I'm Going to Miss Strange 69

[NFL Mystique]

What would things have looked like between 2013-2019 if Brady weren't QB. Could the organization be at year eight or nine without the postseason?

Remember, he still had the great picks from 09-12 producing between 2014-2019.

Bill might have been gone five years before he was

 

[signbabybrady]

What would things have looked like between 2013-2019 if Brady weren't QB. Could the organization be at year eight or nine without the postseason?

Remember, he still had the great picks from 09-12 producing between 2014-2019.

Bill might have been gone five years before he was

Jimmy time

 

[Ochmed Jones]

Cole “the “ strange. “pick” I wish you the best of luck going forward!!

 

[stinkypete]

All these recounts of busted picks make me wonder…

Was N’Keal Harry just a dream I had?

 

[WinstonSmith]

I won't miss Strange 69, but I do enjoy highly sanitized 69.

 

[Bill Lee]

Oh what could have been.

 

[captain stone]

Without context it seems bizarre.

But once you realize:

#1. He was going at the top of the 3rd round if not earlier.
#2. The Patriots had him rated mid 2nd round which is why they tried to trade out of the pick and drop back but they couldn't find a buyer.
#3. They didn't have anyone rated much higher on their board and definitely not at a need position.
#4. The 2nd round was basically a huge bust. Go look at it. Heck, outside of McDuffie, the latter part of the first round also busted.

You can list 40 reasons/excuses if you wish.

It was a Bad pick. Period.

Just admit that the Collaboration - Bill, Ron Wolf's boy & Al Groh's boy - plain ol' ****ed up. And not for the last time that weekend either;
not by a damn sight.

 

[Water Boy]

I won't miss Strange 69, but I do enjoy highly sanitized 69.

 

[Wozzy]

What would things have looked like between 2013-2019 if Brady weren't QB. Could the organization be at year eight or nine without the postseason?

Remember, he still had the great picks from 09-12 producing between 2014-2019.

Bill might have been gone five years before he was

Or he would have drafted Dak Prescott in the 4th round, or Mahomes the next year and kept winning. These hypothetical fever dreams never make much sense.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

My top 5 head scratchers all things considered (where the roster was at at the time, the position, the risk, etc)

1. Cole Strange. An insane pick all around. Went a round or tow before most thought he would go and Bill made the pick because of his own mismanagement at the position in the year or two prior.

2. Jordan Richards. His ceiling was a special teamer and the consensus seemed he was a late round pick at best.

3. Dominique Easley. Multiple knee injuries in addition to being a head case apparently had him off of a lot of team's boards altogether and Bill took him in round 1. From what I remember there was some solid d-linemen that went in the second round that year.

4. Tavon Wilson. Basically the same deal as Jordan Richards but at least we got Jones and Hightower in that draft.

5. Jermaine Cunningham. I think many at the time thought Carlos Dunlap was the better player at the same position at the same school and of course the rumor was that Meyer told Bill the same and Bill ignored it.

Honorable mentions: Duke Dawson, Marte Mapu, and Joejuan Williams

And for those who will clutch their pearls at my "Bill bashing". I remember adamantly wanting David Terrell over hall of famer, Richard Seymour. Thinking Chad Jackson would be Randy Moss 2.0. Hating the McCourty pick, and barely knowing who Jamie Collins was.

Tavon Wilson was in the NFL for 10 years. Maybe he was drafted too early, but T Wilson was an NFL player and a reasonable draft pick.

 

[Wozzy]

You can list 40 reasons/excuses if you wish.

It was a Bad pick. Period.

Just admit that the Collaboration - Bill, Ron Wolf's boy & Al Groh's boy - plain ol' ****ed up. And not for the last time that weekend either;; not by a damn sight.

The collaboration screwed up by not re-signing the good players that were already here. Keep Thuney, keep Mason for another couple seasons, find a tackle instead. Extend Jakobi Meyers instead of signing Juju, anyone but Mac Jones… the list was long. Personnel and pissing off the coaches was a bad direction.

 

[upstater1]

You can list 40 reasons/excuses if you wish.

It was a Bad pick. Period.

Just admit that the Collaboration - Bill, Ron Wolf's boy & Al Groh's boy - plain ol' ****ed up. And not for the last time that weekend either;; not by a damn sight.

I mean, you can ignore the context.

Hypothetically, if I made a bad pick and all the guys after that pick busted, I'm going to say, yeah, I chose a bad player and if I had to do it again, I would do it the same, because he was the least bad.

If you look at the next 230 guys after Strange, only Karlaftis, Pickens, James Cook, Nik Bonitto, Kerby Joseph and Kyren Williams did anything more than him. It was the weakest draft in history.

Karlaftis would ever have been a Patriot (he can never set the edge for the Chiefs, he's essentially a duplicate of Keion White), Pickens is on another team already.

