Tavon Wilson - Lightning Rod o'Controversy (Poll)

[zipster9]

I'm curious, where'd you get this info? Not saying I disagree with you because I tend to believe Belichick wouldn't have taken him that early if he didn't feel there was a risk of losing him. I just haven't seen anything that supported that argument.

Yes. I'm curious about the source as well.

Yes, Tavon did have tryouts as mentioned in Scout.com (April 3) but that's
about it:

Illinois safety Tavon Wilson is scheduled to visit the San Diego Chargers, according to a league source.

He also has visits with the Arizona Cardinals, Houston Texans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts.

He also has conducted a private workout for the Falcons' brass, including, general manager Thomas Dimitroff, coach Mike Smith and defensive coordinator Mike Nolan.

The 6-foot, 205-pounder was selected All-Big Ten Conference honorable-mention, recording 74 tackles, 5 1/2 for losses, seven pass deflections one sack one interception and two fumble recoveries.

Wilson returned one fumble for a touchdown.

As a junior, he started every game and 48 tackles, two for losses, eight pass deflections, one interception and two fumble recoveries.

As a sophomore, he finished third on the team with 74 tackles and led the team with seven pass deflections.

Wilson chose Illinois over Maryland, Boston College and Michigan State.

 

[zipster9]

SD had him in for a personal workout they picked a S 1 pick after Wilson was taken by the PAts.

Did you see the SD draft board?

If not who informed you that SD wouldn't have taken WIlson?

Wrong. Chargers did not pick a Safety till Round-3, Brandon Taylor.

Chargers selected Kendall Reyes, DT, in Round-2, right after Patriots pick.

 

[ATippett56]

I think Wilson will be a decent starter within a year. It's the Dennard pick that almost had me tossing stuff at my TV.

You've got to be kidding? For a seventh round draft selection?

 

[JMarr]

I'll see if I can find a link, but two other AFC teams had a second round grade on him. One was SD, who picked one pick later. The other is believed to be Houston.

There you go. BB obviously thought a Safety was a big priority--duh--but wasn't willing to trade up into the top ten for Barron (duh again), and didnt like Harrison Smith (rightly so). Wilson was their highest rated safety still left on the board and he very well could have been taken by the Chargers or someone else had we traded out of the pick. End of story.

Another solid pick. Nothing at all to complain regarding Wilson.

 

[pork3]

For those interested in more tape on Tavon Wilson, there's this of him being beat by another of our draft selections, Jeremy Ebert.

Patriots WR No. 11 Jeremy Ebert vs Illinois 2011 - YouTube

-Jamman

 

[JimJohns]

You've got to be kidding? For a seventh round draft selection?

If you're familiar with Nebraska or Big 12 / Big 10 conference play Denard was a much better prospect than Wilson. I watched Denard shut down drafted recievers all year. Can't say the same about Wilson. I'll go with the cop puncher here. Hopefully Wilson amounts to something but if be does, he sure as hell didn't show it in college.

 

[aurakilla]

There you go. BB obviously thought a Safety was a big priority--duh--but wasn't willing to trade up into the top ten for Barron (duh again), and didnt like Harrison Smith (rightly so). Wilson was their highest rated safety still left on the board and he very well could have been taken by the Chargers or someone else had we traded out of the pick. End of story.

Another solid pick. Nothing at all to complain regarding Wilson.

there were rumors of them trading to #12

 

[BritPat]

People making comparisons to the Vollmer situation in '09 should stop. I saw Vollmer play, and he clearly was under-rated. In the Pre-Draft process, guys like Wes Bunting were lauding him like crazy.

That's not the same with Wilson. Admittedly, I only saw one Illinois game all year, and my thoughts during the game were "their safety play is abysmal". Seemingly, it wasn't a one off either.

I'm rooting for the kid though, hard. He's a Patriot and every single one of OUR players deserve OUR support.

 

[State]

He's got decent size--he's not a six-footer, though, more like 5' 11"--with good speed on a solid 206-pound body. Low 4.5s. If he had run a 4.6 or 4.7 this is a guy who likely doesn't get drafted. Period. You can tell Belichick likes the body. He's prolly gonna be used as a hybrid LB/safety/CB. Manning ain't gonna know where he's going to line up. That confusion is what Belichick likes.

