Top 10 dissapointing players in the Brady/BB era

[PatsBoy12]

The strategy is to grab top 10 talent that's been injured and hope for the best. It has been core to the last decade of success for the team. If there are 2 Dowlings to get us a Gronk, that's a huge success. In Dowling's case, at least he is a stand up guy who tried his azz off to make it work, and in fact is still in the league because of that effort.

The failures that make me crazy are the ones where the player just doesn't seem to try (although that's hard to tell for sure as a fan). I hate it when these guys take their incredible good fortune for granted. So my top failures list is going to be focused on those that were healthy and just didn't show up.

I'm not disagreeing with you so much as I'm pointing out (which you kinda did already) that we cannot tell as fans when it's someone not trying or legitimately just does not have it at the next level. It happens. I heard rumblings, for instance, that Brace was an effort thing and the team felt he could be decent if he worked harder. This is versus a Ras I (as you pointed out) who did look like he was trying everything he could to get on the field.

It's harder to tell for a guy like Dobson. It looks like he's working hard to get on the field and, in fact, reports early in camp last year were that he was excelling and was among the best at the WR position. But in games he just looks scared to get hit. I think that's why we see so many "double" catches from him, even when he is seemingly wide open at times. He has all the physical gifts and seems to have the work ethic (by a lot of witness accounts), but he just can't seem to materialize on the field in games. He flashes every now and again, but that's been the case since his rookie season. Again, it's just not an exact science.

 

[rookBoston]

Andy Katzenmoyer... should have been. Too early for this list?

 

[SLGDEV]

My pick would be Brady. After all, in the fourteen years he played they only went to six super bowls and only won four.

 

[IllegalContact]

Connor Barwin...if we drafted him, we'd have at least 2 more SB's

 

[PatsBoy12]

Andy Katzenmoyer... should have been. Too early for this list?

He was definitely a disappointment, if not only for the fact that he was a great college player.

 

[oldrover]

FYI... Dowling is still in the league, as a safety on the Panthers roster.

I wish him well. Injuries suck. Just ask Robert Edwards.

 

[BobDigital]

Well there are some guys I could have put on and some names i could have considered more but over 15 years that is a lot of guys to go through so perhaps with some refinement it could have been better. Also I will state again that this list certainly pales in comparison to other teams. Cleveland would make us look absolutely silly if we tried to compare our list to theirs. Overall BB makes very good moves which is why doing this is a challenge.

 

[patriot1136]

Don't flame me for saying this but Hernandez is the biggest disappointment. Huge talent, had success, and had all this unfulfilled potential. What could have been...

 

[BobDigital]

Don't flame me for saying this but Hernandez is the biggest disappointment. Huge talent, had success, and had all this unfulfilled potential. What could have been...

Why would i flame you? That is a very reasonable position. Just in my own personal list i was looking for more of some kind of large investment before they got her that didn't pay off. That is just me and what i was looking for. There is no right and wrong way to do this.

 

[RedSleevesPinkStripes]

Chad Jackson hurts the most for me as I definitely had high hopes for him and was very excited to finally have a big, talented wr... To see him fail like he did was really surprising and utterly disappointing. Still sucks to think about

 

[Froob]

Maroney should not be #1, he was huge late in the season in 07, especially during the playoffs. Dowling didn't have any impact at all, he's easily a bigger bust. Chad Jackson too did very little.

 

[Froob]

Don't flame me for saying this but Hernandez is the biggest disappointment. Huge talent, had success, and had all this unfulfilled potential. What could have been...

No fall guy....what an idiot.

 

[sb1]

Hernandez by a mile. For reasons that we already know.

 

[brdmaverick]

Don't flame me for saying this but Hernandez is the biggest disappointment. Huge talent, had success, and had all this unfulfilled potential. What could have been...

I suppose we all have our own criteria for tagging someone a 'disappointement' but despite the abrupt end to Hernandez's career, I would not label him a disappointment. After all, we got three seasons with him playing at a close-to-Pro Bowl level.


Obviously this hypothetical would never be real, BUT let's say that there is a player available in the fourth round of this years draft in which your crystal ball showed that for a fact............

1.) The player would put up AH's numbers.

2.) But would only be on the team for three years (for whatever the reason).

I'm thinking most of us still take that player in the fourth round.

 

[FCB02062]

Mauroney was not that bad folks... I can think of plenty more guys who sucked more than him in the belichick era, draft picks and free agents...
...he basically won the 07 afc title game when Brady sucked azz and the team was pretty much collectively out of gas....

 

[brdmaverick]

Mauroney was not that bad folks... I can think of plenty more guys who sucked more than him in the belichick era, draft picks and free agents...
...he basically won the 07 afc title game when Brady sucked azz and the team was pretty much collectively out of gas....

Agreed, I won't pretend he was a huge success but I feel like he is villified more than he should be.

 

[JMC00]

The Ras-i-Dowling pick was painful for me. Pats had the luxury of the first pick on the second day, and really whiffed bigtime on it. They had an entire night to reassess the board and came up with this howler. Bigtime miss, imo.

Dowling was the #4 or #5 CB on a lot of draft boards. Projected to go late 1st/early 2nd. CB was a need. .. It was a reasonable choice at the time. Hindsight is always 20/20.

 

[JMC00]

 

[Love The Drake]

Duane Starks and the nose tackle from cincy who wasnt healthy.
Chad Johnson
Reggie Wayne
Doug Gabriel
Im just thiking of players who havent been listed.

 

[Deus Irae]

Got the very first one, listed #1, clearly off. After that, it's irrelevant. Calling Maroney more of a disappointment than the likes of Chad Johnson or Albert Haynesworth, just for two examples, is so obviously ridiculous that it must be trolling.