We could have drafted a LT who might have started in 2025

[UGAPatsfan]

I’m actually thinking Baker might be the mistake…I think they could have packaged that pick with another to move up after the Polk pick and grab a T.

Baker so far, (admittedly small sample size) just seems like a loudmouth who has a LONG way to go in understanding how to run routes as a pro.

Just not sure he was a necessary pick when you already got Polk and desperately needed a T.

But…it is what it is and now you HAVE to take a top T early on next years draft.

 

[Wozzy]

I have a clock I bought in the 70's. I've put a label with your name on it.

 

[VJCPatriot]

It was supposed to be a good year for WR's, so I can't get bent up over this. And this is an important need.

It's not like they took a linebacker or kicker.

LOL knowing the previous regime, we would end up with another Marte Mapu who has no position and another undersized safety from Rutgers who nobody ever heard of!

 

[JohnJH]

I'm hoping that Polk becomes one of those Gem 2nd Round WR's that BB whiffed on in back to back Drafts. Baker is raw, but he can run routes and get open. He just needs to do a better job of actually securing the football, but he has some potential there. Douglas can be a gamer. So, we might have 2, and possibly 3 young WR's to help build this offense. Time will tell, but sooner rather than later with those 3 WR's.

 

[Wozzy]

LOL knowing the previous regime, we would end up with another Marte Mapu who has no position and another undersized safety from Rutgers who nobody ever heard of!

Mapu is a weak side linebacker, he's also been in the league one season. Probably too early to write him off.

BIG WR – KJ Osborn, Jalynn Polk, Javon Baker, Kawaan Baker, Kendrick Bourne,
FAST WR – Tyquan Thornton, Jalen Reagor, Matt Landers,
SLOT WR – Demario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, David Wallis,

After cutting Juju, we still had too many damn WR's. I'd take a blue chip left tackle right now.

 

[mgteich]

. I'd take a blue chip left tackle right now.

So would we all. They were gone by Pick 20. Apparently, we tried to trade up for Guyton but had to settle for Polk, Wallace and Baker instead. It would have taken those picks to get Guyton, and the rumors are that the deal couldn't bd made.

Yes, we certainly could have taken a flyer in the 2nd, but blue chippers were long gone.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I am getting some Wolf crow soup ready for you Mmmmmm eat up.

Do you still have that Wolf crow soup simmering on your stove? How long does the soup last while it simmers?

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I'm hoping that Polk becomes one of those Gem 2nd Round WR's that BB whiffed on in back to back Drafts. Baker is raw, but he can run routes and get open. He just needs to do a better job of actually securing the football, but he has some potential there. Douglas can be a gamer. So, we might have 2, and possibly 3 young WR's to help build this offense. Time will tell, but sooner rather than later with those 3 WR's.

I think Baker and Boutte will work out to be average at best.

Hopefully Thornton with this year's new WR coach will emerge as a deep threat and help fill out the receiving corp. I don't think Thornton will ever be great, but it would be enough if he could be elite in a few skill sets. Unfortunately I do not think Brissett will ever connect with Thornton and we will have to wait for Maye who has a fastball to match Thornton's speed.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

We could have had polk AND one of those 2nd round tier OT. They didnt start going until paul at 55 so we could have easily traded up from 68 to the high 60s for rosengarten or suamataia. My thinking is we weren’t in love with that group of OT’s and were ok settling for wallace. So if one of those guys end up being considerably better than wallace the issue to me wasn’t necessarily the drafting of polk but the lack of being proactive /aggressive and misjudging suamataia who i think fell very far. Kc as usual made the smart call to trade up for him.

Interesting but they could have drafted Adonai Mitchell AND one of those second tier OTs. Suamataia might indeed turn out to be great, and the Patriots may have been snookered again. We are playing checkers these days with a league full of chess players. The Patriots might be a different team with those two players.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

Interesting but they could have drafted Adonai Mitchell AND one of those second tier OTs. Suamataia might indeed turn out to be great, and the Patriots may have been snookered again. We are playing checkers these days with a league full of chess players. The Patriots might be a different team with those two players.

We’ll see about the wr’s but yeah the moment paul got selected i was calling for us to trade up. Sumaitaia would have been an excellent value at 62 and imo that would’ve maximized our draft potential this year. Trading up 6 spots from 68 costs you the Joe Milton pick maybe, big deal. Instead we end up reaching for wallace and that 3rd pick changed completely , then again branch /mankins/thuney were notorious reaches so you never know. Id love to be proven wrong there but we should have anticipated that tier of tackles would never fall all the way to 68 and had a plan in place in case they were in striking distance which they 100% were.

 

[PatsFan2]

Do you still have that Wolf crow soup simmering on your stove? How long does the soup last while it simmers?

One-if you're very petty.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

One-if you're very petty.

How do you manage the Wolf crow soup? Do you make a new batch every Monday when no-one has eaten any all week? Do you have the recipe memorized? Do you buy the ingredients in bulk at Sam's or BJs?

 

[Ring 6]

Yup. We could have drafted a LT instead of Polk who might have started next year, or not.

We might have drafted an OT at 68 who might have been a solid backup in 2025.

Instead, we drafted our choice of WR (Polk) and Wallace who is likely to be an OT starter THIS YEAR, and who might compete to start at LT in 2025.
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SHAME ON WOLF!

