AzPatsFan
Veteran Starter w/Big Long Term Deal
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2004
- Messages
- 7,613
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- 853
2009
This was a great draft with many contributers. Personally, I considered BRACE as insurance against Wilfork not re-signing or Wilfork being injured. IMHO, the NT position is critical to Belichick, so we need a backup NT, even if he doesn't do anything else. I hoped that it wouldn't take the 40th pick, but Belichick saw the value and certainly did well using the later pick.
For me, CHUNG was the questionable pick at 34. There were lots of safeties later and we had (and have) two solid starting safeties without Chung. We could have had Laurinitis. We lost a year at ILB development. Obviously the injury to Mayo underlined the problem, but we would have been a better defense with Laurinitis. Laurinitis was ready to go. Perhaps Belichick thought that McKenzie was ready to start. Perhaps Chung will indeed start this year and be a future all-rpo. That isn't the issue. There were quality linebacker available and we drafted a safety when we had two staerting safeties for the foreseeable future.
2010
This was the best draft I have ever experienced since sarting to root rooting for the patriots in 1979.
CUNNINGHAM is questionable only because I had him rated lower than Dunlop, but Belichick surely know which FL prospect will likely fit better into the future of the patriots. I would likely have missed on both (or not), since I would have drafted Spikes at 53. I suspect that I might have gotten Cunningham at 62 and ended up with the same pair,
I am not as high on PRICE as you, but he was an OK addition. He was also deent value at a position of need.
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OUTSIDE LINEBACKER / PASSRUSH
This has been a clear problem since Thomas was injured. This was clearly the biggest need left by Pioli. So what has Belichick done? Belichick has chosen to bring in Banta-Cain, Crable, Burgess, Ninkovich and Cunningham. He also has chosen to retain special teamer Woods. Belichick has also chosen to dump Seymour and Green in favor of Lewis and G. Warren.
The bottom line here is that the OLB/DE positions were an issue that Pioli had when he left. Belichick needed to replace Vrabel. He also need to get something out of Thomas. Finally, he needed to develop or acquire future defensive ends. 2009 was a disaster in almost all these respects. Belichick just added to the problem by not drafting a linebacker in the early part of the 2009 draft. Apparently he was surprised that Bruschi was no longer a top talent (no one here was surprised at the need). Belichick also added to the need by trading Seymour. We can like trading for picks two years in the future or not; the reality is that the 2009 deense was harmed.
So, should we applaue Belichick for dumping Seymour without replacement, for getting no production or future out of Thomas, for not replacing Vrabel, and fpr not replacing Bruschi in 2009? Yes, it is a cause of celebration that we are building for a solid 2011 (if it happens) and a solid 2012. But the reality is that 2009 was a missed opportunity, 2009 was a year with the team happy to be in the playoffs.
In Defense of Belechick, he had a Super Bowl quality team from 2003 on. For several years he simply HAD to use the Draft to add to or polish the existing SB contender. One year he concentrated on getting a great veteran RB. Another year he drafted one, that didn't quite replace the older great veteran. So many ***** about a draft where he got no one except a future HOF WR (Moss) and a Pro bowl WR (Welker). Anytime you do that its a great Draft, as far as I am concerned.
Its what the ersatz March Super bowl heroes, in the Meadowland swamps, have done for more than half a decade.
No one wonders who or what the Patriots would have added to their Team with the stripped First round pick by the Jets and newcomer Gooden's need to establish his "Mountain Landis toughness". I wonder if that "missing player" might have been enough to put them over the top in 2008 or 2009. We will never know.