Pats select ILB Jerod Mayo with 10th overall pick

[VJCPatriot]

Hey any of you guy think that they were targeting Rivers by moving down to the 10th pick? I am only wondering since Mayo may have still been available a little bit later in the round.

Then again they probably had a hard time trading the pick, due to the cost.

Nope. Bengals were pretty much a lock to take Rivers if he fell to 7 according to my mock draft. Plus Mayo has more smarts than Rivers and actually stood out. Rivers looked very ordinary compared to the other stars of that USC defense.

BTW I already got a new sig with Mayo.
Pats also got into the bad puns thing, on their website one of their headlines says, "Pats can't pass the Mayo."

 

[RayClay]

So. We all having a big party on the 5th this year?

 

[ex's and oh's]

Am I the only one who has seen a pattern with the Patriots first round picks recently....

Mankins
Maroney
Meriweather
Mayo

Its all about the M's

 

[TomPatriot]

Interesting tidbit on Mayo from the NY Times this morning:

"The Patriots, whose defense has struggled to stop the run and in the Super Bowl struggled to pressure Eli Manning, later selected Tennessee linebacker Jerod Mayo, bringing youth and speed to the league’s oldest linebacking corps.

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said the uncertainty about Junior Seau’s future did not contribute to the decision to draft Mayo, although he seems very likely to play Seau’s position. Belichick rarely drafts linebackers in the first round because his defenses are so hard to learn. But when Mayo visited the Patriots, they reviewed several plays and adjustments, then had Mayo redraw the plays for them. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/sports/football/27draft.html?ref=football

 

[Stop Being A Jerk]

Offhand, I like this pick. But what the hell do I know?

 

[?????]

I think he's a brilliant prospect and IMO the best player in this draft. He will be great for you guys IMO.

That being said I think he would have fallen much further so I think in that respect he was a bit of a reach. His stock should have been top 10 worthy all along IMO.

 

[SeanBruschi54]

I think he's a brilliant prospect and IMO the best player in this draft. He will be great for you guys IMO.

That being said I think he would have fallen much further so I think in that respect he was a bit of a reach. His stock should have been top 10 worthy all along IMO.

The rumor out there is that he would have went to Detroit a few picks later.

 

[RayClay]

First off, I'm glad the Patriots pulled the trigger on an actual linebacker high. There are smart linebackers in college and we needed youth and ability to play LB without rolling the dice on a DE convert.

Love the speed, but i have to say, seeing him listed from 222 to 242, he's not 242 unless he ate cheesesteaks between his filmed games and the weigh in.

With Wheatley being listed at 6'0" as a freshman and shrinking to 5'9", you simply have to trust your eyes at some point.

I didn't work in a carnival, but I think Mayo needs about 10 lbs, but I'm not concerned. Even if we have to adjust our defense (Capers) we need that speed badly.

Teams ability to exploit the speed of our linebackers was the hidden fault that didn't show in overall stats, but did in our lack of ability to kill drives when it counted the last two years.

On Wheatley. Whatever he measures, he looks to me to have the coverage and hitting ability of most 5'9" to 5'11" cornerbacks, which means 90% of players at that position.

He actually looks like a steal to me.

 

[Pedrorocks458]

First off, I'm glad the Patriots pulled the trigger on an actual linebacker high. There are smart linebackers in college and we needed youth and ability to play LB without rolling the dice on a DE convert.

Love the speed, but i have to say, seeing him listed from 222 to 242, he's not 242 unless he ate cheesesteaks between his filmed games and the weigh in.

With Wheatley being listed at 6'0" as a freshman and shrinking to 5'9", you simply have to trust your eyes at some point.

I didn't work in a carnival, but I think Mayo needs about 10 lbs, but I'm not concerned. Even if we have to adjust our defense (Capers) we need that speed badly.

Teams ability to exploit the speed of our linebackers was the hidden fault that didn't show in overall stats, but did in our lack of ability to kill drives when it counted the last two years.

On Wheatley. Whatever he measures, he looks to me to have the coverage and hitting ability of most 5'9" to 5'11" cornerbacks, which means 90% of players at that position.

He actually looks like a steal to me.

Ummm...242 is his combine weight, where he ran in the low 4.5's. Obviously he can play at that weight.

And we KNOW what Wheatley measured...5'9-5/8" because that was what he measured at the combine.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Loved this bit from the Globe article linked on the patsfans.com homepage:

"I had a great visit when I came down there," said Mayo, who was taking a break from raking leaves with his mother in the yard of his Virginia home when Belichick called to congratulate him.

On draft day, the guy is raking leaves with his mother. That's great. Seems like there's no prima donna in him.

As for the size issue, Derrick Brooks was something like 225 coming out of college and Bill Romanowski played his BC career around 235. Both guys bulked up (whistling past the steroids graveyard for Romo), so there's no reason to think Mayo won't.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Seymour93]

http://www.patriots.com/mediacenter...&special_section=draft2008&ac=audionewsdetail

Above link has his conference call with the Boston media. Mayo seems like a humble and eloquent person with a good sense of humor. He will fit in well with this team.

 

[otis p. driftwood]

Nice...a boob posts b.u.s.t.

 

[since67]

Nice...a boob posts b.u.s.t.

Agreed...not only in poor taste, but can't even 'man up' enough to explain themself...





Edit:typo

 

[Patslifer]

Mayo was a great pick, and one that fills a need. NE did well this draft, almost as solid as the Colts.

I agree, the colts are VERY good at drafting players. Many of which no one ever heard off, but that fit thier system perfectly. So you ob understand what Beli and Pioli where doing yesterday.

The baffoons on this board are howling because we didnt draft everyone Mel Kiper Jr said was a good player.I thought we had a great draft, and before we all pan the picks, we might want to see them play a down off football for the pats first..

