison, Seau, Colvin, and Lewis Sanders.[

The Pats current roster breakdown is this: (numbers only):
QBs - 3
RBs - 5

FB: - 0
WRs - 5
TEs - 5
OLs - 14
DLs - 7
LBs - 11
CBs - 6
S - 6
STs - 4

 

[SunnyDenmark]

Nice work DaBruinz!

It sure looks like a good roster. Although til the defensive youngsters come into their own (Wheatly, Whilite, Crable, Redd, L. Smith, Richardson, etc) - it is not a dominating defense (of 2003-2004). It still looks like the offense will need to score 25 - 30+ points a game to greatly increase the chance of victory.

If Brady and co can score early and often, that will surely make the other team throw often and help our defense (by forcing opponent to become one-dimensional).

Now just a few more pieces of (draft) eye-candy (pass rusher please) to make me salivate at the years to come. :singing:

 

[DaBruinz]

Whichever mod moved this, it belongs on the main board since the DRAFT is a major even this week and it deals more with the state of the Patriots than the draft.

Same with the other 2.

 

[jmt57]

Whichever mod moved this, it belongs on the main board since the DRAFT is a major even this week and it deals more with the state of the Patriots than the draft.

Same with the other 2.

I wouldn't worry about it, I think most of the serious fans are in the Draft Forum rather than the main board this time of year anyways.


edit: ps - thanks for the great job with the analysis on the three threads

 

[Ochmed Jones]

With four picks on day one, we have a chance to upgrade a major portion of the bottom third of the roster.

However I still hope we come out day one with a second 2010 1st rounder.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Nice work as always!


The interesting thing about this draft is in the past I had some feel for what positions and what sort of players Belichick would go for.

This year I have no idea. With so many picks anything can happen - and I wouldn't rule out trading up as well. Belichick has all the amunition he'd need to move around and grab EXACTLY the guys he wants -

He's got enough picks to move up in the 1st round if there's someone of value who has fallen to the teens... still use his #23 and even still move around in the 2nd round to grab someone else he values that may have dropped etc..

Much I'm sure just depends on how the draft unfolds - who goes early, what bargains are available, all in keeping with the Patriots player preferences and not what the pundits think.
In fact chances are Belichick himself doesn't know what he'll do though he is certainly planning for every scenario - and again, given all these picks he's going to be VERY busy assessing opportunities as the draft unfolds.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Nice work as always!


The interesting thing about this draft is in the past I had some feel for what positions and what sort of players Belichick would go for.

This year I have no idea. With so many picks anything can happen - and I wouldn't rule out trading up as well. Belichick has all the amunition he'd need to move around and grab EXACTLY the guys he wants -

He's got enough picks to move up in the 1st round if there's someone of value who has fallen to the teens... still use his #23 and even still move around in the 2nd round to grab someone else he values that may have dropped etc..

Much I'm sure just depends on how the draft unfolds - who goes early, what bargains are available, all in keeping with the Patriots player preferences and not what the pundits think.
In fact chances are Belichick himself doesn't know what he'll do though he is certainly planning for every scenario - and again, given all these picks he's going to be VERY busy assessing opportunities as the draft unfolds.

I think this draft has a lot of Pats type players, but they all have warts, which cause us to doubt why BB would take them. And historically in the first round BB has taken a guy with very few warts. So either he is looking at another position where we are not, RB? WR? DL? or maybe BB is thinking about trading out of round one.

I would not be disappointed if we traded up for DE Jackson.

 

[JoeSixPat]

I think this draft has a lot of Pats type players, but they all have warts, which cause us to doubt why BB would take them. And historically in the first round BB has taken a guy with very few warts. So either he is looking at another position where we are not, RB? WR? DL? or maybe BB is thinking about trading out of round one.

I would not be disappointed if we traded up for DE Jackson.

There's no telling how this draft will shake out - but if there ARE guys who BB thinks are a much better fit, he's got all the ammunition he needs to move around to take them - he doesn't need to leave much to chance of who will fall.

That being said, if there's two guys with "warts" (I know what you mean - no perfect player) with so many picks I'd imagine BB will use some and trade others to better value in future drafts