Revisiting our 2009 NFL draft

Joey007 said:

By the way, his contract's up, isn't it?? Hopefully he's the biggest priority to get a new contarct other than Welker.

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List of 2013 New England Patriots unrestricted free agents:

Danny Woodhead
Visanthe Shiancoe
Donald Thomas
Sebastian Vollmer
Wes Welker
Deion Branch
Julian Edelman
Ron Brace
Myron Pryor
Trevor Scott
Tracy White
Niko Koutouvides
Kyle Arrington
Marquice Cole
Patrick Chung

AndyJohnson said:

Of course its easy in hindsight to find guys who went later and outperformed their draft slot.
I assume what you are doing here is creating a 'perfect world' scenario in hindsight, not suggesting this is the type of standard a draft should be held to.

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The potential fly in the ointment is the impact that the changed picks might have had on the selections made by other teams, but one could certainly expect that some, if not all, would still have been available. The Patriots may have thought they had good reason for not taking some of those players (i.e. Rey Maualuga, who I wanted the Patriots to avoid like the plague), or they might have had them ranked a bit lower due to one reason or another, but they could all reasonably have been taken without the Patriots having needed to make additional trades to get them.

There's nothing that's either perfect worldish about that, nor hindsight draftish (all those players were being discussed before/during), but it's also not the standard that all drafts should be held to. All those players were available at the time of Patriots picks, and all were at positions of need. That's a draft that could reasonably have happened, but would be foolish to be demanded in order for the 2009 draft to have been acceptable.

I, personally, find the selection of Butler over Smith to have been borderline fireable, but I have a definite bias there, since Smith was probably the one player outside of the first round that I most wanted the team to take.

NG Pats Fan said:

Traded out of 1st round- Clay Matthews/Hakeem Nicks still on the board

RBs Donald Brown and Beanie Wells still on the board

2nd round:

# 34 Pat Chung S

WR Brian Robiskie and CB Alphonso Smith still on board

# 40 Ron Brace DT

# 41 Darius Butler CB

QB Pat White and CB Darcel McBath still on board

# 58 Sebastian Vollmer T

3rd Round:

# 83 Brandon Tate WR- Mike Wallace the very next pick

WR Patrick Turner and Deon Butler went in the next 7 picks as well.

# 97 Tyrone McKenzie LB

4th Round:

# 123 Rich Ohrnberger G

5th Round

# 170 George Bussey G

6th Round

# 198 Jake Ingram LS

# 207 Myron Pryor DT

7th Round

# 232 Julian Edelman WR

# 234 Darryl Richard DT



Thoughts?


I think this draft has turned out to be one of the biggest flops of the BB era. Especially since we whiffed badly on our first 3 picks. Vollmer is a probowl caliber RT, but he is the only one we hit on. Thankfully, I think the 2010 patriots draft may have been the best in franchise history. In fact, with the emergence of Spikes and Cunningham to go along with the 3 probowlers, I would go as far to say it was the best draft out of any NFL team in the past 10 years. By the end of this season, we could have 4 pro-bowlers from the 2010 NFL Draft. That 2009 draft does look ugly for the patriots though.

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The draft IS a crapshoot as we all know.

Deus Irae said:

It's not the trade down. It's what was done with the trade down. Just as an example, given team needs and players who could reasonably have been taken (and often were lobbied for):

Sean Smith
Connor Barwin
LeSean McCoy
Vollmer

Nobody's looking back today and complaining about that draft if the trade downs result in those players being in New England


Laurinaitis was another player with a lot of supporters around here, while Maualuga met with more skepticism. I don't recall the board's general stance on Byrd or most of the other 2nd round picks.

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Love to have taken those 4 players. Sucks.

As for Laurinatis, I would have passed (even though I loved him at Ohio State).
In a 34 defense, he would have been playing weakside LB. Even though Mayo can play the SILB spot (he did it in 2009 with Guyton as the WILB), he is far more effective playing WILB in a 34.

ATippett56 said:

One thing for sure, Nate Solder is a hell of alot cheaper than D'Brickashaw Ferguson.

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I'd argue he's better right now, but you also have to account for the fact he has Brady behind him, while D'Brickashaw has Sanchez.

Solder is no better than Ferguson.

Brady hides a lot of Oline holes, meanwhile Sanchez and Roethisberger and that kind of guy expose them

Big-T said:

You can't complain about trading out of the first round then proclaim the 2010 draft great, if it weren't for that trade then there's no Gronk on the Patriots roster.

Edelman, Vollmer and when he's healthy Pryor were all good picks. Not the greatest haul but look at the 3 drafts since then.

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Imagine Clay Matthews on a BB's D...i love Gronk too but BB Coaching up Clay Matthews?? One can only wonder; he was our original pick. BB Trading down has not been as successful as we might think. Speaking of Gronk in that same Draft we could have selected TE Jimmy Graham. Graham might not be as complete as Gronk Blocking wise...But Gronk as is not as Fast as him either...pick your poison there...either way you couldn't go wrong. I love our Tactic of Trading up and not Down early on.

