Bill Belichick is a great coach and there is no other coach in the NFL I'd rather have. I can't stress that enough. One of his greatest strengths is trying to compile a complete roster. He takes special teams more serious than most coaches and over the years the Pats special teams have been better than most. This commitment to special teams can be illustrated in how the Pats draft. BB drafts kickers higher than most (albeit not all teams) like taking Gostkowski in the fourth round. He draft long snappers (Jacob Ingram and Joe Cardona) when nobody else does. He also drafts guys out of college who only really ever covered kick (Matt Slater and Nate Ebner). These guys are pure special teamers and some have been phenomenal (Slater and Gostkowski). They also have been later picks. Gost was 4th rounder, Slater and Cardona were 5th rounders and Ingram and Ebner were 6th. Those picks are good/great value.
My issue is the high draft picks on 'reaches' at safety because they are "four-down players" (ie guys that play special teams.) BB has draft several of these types of players over the last few years high in the draft and these types of picks can really bite the team in the ass if it short changes other positions of talent/depth . The players I'm talking about are:
2012 2nd Rd 48 overall Tavon Wilson
2013 3rd Rd 91 overall Duron Harmon
2015 2nd Rd 64 overall Jordan Richards
I'm not going to list the guys they 'could' have drafted because that would be cherry picking. Everyone could have drafted Brady 5 times over and didn't so every draft will have value late. All I'm saying is I remember when all of those 3 guys were drafted people were saying 'who' and 'why'. I'm not here to rip BB's drafts because everyone has hits (Hightower, Collins, Gronk, etc) and misses (Dobson, Ras-I Dowling, Ron Brace) but maybe rounds 2 and 3 are not the rounds to reach for core special team guys who might develop into starters. I think rounds 4-7 are where you draft those guys and you use your 2nd and 3rd rounders either for 'starters' or for trading (which BB loves anyway). Just my two cents.
My issue is the high draft picks on 'reaches' at safety because they are "four-down players" (ie guys that play special teams.) BB has draft several of these types of players over the last few years high in the draft and these types of picks can really bite the team in the ass if it short changes other positions of talent/depth . The players I'm talking about are:
2012 2nd Rd 48 overall Tavon Wilson
2013 3rd Rd 91 overall Duron Harmon
2015 2nd Rd 64 overall Jordan Richards
I'm not going to list the guys they 'could' have drafted because that would be cherry picking. Everyone could have drafted Brady 5 times over and didn't so every draft will have value late. All I'm saying is I remember when all of those 3 guys were drafted people were saying 'who' and 'why'. I'm not here to rip BB's drafts because everyone has hits (Hightower, Collins, Gronk, etc) and misses (Dobson, Ras-I Dowling, Ron Brace) but maybe rounds 2 and 3 are not the rounds to reach for core special team guys who might develop into starters. I think rounds 4-7 are where you draft those guys and you use your 2nd and 3rd rounders either for 'starters' or for trading (which BB loves anyway). Just my two cents.