Wait. Your argument is the guy we drafted in the 3rd round might start this year but if we drafted a guy in the second round he couldn’t start this year and might not best year? What in the would are you talking about. Any top of the second round talent would have needed about a week to overtake the clown show we gave at LT

 

[Ring 6]

Posters here believe that the LT's available were much better than Okorafor, so much better than the team should have passed on a WR they very much wanted.

Maybe your choice would have been a solid starter this year, pushing Okorafor to swing or to RT. Or maybe your choice would be the swing. Instead, we drafted a likely starting RT AND the team's choice at WR.
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I prefer what we did.
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You like what we did because you qualify it with saying that T we would have drafted in the 2nd would be worse than the T we drafted in the 3rd

 

[upstater1]

I'm hoping that Polk becomes one of those Gem 2nd Round WR's that BB whiffed on in back to back Drafts. Baker is raw, but he can run routes and get open. He just needs to do a better job of actually securing the football, but he has some potential there. Douglas can be a gamer. So, we might have 2, and possibly 3 young WR's to help build this offense. Time will tell, but sooner rather than later with those 3 WR's.

You say BB whiffed but then mention Douglas, who is the most talented guy on the team. So...?

 

[upstater1]

Hindsight is 20/20 but Patrick Paul as the future starting OT would've opened the Patriots up to drafting a stud WR in the 1st next year. Now we're drafting for need.

OT was much more needed this year than a very good 2nd WR.

When you look at the Wallace pick together with the 34th pick in the draft, it is a massive failure by the Patriots front office unless Polk turns into a Pro Bowler. Being a very good 2nd WR isn't a good enough return on the 34th pick especially when you need a tackle, and there was at least one guy available.

I don't care if Paul isn't ready. Having your future starting LT on the team is a huge luxury going into the next draft, especially as it's possible to find a stud #1 WR if you're picking in the top 15 of the 1st round.

 

[Toofy]

Can we wait for them to suck before we *****?

Exactly....

Let's wait for 6 weeks and then evaluate the season. Everyone knows our cupboard is barren. A 2nd round LT is not suddenly going to make this team a world beater. We need a QB for that and so far maye looks the part and we should be thankful for that.

The oline coach peters seems to be a good hire. Let's give him this season to see if we can unearth some diamonds out of our offensive line. They have taken all plus athletes in PS and waivers. All we need is 1 or 2 to strike . And that needs continuity. And if that means we suck for first 6 games so be it.

If you have purchased tickets for the first 6 games I can empathize, but this season is just extended preseason

No point just cribbing. It's our team and it's time to see what positives can we take from first 4 games.

I am looking forward to
A. Douglas looking like bonafide wr2 and semi wr1.
B. Polk being a dependable wr in the moulds of Meyers.
C. Thornton taking a gigantic leap and becoming our Brandin cooks.

Lowe settling down to become an above average LT by game 6

We doing out 2-3 wins from first 6 games before maye takes over..

The only way possible now is UP and we should be thankful for that .

 

[JohnJH]

You say BB whiffed but then mention Douglas, who is the most talented guy on the team. So...?

He whiffed on guys like Metcalf, Samuel, Pitmman Jr., Higgins. etc. Those WR's (which we'd pay through the nose for to be our #1's) were taken in back to back drafts. Douglas, plus having a WR like one of the others would be a preferable situation. And Douglas was drafted last year and has nothing to do with my post. He's just an example of possibly ONE WR that MIGHT have actual promise. But we passed on quite a few in BB's last 4 to 5 years here.

 

[upstater1]

He whiffed on guys like Metcalf, Samuel, Pitmman Jr., Higgins. etc. Those WR's (which we'd pay through the nose for to be our #1's) were taken in back to back drafts. Douglas, plus having a WR like one of the others would be a preferable situation. And Douglas was drafted last year and has nothing to do with my post. He's just an example of possibly ONE WR that MIGHT have actual promise. But we passed on quite a few in BB's last 4 to 5 years here.

Yeah, but that's very easy to look at every draft in hindsight and say we could've had him and him and him and him. Very easy to do. Meanwhile between Harry and Metcalf, you had 5 WRs who were busts.

My big thing over the last several years is that the defense was in worse shape than the offense. We were old and slow (remember the Buffalo Bills game with no punts from Buffalo?). We spent 2 drafts addressing that deficiency and now it's largely fixed (especially if Barmore comes back).

 

[silentone]

I’m excited to follow the Pats approach to rebuilding. As it relates to OT’s (LT’s) and the draft I’m left with mostly questions.

What was the Pats process or approach to selecting Wallace?

It looks like there was a run on OT’s mid second round with the follow picks leading up to Wallace: Paul (55th pick), Fisher (59), Rosengarten (62), Suamataia (63), and then Wallace (68)

Was there a run on OT that the Patriots simply didn’t anticipate?

Was Wallace their guy all along (as rkarp1 pointed out – “we do not know how the Pats had those OT’s mentioned ranked”)?

Did they try to trade so as to take one of the second tier above Wallace and no one would trade their or the cost was too prohibitive?

As a value guy, I was disappointed that Wallace was expected to go later, did the Patriots reach?

While it’s only 3 pre-season games, here are the PFF scores, which seem to indicate Wallace hasn’t been awful so far relative to the others

Paul: 59 PFF score
Fisher: 36 (ouch!)
Rosengarten: 64

Suamataia: 63 but limited snaps
Wallace: 69

I’ll enjoy seeing how this goes during the season (as well as Robinson). If Wallace can play, then at $1.5mm per year for four years, that’s a lot of added value. (Same for Robinson at $1.2mm per year).