This draft reminds me of the 2003 draft

[ayjackson]

The 2007 draft was actually pretty good. We only had 1 pick in the top 100, and he's on a path to being a pro-bowl safety. There was a bust in the fourth round, and then the rest all made an NFL team's 53-man roster. The fact that it wasn't our roster, speaks to our depth, but the picks were NFL roster quality.

 

[bucky]

The 2007 draft was actually pretty good. We only had 1 pick in the top 100, and he's on a path to being a pro-bowl safety. There was a bust in the fourth round, and then the rest all made an NFL team's 53-man roster. The fact that it wasn't our roster, speaks to our depth, but the picks were NFL roster quality.

Everybody is on their way to being a pro-bowler. They all just have various distances to travel. Merriweather has quite a ways to go, though I do believe it possible that some day he'll get there.

As for the other players, if you pick 10 guys and get nothing out of them - then all 10 go on to become pro bowlers, you still had a bad draft. If you're not considering a player's ability to make your roster over a 1-2 year period when you're making the pick, then you have no business being in the front office. I'm sure the FO thought the players would be better than they turned out to be.

 

[ayjackson]

Everybody is on their way to being a pro-bowler. They all just have various distances to travel. Merriweather has quite a ways to go, though I do believe it possible that some day he'll get there.

As for the other players, if you pick 10 guys and get nothing out of them - then all 10 go on to become pro bowlers, you still had a bad draft. If you're not considering a player's ability to make your roster over a 1-2 year period when you're making the pick, then you have no business being in the front office. I'm sure the FO thought the players would be better than they turned out to be.

I'm sorry but if you draft 10 future probowlers that can't make your team, it's not your drafting that's at issue.

 

[bucky]

I'm sorry but if you draft 10 future probowlers that can't make your team, it's not your drafting that's at issue.

I'm exaggerating to make a point. If almost every single one of your draft picks is gone off your roster in 12 months, you did not pick the right players. The Patriots were deep, but they weren't that deep.

 

[ayjackson]

I'm exaggerating to make a point. If almost every single one of your draft picks is gone off your roster in 12 months, you did not pick the right players. The Patriots were deep, but they weren't that deep.

We're talking about players taken in the 5th, 6th and 7th rounds. They tried to sneak a couple onto the practice squad (Justin Rogers and Kareem Brown comes to mind), but they were taken by other teams. Oldenberg was the 5th round pick and he's now a Bronco, I believe. The rest were selected past the 200 mark in the draft?

Seriously, what do you expect? We're talking about a draft that really only had one bust - Brown.

Look at it this way, if they had kept their second and third rounders, and they became pro-bowlers, but the rest of the picks got cut and disappeared from pro-football, you'd be saying it was a excellent draft. So what is the expectation of these late rounders? Anything you get from back in the sixth and seventh round is gravy.

 

[bucky]

We're talking about players taken in the 5th, 6th and 7th rounds. They tried to sneak a couple onto the practice squad (Justin Rogers and Kareem Brown comes to mind), but they were taken by other teams. Oldenberg was the 5th round pick and he's now a Bronco, I believe. The rest were selected past the 200 mark in the draft?

Seriously, what do you expect? We're talking about a draft that really only had one bust - Brown.

Look at it this way, if they had kept their second and third rounders, and they became pro-bowlers, but the rest of the picks got cut and disappeared from pro-football, you'd be saying it was a excellent draft. So what is the expectation of these late rounders? Anything you get from back in the sixth and seventh round is gravy.

You can justify it however you want.

The drafted 8 guys after the 3rd round. And of the 8, only one was with the team in 12 months.

BB finds a way to keep guys around if he thinks they can progress and doesn't want to lose them.

 

[ayjackson]

You can justify it however you want.

The drafted 8 guys after the 3rd round. And of the 8, only one was with the team in 12 months.

BB finds a way to keep guys around if he thinks they can progress and doesn't want to lose them.

Just not at the expense of Alexander or Woods, O'Callahan or Britt.

 

[captain stone]

Just not at the expense of Alexander...

Is that, like, a joke or something?

Nobody will ever convince me otherwise that the '07 draft was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Bucky appear to be a draft purist. He seems to believe that the only way to build a team is by the draft. Belichick and his five rings doesn't agree.

BB uses the draft, free agency, waiver wire pickups, and trades to build his team. Each year in different proportions.

Bucky would think that sux. He said acquiring a HOF receiver for a fourth round draft pick in 2007 was a complete waste of the pick.

Yeah right.

 

[bucky]

Bucky appear to be a draft purist. He seems to believe that the only way to build a team is by the draft. Belichick and his five rings doesn't agree.

BB uses the draft, free agency, waiver wire pickups, and trades to build his team. Each year in different proportions.

Bucky would think that sux. He said acquiring a HOF receiver for a fourth round draft pick in 2007 was a complete waste of the pick.

Yeah right.

Your entire slanderous attack on me is a waist of time. The whole point is the Patriots did not draft well that year. Moss and Welker have nothing to do with drafting college players and were never part of the discussion. Though I guess you're not capable of seeing the true message because you're so blinded by the opportunity to attack me (for whatever twisted reason, I don't know)

 

[Gon_Trevil]

Moss and Welker have nothing to do with drafting college players and were never part of the discussion.

The one that arbitrarily declared that they are not part of the discussion is you. Fact is, they WERE acquired using our draft picks. Whatever you do with your draft picks is part of your draft.

