Ras-I Dowling at 33

[mgteich]

I had him a bit behind A. Williams at FS. It takes a year to train a safety. We have both Meriweather and Sanders in their contract year. Obviously we needed a safety to train up for 2012.

Dowling has been my #1 FS prospect for a while, I think he's a terrific fit. Very smart and aware player, covers, tackles, active in run support, much bigger AND more athletic than Meriweather. Yes, he has a bad injury history...but that's why he was available in round 2. Top-15 talent otherwise, easily.

 

[mgteich]

I had him a bit behind A. Williams at FS. It takes a year to train a safety. We have both Meriweather and Sanders in their contract year. Obviously we needed a safety to train up for 2012.

I believe Mayock also had Dowling ahead of Moore.

 

[mgteich]

I would think that you would celebrate the addition of a second round quality safety.

I had him as a Pat in the late second as a Safety in my mochs.
I think that BB saw this Draft kind of sucked. There is not pass rush after the Justin Houston pick.
The sad thing is he will trade out of 2012 as well.

I also mentioned FA is where he is going.


Possible Pass rushers still we might get to. Romeus and Ricky Elmore, Matthews, Beal, Bruce Miller, Keith Darbut
DW Toys

 

[Ochmed Jones]

I would think that you would celebrate the addition of a second round quality safety.

I had safety on my list of draft needs, but not a guy as injured as Dowling.

We could have taken Sheard at #33 and still gotten Dowling at #74.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

I get the feeling the drafting of Dowling is a wake up call sent directly Merriweather.

 

[BPF]

Butler is safe. This guy going to IR. Be shocked if he makes it through camp.

Talk about exaggeration. He was limited to 5 games because of a series of injuries like you pointed out earlier (ankle, knee, hamstring) BUT he had appeared in 35 games over his first 3 yrs at Virginia, so missing games is not normal for this kid. He did say on http://www.patriots.com that he was fully healthy "if we had camp tomorrow, I'd be ready to go."

Solid, solid pick. Could be one of the steals of this draft. As patchick mentioned, if he came out last year he is a top 15 pick. Better player than Amukamara. He's big and but has movements skills of smaller player (good hips), transitions smoothly, drives on the ball, has great leaping ability, is motivated and hard working in addition to being a solid character guy. He’s smart, played in a good program vs good competition and excelled. He can play all the different types of coverages that Pats play + he’s a good tackler and special teams player. He can also play S, and his size and leaping ability will be an asset vs big WRs.

 

[mgteich]

I think you are underevaluated Dowling as well as how poor the safety class was. There were four quality safeties. All were gone by 50: Dowling, Williams, Moore and Gilcrest.

I had safety on my list of draft needs, but not a guy as injured as Dowling.

We could have taken Sheard at #33 and still gotten Dowling at #74.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Talk about exaggeration. He was limited to 5 games because of a series of injuries like you pointed out earlier (ankle, knee, hamstring) BUT he had appeared in 35 games over his first 3 yrs at Virginia, so missing games is not normal for this kid. He did say on Official Website of the New England Patriots that he was fully healthy "if we had camp tomorrow, I'd be ready to go."

Solid, solid pick. Could be one of the steals of this draft. He's big and but has movements skills of smaller player (good hips), transitions smoothly, drives on the ball, has great leaping ability, is motivated and hard working in addition to being a solid character guy. He’s smart, played in a good program vs good competition and excelled. He can play all the different types of coverages that Pats play + he’s a good tackler and special teams player. He can also play S, and his size and leaping ability will be an asset vs big WRs.

He may have appeared in 35 games, but in most of those games he was nicked up or didn't finish due to injury. This guy needs to eat his Wheaties before camp starts. Otherwise he could be a bigger bruised banana pick than Klemm.

 

[BPF]

Do you have any kind of link saying that he could ever be moved to safety?

How about BB himself: Shane Vereen Conference Call - 4/29/2011

 

[BPF]

He may have appeared in 35 games, but in most of those games he was nicked up or didn't finish due to injury. This guy needs to eat his Wheaties before camp starts. Otherwise he could be a bigger bruised banana pick than Klemm.

I think you're wrong, let's see:

Played 12 games in 2007, starting 2

Missed season opener in 2008 (strained right hamstring), started 9 of 11 ~ forced out of UNC game due to back inj

Started 12 games in 2009

Had injury plagued 2010 as mentioned, played 5 games

 

[condon84]

Would have been better if we picked Ra's al Ghul.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

I think you're wrong, let's see:

Played 12 games in 2007, starting 2

Missed season opener in 2008 (strained right hamstring), started 9 of 11 ~ forced out of UNC game due to back inj

Started 12 games in 2009

Had injury plagued 2010 as mentioned, played 5 games

It's too bad college does not have injury reports like the pros. This guy would have been on it every week. We broadcast 3 Virginia games while he was there and in all three games he was injured or nicked up. And all were lingering injuries that he had been "dealing with" for multiple weeks.

Potential Banana - he bruises easily.

 

[patchick]

This guy has elite skills for the Pats defense. A huge upgrade for the problematic 3rd CB slot. Guy has so much experience in the BB defense, he may start outside on day 1 with Bodden sliding inside.

Just wanted to offer kudos to this prescient draftday post!

 

[captain stone]

So far, so good for R-IRD. Every time he hit the ground last night, however, I held my breath & hoped that he didn't hurt himself.

 

[Ochmed Jones]

So far, so good for R-IRD. Every time he hit the ground last night, however, I held my breath & hoped that he didn't hurt himself.

And that is the rub with this player. Is he a banana or was he just unlucky in college.

I will say this, he is not afraid to stick his nose in there and tackle. If he can stay healthy, he brings a lot to the table.

 

[BillBelichickFan79]

Best pick of the draft for the Pats. You don't need to pay your nickelback $5 million