 

[Kontradiction]

This guy is a big hitter on top of everything. I've seen him play on numerous occasions (living in SEC country has it's upside) and he seemed like he was the only guy on the Volunteers' defense that was constantly in the backfield/rushing the passer/running down the back/sacking the QB. If you watch any of the YouTube videos, you will see this too. Great pick.

 

[bradmahn]

Mayo was a great pick, and one that fills a need. NE did well this draft, almost as solid as the Colts.

It's funny that you mention the Colts. I think they had a really good draft for all of what they do on offense and defense. With the exception of a few guys, their picks were of players who have some pretty big hole in their profile but because of the cover two or the role that, say, Tamme will play, they got players who will work for them. They know their system, they know what they're looking for and what weaknesses can be hidden by what they do. They (unfortunately) got a bunch of guys who will be contributors. It's a drag.

The Patriots got a five to seven prospects who fit what they want in their players, who meet obvious needs this year (which, if it was the opposite, does not necessarily mean it would have been a bad draft) or later down the line and I think every player has a great deal of upside.

I'll take the Patriots draft, though, for obvious reasons.

 

[Kontradiction]

It's funny that you mention the Colts. I think they had a really good draft for all of what they do on offense and defense. With the exception of a few guys, their picks were of players who have some pretty big hole in their profile but because of the cover two or the role that, say, Tamme will play, they got players who will work for them. They know their system, they know what they're looking for and what weaknesses can be hidden by what they do. They (unfortunately) got a bunch of guys who will be contributors. It's a drag.

The Patriots got a five to seven prospects who fit what they want in their players, who meet obvious needs this year (which, if it was the opposite, does not necessarily mean it would have been a bad draft) or later down the line and I think every player has a great deal of upside.

I'll take the Patriots draft, though, for obvious reasons.

I think we had an outstanding draft. Our two biggest holes were with LBer and CB and those are more than filled. I've seen Wheatley called the steal of the draft, Mayo speaks for himself, Slater is lightning quick and can have many uses, Ruud will be good down the line. The only problem I had with the draft was getting O'Connell in the third round. There was no need for that, IMO. I actually think people are howling because we didn't draft an OL. I don't see the point in that. I've said many times that this line was able to keep Brady upright for enough time to throw 50 TDs. Before the SB, there was discussion as to whether or not they were the best line ever. Then, they have one bad game and it's all of the sudden "the O-Line sucks, too many leaks, must replace". I don't understand why everyone is in panic mode about the O-Line and, in a debate about it, the only excuse people can come up with is the SB. Too bad. They had one bad game and suddenly they suck. It was unfortunate that it happened on the day it happened, but it is what it is. Let's try to look at the previous 18 games for a more fair assessment, shall we?

 

[sieglo]

I think we had an outstanding draft. Our two biggest holes were with LBer and CB and those are more than filled. I've seen Wheatley called the steal of the draft, Mayo speaks for himself, Slater is lightning quick and can have many uses, Ruud will be good down the line. The only problem I had with the draft was getting O'Connell in the third round. There was no need for that, IMO. I actually think people are howling because we didn't draft an OL. I don't see the point in that. I've said many times that this line was able to keep Brady upright for enough time to throw 50 TDs. Before the SB, there was discussion as to whether or not they were the best line ever. Then, they have one bad game and it's all of the sudden "the O-Line sucks, too many leaks, must replace". I don't understand why everyone is in panic mode about the O-Line and, in a debate about it, the only excuse people can come up with is the SB. Too bad. They had one bad game and suddenly they suck. It was unfortunate that it happened on the day it happened, but it is what it is. Let's try to look at the previous 18 games for a more fair assessment, shall we?

In fairness the OL wasn't exactly stellar at run blocking all season. That being said, they weren't getting a lot of practice at it, so maybe it's excusable.

 

[Scottso]

Hey guys, I'm a Jet fan. Unlike a high percentage of the posters on this site, who say Gholston sucks, I'm willing to admit that you guys got a real good player in the first round. But don't you guys think that you could've still traded down again, and got more picks, and still picked up Mayo in the mid to late teens. And I'm not coming here to be overly critical, I just wanted to know what you guys thought about that. If you look at the board, he probably would've still been there in the mid to late teens. But like I said, I liked Mayo alot going into this draft.

 

[Lockdown06]

Hey guys, I'm a Jet fan. Unlike a high percentage of the posters on this site, who say Gholston sucks, I'm willing to admit that you guys got a real good player in the first round. But don't you guys think that you could've still traded down again, and got more picks, and still picked up Mayo in the mid to late teens. And I'm not coming here to be overly critical, I just wanted to know what you guys thought about that. If you look at the board, he probably would've still been there in the mid to late teens. But like I said, I liked Mayo alot going into this draft.

Hey man - just wanted to let you know that most people around here don't think Gholston sucks - in fact I would say most reasonable people would say he has a tremendous amount of potential - but we also definitely recognize that he's pretty much a boom-or-bust kind of player - he's either going to be a sack demon or he's going to be lost playing in space and be a wasted pick. That said, I can't say i'm really excited to see him go against nick kaczur for the next few years.

As for the Mayo pick, the general consensus was there was no way in hell the Detroit Lions were going to let him slip past them (pick no. 15) Also, Denver was in the hunt for a LB since they decided to move DJ Williams out of the middle where he didn't look very comfortable (pick 12) I wouldn't be too surprised if we received some calls to trade back, but i think Mayo was the guy Belichick wanted all along and he didn't want to risk losing him - He is notorious for being very picky with who can play linebacker so when one comes along that he likes I don't see why he would risk it with a small trade back.