Kerby Joseph would've been nice, but he went 3 rounds later, so not exactyl a player everyone wanted.

 

[Schmo]

Personally, I fall just short of building a Belichick statue in my house and praying to it every morning and night.... but there's a lesson to be learned here. BB could evaluate talent, but there just isn't enough time to equally evaluate every player, hence Rutgers, Fresno State (did he think Strange was the second coming of Mankins?) etc. So, he went with who he saw.

As silly as it seems, if you are picking in the draft and don't know who you want 100%, check the "experts" consensus highest picks and check for character/injury concerns.

For example, when @manxman2601 says Efton Chism is a badass, stop thinking and take the beast.

 

[Grogan14]

I totally understand why Strange would prefer a fresh start in another city and not have to relive the theme of being a draft bust and one of teh organizations worst draft picks (due to injury).
A fresh start in Cleveland is not a bad place for him. He can hang out with Zappe.

 

[rads2005]

My top 5 head scratchers all things considered (where the roster was at at the time, the position, the risk, etc)

1. Cole Strange. An insane pick all around. Went a round or tow before most thought he would go and Bill made the pick because of his own mismanagement at the position in the year or two prior.

2. Jordan Richards. His ceiling was a special teamer and the consensus seemed he was a late round pick at best.

3. Dominique Easley. Multiple knee injuries in addition to being a head case apparently had him off of a lot of team's boards altogether and Bill took him in round 1. From what I remember there was some solid d-linemen that went in the second round that year.

4. Tavon Wilson. Basically the same deal as Jordan Richards but at least we got Jones and Hightower in that draft.

5. Jermaine Cunningham. I think many at the time thought Carlos Dunlap was the better player at the same position at the same school and of course the rumor was that Meyer told Bill the same and Bill ignored it.

Honorable mentions: Duke Dawson, Marte Mapu, and Joejuan Williams

And for those who will clutch their pearls at my "Bill bashing". I remember adamantly wanting David Terrell over hall of famer, Richard Seymour. Thinking Chad Jackson would be Randy Moss 2.0. Hating the McCourty pick, and barely knowing who Jamie Collins was.

Not N'Keal Harry? I remember reading an article that said Pats scouts in the war room were pounding the table on Deebo Samuel or AJ Brown. I don't believe DK Metcalf was as well thought of IIRC, but could be wrong.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I totally understand why Strange would prefer a fresh start in another city and not have to relive the theme of being a draft bust and one of teh organizations worst draft picks (due to injury).
A fresh start in Cleveland is not a bad place for him. He can hang out with Zappe.

Did you see that Strange was offered a PS slot in NE? I missed that. Strange might be washed.

 

[203Pat]

Not N'Keal Harry? I remember reading an article that said Pats scouts in the war room were pounding the table on Deebo Samuel or AJ Brown. I don't believe DK Metcalf was as well thought of IIRC, but could be wrong.

I think N'Keal Harry should be an honorable mention but at the time the pick made sense. We needed a receiver and the thought was he was a physical guy who could win on the outside. The unfortunate part is that is what AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, Deebo Samuel, and Terry Mclaurin were and Bill didn't pick one of them.

 

[203Pat]

Tavon Wilson was in the NFL for 10 years. Maybe he was drafted too early, but T Wilson was an NFL player and a reasonable draft pick.

Just existing doesn't make you a good second round pick.

 

[signbabybrady]

Personally, I fall just short of building a Belichick statue in my house and praying to it every morning and night.... but there's a lesson to be learned here. BB could evaluate talent, but there just isn't enough time to equally evaluate every player, hence Rutgers, Fresno State (did he think Strange was the second coming of Mankins?) etc. So, he went with who he saw.

As silly as it seems, if you are picking in the draft and don't know who you want 100%, check the "experts" consensus highest picks and check for character/injury concerns.

For example, when @manxman2601 says Efton Chism is a badass, stop thinking and take the beast.

Bill definitely has a type that he prefers. The logic is rooted in the idea that the talent gap from the great players to the good ones isn't always as big as we think and that intangibles like smarts, leadership, 4 down player, or whatever else can often be the difference. And I think we saw that pretty often I think a guy like Jules being probably the brightest example. Or even Brady.

And I definitely think during the run he got a little to reliant on this at times and it would lead to some head scratchers.

But I also think he was cognizant of it too and made an effort at times to make exceptions for specific skill traits. Gronk and Hernandez probably being leading examples here. But also some guys that didn't work like Bethel Johnson or Will Demps (I know he wasn't a draft pick) show he also went for things like pure speed too.

I also think he likes supplementing his roster with veteran freak athletes that maybe were distressed assets at the time like Dillon or Moss as way to balance the pure talent against his drafting preference.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

Cole Strange did not contribute very much