Mike Reiss gave the pick a C, and he's as diplomatic as they come. He did get his facts wrong about his being a 4.4 guy who is 6'0". Pluz. His coverage skills, Wilson not Reiss, aren't great. His play can best be described as steady to solid. You see him flashing to the ball. You can tell he loves the game of football. Not coming with a lot of publicity from the Big Ten--where he couldn't make the top two all star rankings notwithstanding long being a known commodity--makes me wonder: Did they get it wrong, too?

My biggest worry is that his hips seem stiff. There's not a lot of fluidity.

He's deficient in ball hawking skills, as evidenced by the fact he didn't have many INTs. One can see he often doesn't look back to the ball. But he is adept at deflecting passes. His tackling can be suspect, but not his gunner role in ST. His greatest asset, besides his speed, is his durability and ability to be used in multiple ways, which you can best see in the Arizona State tape.

I remember watching him a couple of years ago. I was surprised how athletic and speedy he was. Illinois players typically are good athletes, esp. for the Big Ten, but underperform.

Ron Zook likes the kid a lot. Part of that may be his leadership and durability.

But what's strange to me is that the better coverage skills by far will be seen in training camp by the guy who likes taking swings at cops a week before the NFL draft, Alfonzo Dennard.

Now Dennard might see the field more than Wilson if he can straighten out his act.

The pick was a definite reach. People saying that teams had Tavon as a seconder-rounder don't know what they're talking about until those teams themselves disclose that. People like to say they got inside sources when they don't. Reading media reports and inferring is just conjecture.

It's clear, though, that Belichick took great satisfaction nabbing a player that caused the whole draft guru apparatus to do a Home Alone hands-on-cheeks. Being the smartest guy in the room has its drawbacks. One needs to showcase that.

Is Tavon a second-round talent? Time will tell. He has physical attributes--too bad George Iloka couldn't run as fast, because he's a vastly better tackler and coverage guy--and character are solid. But he was a reach by at least one round.

Considering how poor Bill's track record is with these DBs--and I was wickedly pumped about Darius Butler at the time, and some of his others who didn't pan out (B. Merriweather, who just had a DUI, was an exception, an obvious bad apple one could see at the time)--he can't really do any worse than he's done so far.

 

[reflexblue]

Meriwhether long time starter 2 probowls

Mccourty rookie starter, probowler, 2nd team all pro
Chung starter
Dowling started his first game as a rookie before getting injured

I think you might want to reconsider that judgment.

This shows how many high round picks have been used for the Defensive backfield with poor results

T Wheatly 2nd

J Wilhight 3rd

Darious Butler 2nd.... should have gone here, but shows the difficulty this team has picking DBacks

Ras I Dowling 2nd rnd is working his way onto this list

Guss Scott..3rd rnd

Eugene Wilson 2nd rnd... had a good year once

Dexter Reid 4th rnd

Brock Williams...3rd rnd

James Sanders 2nd rnd

I think you might want to reconsider your judgment But of course you won't, you'll still try to rationalize.

 

[Blackluck]

Touchdown Tommy Vardel. I use to be a Cleveland Brown fan back in the day. Vardel, a full back, was the 9th player selected n the 1992 draft. I'm sure BB had his reasons for taking Vardel back then, too. Turned out they just weren't very good reasons.

BB has a history going back 20 years of reaching for players based off need. He is without question a HoF coach, maybe the best ever. One should not however confuse his coaching ability with his personnel acumen.

And so what if some other team was poised to take him? Is Wilson really the 48th best player coming out of college? The top rated player on their board? A mid 2nd round pick is a premium pick. Are those supporting the pick actually suggesting if Wilson was no longer available after the 48th pick there wasn't a player with comparable value that could have been selected later? Or a player in another position with a higher grade? There's a reason our defense was bad last year. Taking players like Wilson in the position he was chosen is part of that reason.

But I guess drafting fourteen defensive backs, most of whom have failed, isn't a good enough basis to question the value of another DB chosen with a premium pick. But heck, maybe he's good fit for our Option Defense. You know, where covering a receiver is optional.

 

[Observer]

Ever since Meriweather left, we haven't had enough dreadlocks. Tavon will do nicely to fill that role.

Jokes aside, I have no problem with them picking someone that everyone else thinks is not worth it - but they better be right. Either they will be heroes or fools, there is no middle ground here.

