By the way, not sure if it's already been asked, has anyone got last years list at hand? See how we did in terms of players brought in for visits and those we actually drafted?
From my 2008 draft notes:
Private Workouts
QB Josh Johnson, San Diego
C Jamey Richard, Buffalo
DE Lawrence Jackson, USC
DE/OLB Cliff Avril, USC
DE/OLB Derrick Harvey, Florida
DE/OLB Quentin Groves, Auburn
DE/OLB Marcus Howard
LB Thomas Williams, USC
LB Stanford Keglar, Purdue
CB Leodis McKelvin
CB Aquib Talib
CB Dominque Rodgers-Cromartie
CB Mike Jenkins
CB Antoine Cason
CB Terrell Thomas
CB Zach Bowman
CB Orlando Scandrick
CB Chris Horton
CB Dennis Keyes
CB Trae Williams, Central Florida
CB Jack Williams
Foxboro Visits
RB Darren McFadden
DT Glenn Dorsey
DE/OLB Vernon Gholston
DE/OLB Cliff Avril
DE/OLB Quentin Groves
DE/OLB Jason Jones, E Mich
DE/OLB Darrell Robertson
LB Keith Rivers, USC
LB Curtis Lofton
LB Jerod Mayo
CB Leodis McKelvin
CB Aqib Talib
CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie
CB Antoine Cason
CB Patrick Lee
CB Charles Godfrey
CB Terrell Thomas
21 reported private workouts, 0 players drafted.
17 reported Foxboro visits, 1 player drafted.
38 total reported visits, 1 player drafted.
Interesting, huh.
There was an interesting story in Sports Illustrated last week about the drafting of Jay Cutler. Cutler said he had a series of private workouts and visits, and had team hats ready for all the teams that had expressed interest.
Shanahan apparently decided he wanted to draft Cutler, and didn't tell ANYONE in the team he was interested. During the draft, he instructed the GM to negotiate a trade up in the first round, without telling him or the coaches who it was for. Then Shanahan drafted Cutler.
Cutler said he was shocked, and had no Bronco's team hat to wear. He had no idea Denver had any interest, since they hadn't called or anything.
It's fun to track these reports, and guess what it means.
And there may well have been plenty of visits that weren't reported, or that I missed.
But from the 38 I tracked, only one player was drafted.
From last year, however, you do get a sense of the positions the Patriots are targeting. Clearly LB (14 of 38 visits) and CB (19 of 38) were targeted (total 33 of 38 reported visits). With Rivers, Wheatley, Crable, and Wilhite, they took four at those two positions in the first four rounds, but only one had a visit.
