As for the thread topic: Bill should've waited until 56 to take the injury-risky Dowling
(or OLB Justin Houston, or CB Brandon Harris, or RB Mikel Leshore, or WR Torrey Smith);
he should've drafted Cam Jordan at 17, Solder or Derek Sherrod at 28,
then traded 33 to NO for 56 & the 2012 1st-rounder. Ingram would still have been available then.
Wow, so much fail that I don't know where to start. But I really want to make you look foolish, so I'll start at the beginning of the draft.
Anybody with a good amount of knowledge on the defensive scheme could have told you that Cam Jordan didn't fit. Heck, he wasn't even the best 1-gapping 3-4 DE taken after the Pats passed on him. That would be Liuget to SD at 18. He fell all the way to 24 to a 4-3 team. You know what that means? It means the 3-4 teams didn't like him. You know why? Because he's not a good fit. The fact that he was labeled as a "3-4 DE" by tons of draft analysts and that he fell past pick 17 is not a good reason to decide automatically that he should have been the pick. And look, Belichick completely explained this pick before making it:
I try to take the player that you feel like is the best player. It's great to say, 'OK, we have a need at this position, so now we have a card to put up there in that spot.' But if that player isn't able to really fulfill that area or that position, then you're coming back here the next year looking for the same thing again.
Picking Cam Jordan solves nothing. Picking Nate Solder is picking a good player who will get on the field. Had they picked Cam Jordan like you wanted, then he wouldn't have solved anything and they'd still need a DE and even worse, have just traded Richard Seymour for a bust as his position.
Solder would have been long gone by 28. There were rumors that the Giants wanted him, and more rumors that the Colts wanted him over Castonzo. No chance he would have been there. And you really want Derek "James Carpenter was picked before me" Sherrod? Nate Solder was hand-picked by the best OL coach in the NFL. He apparently loved what he saw. Solder literally has the most natural ability of any OT to come out in a few years. And yet you'd rather downgrade on Brady's blindside because you want a new DE, even though he probably wouldn't make it onto the field because he's undersized and plays like he's even smaller?
You can't just say that the Saints would make the same trade for a pick 5 picks lower. You can tell by when the Pats got on the phone to confirm that trade that they had planned it pretty far in advance. Maybe the Saints thought the Packers were a threat to take Ingram. Maybe they wanted to make sure they got that 5 year contract instead of 4 with Ingram's knee concerns. Either way, you can't just assume they are doing the same trade for a clearly inferior pick. You know what they say about assuming. It hasn't done it to me, really, but it has definitely done it to U!
As for Dowling, let me quote
She's Out of My League:
"I'm sorry, are you a (plane) doctor? No, so shut the **** up."
Do you know the medicals on him? Have you done tests on his body? Unless captain stone is actually doctor stone, then I'm going to assume no. Surprise! The Patriots know that he missed games too. And you know what, I bet they looked into all of his injury questions and made sure he checked out physically. Apparently he did. And to quote what Belichick had to say about Mallett, which also applies to every other pick, including Dowling: "Obviously we’re comfortable with him. We took him." You know, I bet the Patriots would have only taken him if they were comfortable about his injury history. Is that a guarantee that he'll never miss a game again? Of course not. But they apparently saw nothing that foreshadowed a shortened career or habitually ending the season on IR.
So first you go assume the role of a doctor, and THEN you say to wait until 56 to draft him or one of a number of other guys? Well, time to destroy this list...
1. Ras-I Dowling: Would not have been there. He didn't tear his ACL, he broke an ankle. There are enough (real) doctors that work for NFL teams that would have cleared Dowling to be picked in the early to mid 2nd. Heck, the Bills took a comparable player with the exact next pick. If the Pats pass on him at 33, there's a better chance that he's gone at 34 than there is that he's available at 56.
2. Justin Houston: Ah, the polarizing OLB candidate. I never liked him because he's not that good against the run and already a legit 270, so he can't just add weight to fix that. Then came the combine drills and the "wow, this guy sucks in space" comments that were completely warranted. And then the weed. The biggest thing for me came from the tape, though. He just doesn't care. He's not a competitor. He doesn't care if he doesn't give his best. If he's like that on the field, what's he going to be like off it? Yuck!
3. Brandon Harris: Ah yes, the old "I want a different player at an earlier pick, so I'll given them an inferior player at that position later." Do the Patriots really need more 5-9 corners? For as much as you hated the pick, they got a guy who is over 6-1 AND played in a very similar defensive scheme under Al Groh. I didn't dislike Harris, but he's a guy I wouldn't want starting for me.
4. Mikel LeShoure: Maroney. Enough said. The Patriots picked the right back. His name is Shane Vereen.
5. Torrey Smith: Perfect. Rather than giving Tate and Price the time they need to grow, let's replace them with a guy who will need just as much time to learn the offense and get used to the NFL game. There are a few threads on here that will tell you why it's too early to get rid of Tate.
