I still fail to understand why everyone is so Ga Ga over a too short, too light DT. He will be run over in the run game. The 6th round cut and pickup, Chris Jones out weighs him by 30 #s, and 2 " in height. For every sack Donald got in college last season, Chris got in the tougher NFL, last season.
Not everyone is "Ga Ga" over Donald, and you are sadly misinformed about Aaron Donald. Donald compares very favorably to Warren Sapp.
Chris Jones is 6'1 5/8" compared to Donald's 6'0 6/8". That's 7/8", not 2 inches per your claim. Next, Jones is 302 while Donald weighed in at 285 at the Combine. That's 17 lbs difference, not 30 lbs difference.
Donald was facing double and triple teams last year. The only time Jones faced double-teams was to wash him out on running plays.
Furthermore, Chris Jones was .6 seconds slower in the 40 than Donald. Jones also doesn't have the leg explosion that Donald does and it's a marked difference.
Donald had 11 sacks as a senior. Chris Jones only had 6.5 sacks. Kinda blows up the idea that Chris Jones had as many sacks as Donald also had 3 PDs, 16 QB hurries and 4 forced fumbles..
http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2013-2014/teamcume.html
IMHO, the Defensive linemen available suck in this draft. They are all either injured, un- motivated, or too tiny. Draft some of them NEXT year.
Injured? Unmotivated? Too Tiny? More misinformation on your part..
This is the year to FINISH rebuilding the Offense, particularly the O-line. You can and must protect Brady, and you can also add depth at TE & WR. Third in scoring was fine but Brady getting sacked 40 times was terrible.
The Pats have depth at WR. In fact, since you have been sleeping, they have committed over $20M in cash to the WR in the past year between Amendola, Edelman, and Lafell. TE is a need and most people agree with that, but there just isn't a lot of high end talent there in this draft. Improving at OG and OC would help that out. But you have to judge the cost. There are only interior linemen who I believe warrant consideration in the first 2 rounds. That is Joel Bitonio and Zack Martin, though many consider Martin a RT, but I believe he could move inside easily enough.
Just how much more do you want to invest, to add to the Defense? You have three potential Probowlers on the DL, three more potential ones at LB, and three in the secondary. The D 3rd down conversion rate improved, and the sacks jumped. The D produced a Top Ten in Points Allowed. All they really need is health and experience playing together, to really excel.
The D-line consists of Wilfork, Kelly, Chandler Jones and Ninkovich with Chris Jones, Joe Vellano, Michael Buchanon, Armond Armstead, Sealver Siliga, and Jake Bequette as their back-ups. Wilfork, Kelly and Armstead are coming off some pretty serious injuries and it's unknown just what they will be able to produce. So that leaves Chris Jones (who is best as a situational interior pass rusher), Sealver Siliga (who should be Wilfork's understudy), Buchanon (who didn't have the stamina to go the whole season) and Bequette (the enigma). OH, Wilfork will be 33 by the end of the season, Kelly will be 34 by the end of the season, and Ninkovich will be 31 at the season. Yet, your proposition is that the Pats do nothing?
I'd rather the Pats add someone like a Donald or Hageman or Tuitt to get them into the system and rotation and so they can be more productive next year when the Pats are likely without Kelly and possibly without Wilfork.
You say that they have 3 potential Pro-bowlers at LB? I say that is wishful thinking on your part. Hightower has been lost out there on passing downs. Collins showed a lot of promise and I like the kid a LOT, but there is no way I'd predict him to be a Pro-Bowler this year. Maybe by 2015, but not before.
The Pats need a back-up LB who can cover RBs or TEs out of the backfield. Right now they don't have that. In fact, they only have Ja'Gared Davis as a back-up ILB and Steve Beauharnais as a reserve OLB. They'd have to do a lot of switching around if they moved Ninkovich back to OLB. So, I'd say getting someone to fill that void is high on the list since the Pats looked at bringing in Woodyard to do it, though he chose to go to the Titans.