If they end up fools, we would need to further question their already questionable track record regarding evaluating defensive backs.

 

[TomPatriot]

Touch Tommy Vardel. I use to be a Cleveland Brown fan back in the day. Vardel, a full back, was the 9th player selected n the 1992 draft. I'm sure BB had his reasons for taking Vardel back then, too. Turned out they just weren't very good reasons.

BB has a history going back 20 years of reaching for players based off need. He is without question a HoF coach, maybe the best ever. One should not however confuse his coaching ability with his personnel acumen.

And so what if some other team was poised to take him? Is Wilson really the 48th best player coming out of college? The top rated player on their board? A mid 2nd round pick is a premium pick. Are those supporting the pick actually suggesting if Wilson was no longer available after the 48th pick there wasn't a player with comparable value that could have been selected later? Or a player in another position with a higher grade? There's a reason our defense was bad last year. Taking players like Wilson in the position he was chosen is part of that reason.

But I guess drafting fourteen defensive backs, most of whom have failed, isn't a good enough basis to question the value of another DB chosen with a premium pick. But heck, maybe he's good fit for our Option Defense. You know, where covering a receiver is optional.

I think Ernie Accorsi was the Browns GM in 1992. No one person is responsible for any pick because for most NFL teams there are as many as 30 people involved in the process. There's no way BB made the final call on your guy.

 

[State]

Tavon has shaved the dreadlocks. At least it looked to me on his Foxboro visit.

Mike Reiss's colleagues who report on the Big Ten, Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett, had a lengthy entry just before the draft on Big Ten players and the draft.

Tavon Wilson? Not even mentioned. Blog debate: Big Ten's NFL draft prospects - Big Ten Blog - ESPN

I guess Bill knew something they didn't with the 48th pick.

 

[goheels22002]

I think the desciption on this board of BB being 'spooked into a pick' or 'outsmarting himself' or 'panicking' are curious.
Do you really think that if he didn't feel the player was worth the pick, he woiuld panic and take him anyway?
BB has, more than any NFL HC/GM I have ever seen showed over and over again (through FA and the draft) that he never overvalues a single player. His draft discussions have uncovered that he views players in groupings, and trades into or out of picks based on the group, not one guy. (i,e, trading up for Hightower was likely because he had a few players in mind and it reached the point where he wouldn't get any by staying put. In FA he has consistently made offers and given a take it or leave it, and I'll move on to the next guy apprioach.,
I just don't get why people watching his career can think he makes a decision out of desperation to get one player.

I agree. How exactly do you "spook the Patriots into a pick?" What, did Al Davis pop out of the closet in the middle of the night and say, "Oooooooooooh, take Tavon Wilson. Take him!"

 

[Water Boy]

For those interested in more tape on Tavon Wilson, there's this of him being beat by another of our draft selections, Jeremy Ebert.

Patriots WR No. 11 Jeremy Ebert vs Illinois 2011 - YouTube

-Jamman

Wilson gets burned by Ebert who runs right past him for a TD on a simple post route.

For the life of me, I just don't get what they see in Wilson that justified using pick No. 48.

Its the players they passed on at this pick that make it even worse for me.

 

[Fencer]

There's a lot of reason to think Wilson will never be a decent NFL CB.

Fortunately, he doesn't have to play CB for the pick to be successful.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Wilson gets burned by Ebert who runs right past him for a TD on a simple post route.

For the life of me, I just don't get what they see in Wilson that justified using pick No. 48.

Its the players they passed on at this pick that make it even worse for me.

So he got burned by our 7th round WR who is probably our 9th/10th best WR on our team.

This doesn't make me feel any better.

 

[goheels22002]

So he got burned by our 7th round WR who is probably our 9th/10th best WR on our team.

This doesn't make me feel any better.

It makes me feel better about Ebert.

 

[NEGoldenAge]

Poor coverage skills and tackling technique hmmmmm....

Tavon Wilson to the Patriots - YouTube

This video really highlights one of the most striking things about his game. He plays with great focus and awareness. Whenever a ball is knocked loose, he instantly and smoothly adjusts to it. I've only watched what I can find on youtube, but he looks deliberate and never out of control. This kid is a BB type of player. I think people need to put less stock in what he media draft "experts" say.