Perhaps Belichick thought that Gregory was the best safety that he could get in free agency and that he needed to use a 2nd to get the best safety prospect on the board.
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I agree with you, Barrett will not be one of our top 3 corners. He is likely to start the season as one our top 3 SAFETIES as I indicated. You think that rookie Wilson will be in the rotation instead of last year's starter Barrett. You are certainly entitled to that opinion. Barrett is a safety, not a LB/S hybrid. I guess the last rookie safety to be in the rotation was also named Wilson, but he didn't have 3 safeties in front of him in the depth chart. I would remind all that Barrett was our starting safety before being injured. Belichick thought so much of Barrett that he fired both Sanders and Meriweather.
Yes, Gregory started games at corner. We need him as a starting safety. It is just that simple. Since, you don't have Barrett starting, for Gregory to play corner, one of the corners would need to move to safety. My belief is that Gregory is MUCH, MUCH better a safety than any of our corners are. BTW, I'm not sure that Gregory would even make the roster as a corner.
Solder could play some TE instead of OT. So what! We need him at OT. Connolly can play fullback. I don't want to ever see him do that again. And our best short yardage RB is Tom Brady. My bottom line is that we needed/need a starting safety and Gregory is that man. The only way Gregory will play any corner is with two injuries at corner, and with Wilson or Barrett starting at safety.
The fact that Belichick signed a free agent and used a 2nd rounder on safeties convinces me that we need safeties very badly after Belichick cut a very solid "versatile" safety who was quite capable of playing nickle back (and often did).
Yup, Belichick will occasionally try to fool opponents with a weird set. Perhaps Hightower will line up at safety or fullback. That has little to do with what these players will do every day.
Just BTW, there is almost ZERO on-the-field evidence that any of our corners can play safety better than Barrett or Ihedigbo, who we have chosen not to sign.
Finally, I am NOT arguing that Gregory cannot play corner, just that he WILL NOT unless we lots of injuries at corner, which of course has happened in the past. Gregory's flexibility in indeed a plus. HOWEVER, we needed a safety very badly and we signed one.
I don't want to see Gregory at corner because that would mean that two of our of our top 4 corners was injured and our #5 wasn't good enough to play. I suspect that Belichick will deal with this depth issue. Either Allen or Dennard will be expected to play if needed. The depth at safety is too thin to provide much help.
I think that if you believe that Josh Barrett is going to be one of our 3 top corners that you need your head examined. Barrett is in a fight to make a roster as a 4th "safety" after Chung, Gregory and Wilson, who will likely be the core rotation. If Barrett makes the roster it'll mainly be as a STer and LB/S hybrid. Anything more than that would be a major bonus, and a major surprise.
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And I believe that regardless of what named position a player is listed under that the Pats will move members of the secondary around. "Safeties" like Gregory and Wilson will drop into man coverage at times while "cornerbacks" like McCourty and Dowling will move into more of a centerfielder/FS kind of role. You may think it's "nonsense", but two of the guys you list at CBs started games at S for the Pats last year, and two of the guys who are going to be listed at safety (Gregory and Wilson) have started games at CB in their careers (at the college level obviously for Wilson, since he is a rookie).
So yes, I disagree. Steve Gregory started games for the Charges as a SS, a FS, and a CB. That versatility had to be part of what made him attractive to the Pats. So I think it's ludicrous to say that you don't expect him to play one rep at CB for the Pats. Absolutely ridiculous. BB prizes that kind of versatility, and he'll take advantage of it any way he can. After all, we're talking about the guy who once confused Peyton Manning by having Ty Law switch to safety and Rodney Harrison play CB.
I think that your view of the secondary positions is much more static than what I see happening, both with the Pats in particular and around the NFL in general. To succeed in today's NFL you need "safeties" that can cover like CBs and CBs that can hit like safeties. And if you have enough of those guys, you can do a lot of creative things in how you move them around. And the fact that BB gave a fairly significant contract to one of those guys in FA and used a 2nd round pick on another in the draft suggests that he values that kind of versatility very highly.