 

[Gon_Trevil]

The 2007 draft was actually pretty good. We only had 1 pick in the top 100, and he's on a path to being a pro-bowl safety. There was a bust in the fourth round, and then the rest all made an NFL team's 53-man roster. The fact that it wasn't our roster, speaks to our depth, but the picks were NFL roster quality.

People forget we went on to go 16-0 the regular season following this draft. That rookie class consisted of a plethora of 5th, 6th, and 7th round picks. How some people not see it as understandable that these guys couldn't make the squad on an undefeated team is beyond me.

 

[ayjackson]

Nobody will ever convince me otherwise that the '07 draft was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.

Then why discuss it?

 

[bucky]

The one that arbitrarily declared that they are not part of the discussion is you. Fact is, they WERE acquired using our draft picks. Whatever you do with your draft picks is part of your draft.

You're distorting the context. We're discussion the success of drafting players, not the success of the front office as a whole. Trading picks isn't the same as drafting a player. If you're going to include all trades that are made with draft picks as part of the draft, then someone is going to have to go back an restate every draft class. Mayo then becomes part of the 2007 class. Wilfork part of the 2003 class, and so forth. It becomes complete distortion.

 

[Gon_Trevil]

You're distorting the context. We're discussion the success of drafting players, not the success of the front office as a whole. Trading picks isn't the same as drafting a player. If you're going to include all trades that are made with draft picks as part of the draft, then someone is going to have to go back an restate every draft class. Mayo then becomes part of the 2007 class. Wilfork part of the 2003 class, and so forth. It becomes complete distortion.

Drafts blend into each other due to trades. That is why it's better to look at a group of years instead of individual years.

If you want to look at one specific year (2006 in this case) and judge, as you say, a team's "success of drafting players," then the only fair way to look at it is to judge what they did with what they had to work with, and how it fit into the team. On that year they had one pick out of the top 100 to work with. They chose a quality starter with it, who has developed nicely and shows promise of more to come.

The rest of the picks were mostly 5th-7th round rookies trying to make a squad that would wind up going 16-0. That is quite the tall order.

 

[bucky]

Drafts blend into each other due to trades. That is why it's better to look at a group of years instead of individual years.

If you want to look at one specific year (2006 in this case) and judge, as you say, a team's "success of drafting players," then the only fair way to look at it is to judge what they did with what they had to work with, and how it fit into the team. On that year they had one pick out of the top 100 to work with. They chose a quality starter with it, who has developed nicely and shows promise of more to come.

The rest of the picks were mostly 5th-7th round rookies trying to make a squad that would wind up going 16-0. That is quite the tall order.

There's logic to what you're saying. But 16-0 or not, the bottom of their roster was still very much upgradeable. With the likes of Chad Brown, Eddie Jackson, Alexander, Eugene Wilson, Willie Andrews, Spann, Corey Mays constantly going on and off the roster and Troy Brown basically just occupying a spot as a celebrity, they could have found some place for a rookie their really liked - even if they didn't play him (like Crable this year).

I also agree that it's better to judge drafts in groups - which is exactly where this conversation started. If you look at the last 3 drafts (2006-2008), there are currently 4 projected starters total from those 3 drafts. And that's the 3 1st round picks plus the kicker.

The 2008 draft is still too early to judge, but as of right now it doesn't look anywhere near as promising as the 02-06 drafts looked after 1 year.

 

[Bring Back Antowain!]

Yes, it's a very deep draft.

And yes, it could be a very pivotal draft for the Patriots.

But I don't think you can compare drafts for the Patriots before we have even made the picks.

Just my opinion.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Your entire slanderous attack on me is a waist of time. The whole point is the Patriots did not draft well that year. Moss and Welker have nothing to do with drafting college players and were never part of the discussion. Though I guess you're not capable of seeing the true message because you're so blinded by the opportunity to attack me (for whatever twisted reason, I don't know)

Cool down. I apologize if I offended you. I didn't think it was an attack. Merely an ironical and attempted humorous observation of your rather overboard assertion about the 2007 draft.

I was merely pointing out to evaluate the 2007 draft as a disaster when most of it was traded away except for a bunch of 6s and 7s comp picks that produced nothing, is wrong. You have to see what those draft picks acquired, either from the college talent pool, or from the NFL talent pool.

I like any draft anytime where you get a single pro-bowler, never mind a HOFer when you hit the jackpot.

Its even better to get two pro-bowlers, in a draft.

And a draft that could produce three, like 2007 is fantastic. One of the three is a HOFer too, and maybe a future third pro-bowler in Meriweather would make it absolutely fantastic. A disaster... NOT.

 

[dhamz]

The day before the 2007 draft, BB was asked about its quality on WEEI and he said that there were many guys going to be picked in round 1 who the Pats graded as UDFA. He traded every meaningful pick he could but 1 so he wasn't blowing smoke.

 

[Bring Back Antowain!]

The day before the 2007 draft, BB was asked about its quality on WEEI and he said that there were many guys going to be picked in round 1 who the Pats graded as UDFA. He traded every meaningful pick he could but 1 so he wasn't blowing smoke.

Wow, did he really? That's pretty crazy. 2007 was a very weak draft class overall I suppose.

Belichick made the pick that he wanted, Brandon Meriweather, and to this point, I think it has turned out pretty damned well. I may be in the minority, but I thought he was one of our best and most consistent defensive players out there last year.

Too bad Clint Oldenberg didn't pan out :singing: