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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Lots of us were here when the franchise was "normal" and worse...were you here? I was in that schitthole stadium watching Doug Flutie run around beating Tampa in the freezing cold in 1989 at the high school stadium in Foxboro on RT 1
All we can do is judge what we've seen up to now.
I think the relationship between the Patriots being successful as a team (i.e. 10-2, 3 straight SB appearances) has a lot to do with drafting receivers. If the Pats were continuously missing the playoffs or one and done in the playoffs, it would be easier for the Pats drafting department to try a different approach or it is quite possible that the Pats would change their offensive system to make it easier to draft superstar receivers. I guess my main point is that because this system is so difficult to master (i.e. become a superstar), the Pats have a smaller margin of error for drafting players and they feel they have a better way of finding WR's in FA, etc.
I would like to point out that it took Edelman 5 years to turn into a top tier receiver and people are already given up on Harry after only two starts.
Patriots tend to trade their draft picks to acquire veteran receivers rather then use the picks in the draft.
Belichick was asked about having more success “importing” veteran receivers, as opposing to drafting players, because it’s easier to scout players against NFL competition.
“It’s always easier to evaluate NFL players than it is to evaluate college players,” Belichick replied. “[When] we get a guy from another team, we’re going to watch him play against many of the same teams we play. We just haven’t seen him play in our system, but we’ve certainly seen him match up against other players in our division or other players in our conference or comparable players in comparable schemes, which is critical, too...it’s much harder from college to the NFL than from the NFL to the NFL.”
Yeah man, if only they knew how to draft, they might have 10 Super Bowl wins!
..... at drafting and/or developing Wide Receivers?
From players like Bethal Johnson, Taylor Price, Aaron Dobson, David Givens and we all remember the Chad Johnson debacle. Remember the Brandon Tate pick, wasn't he picked literally right before Mike Wallace by the Steelers? The same team that ALWAYS seems to have a good grasp on how to draft WRs.
I will give them credit for Edelman and D. Branch, Troy Brown and of course Gronk and Hernandez but other than these guys, who have they really drafted and developed into superstars? Why are the patriots so below average in this state? I see all these other teams, including the Buccaneers (I live in Florida) draft all of this amazing wide receivers and offensive talent. Why has Bill missed on these same talents?
Anyone else feel this way?
In the end, as long as they acquire talent and win frequently, I’m ok with “not being able to draft a star at WR”. This year - sadly - unless things change, it looks like the WR situation is 2006-esque and that’s potentially difficult to overcome.They don't know how to draft receivers, they know how to trade for them.
We obviously miss Gronk and Devlin and have done little to replace their packages.
That being said I still wonder why we are not playing one of the tackles as receiver eligible ... I mean it's not like our TE's are receiving threats anyways. Heck I would even try one of our talented LB's out as a receiving eligible blocking TE ... it would make a huge difference in our passing game. We have TE's that suck at blocking ... that is a systemic roster failure.
Effective trolling and good marketing seem like two sides of the same perverted coin.Cliffhanger thread titles are the worst. Except for the one I did today in my AB thread, which no one seemed to appreciate.
“Da!”Effective trolling and good marketing seem like two sides of the same perverted coin.