ATippett56 said:

List of 2013 New England Patriots unrestricted free agents:

Danny Woodhead
Visanthe Shiancoe
Donald Thomas
Sebastian Vollmer
Wes Welker
Deion Branch
Julian Edelman
Ron Brace
Myron Pryor
Trevor Scott
Tracy White
Niko Koutouvides
Kyle Arrington
Marquice Cole
Patrick Chung

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Most important players on list Donald Thomas and Sebastian Vollmer.

I LOVE going back and analyzing drafts!!!

:spygate:

RodThePat said:

I'd argue he's better right now, but you also have to account for the fact he has Brady behind him, while D'Brickashaw has Sanchez.

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D'Brickashaw did a number on Chandler Jones though...Andre Carter steem rolled D'Brick last year.

OT:The Jets got blown out of the trenches last November. Everyone on our D-line had a good game @NYJ, but Carter didn't do much more than Jones did in our game against the Jets at home in 2011.

Is this where I pound my chest and proclaim myself Nostradamus for liking Matthews pre-draft? It wouldn't be genuine.

I was aboard the Clay Matthews bandwagon with a megaphone after the fact, but I understand the reason that he didn't appeal to BB. I still think BB undervalues the specialist though. Particularly now when you have that solid foundation on defense, this defense could really use the guy who is great at that one thing (pass rushing) to go along with the 6 Mr. Everything's in our front seven. Looking at how that second round unfolded, pre-draft they might have been eyeing Mercilus or Irvin to fall. Heck, they might have thought Bequette was that guy (I know I did), and maybe he will be.

PatsFan2 said:

D'Brickashaw did a number on Chandler Jones though...Andre Carter steem rolled D'Brick last year.

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Carter got most of his sacks against Wayne Hunter, not Ferguson.

Not to mention if you watch the game back you will see on pretty much every single play Ferguson had hold of Jones' jersey, neck or facemask.

Imagine Clay Matthews on a BB's D

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Yeah, a 1 gapper who can't set the edge would look great

There's a reason he wasn't drafted and the rest of that post is just nonsense, Gronk is on the way to being the best TE in NFL history and you think a none-system fit and a 2nd none-blocking TE in Graham would have been a better way to go.

The Gr8est said:

The draft IS a crapshoot as we all know.

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There are no guarantees in unrestricted free agency either.

PatsFan2 said:

Imagine Clay Matthews on a BB's D...i love Gronk too but BB Coaching up Clay Matthews?? One can only wonder; he was our original pick. BB Trading down has not been as successful as we might think. Speaking of Gronk in that same Draft we could have selected TE Jimmy Graham. Graham might not be as complete as Gronk Blocking wise...But Gronk as is not as Fast as him either...pick your poison there...either way you couldn't go wrong. I love our Tactic of Trading up and not Down early on.

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If you really want to cry. We could easily have selected both.

Taylor Price 3/90
Jimmy Graham 3/95

Imagine Gronk, Hernandez, and Graham all on the field :rocker:

PatsFan2 said:

Most important players on list Donald Thomas and Sebastian Vollmer.

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Yeah, Donald Thomas is more important than Wes Welker.

:bricks:

Big-T said:

Carter got most of his sacks against Wayne Hunter, not Ferguson.

Not to mention if you watch the game back you will see on pretty much every single play Ferguson had hold of Jones' jersey, neck or facemask.



Yeah, a 1 gapper who can't set the edge would look great

There's a reason he wasn't drafted and the rest of that post is just nonsense, Gronk is on the way to being the best TE in NFL history and you think a none-system fit and a 2nd none-blocking TE in Graham would have been a better way to go.

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See you're being a hyprocrite...if we had either... Clay Matthews and Jimmy Graham over say Gronk I don't think you would be complaining. So you're telling me that Clay Mathews couldn't play in our system? *Rubbish* If BB had to do it all over again he wouldn't pass on Clay Matthews book it. What was our problems the last few years? GETTING TO THE QB...Mr Matthews don't have a problem doing that. And that's also the reason they Drafted Mr. Jones.

ATippett56 said:

Yeah, Donald Thomas is more important than Wes Welker.

:bricks:

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Ain't going there Tip it's obvious the Welker situation is going in a direction we all dont want it to. Mr BB have the final say and i am sure he has a Plan B which we will all live with.

Big-T said:

Carter got most of his sacks against Wayne Hunter, not Ferguson.

Not to mention if you watch the game back you will see on pretty much every single play Ferguson had hold of Jones' jersey, neck or facemask.



Yeah, a 1 gapper who can't set the edge would look great

There's a reason he wasn't drafted and the rest of that post is just nonsense, Gronk is on the way to being the best TE in NFL history and you think a none-system fit and a 2nd none-blocking TE in Graham would have been a better way to go.

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Gronkowski may very well be my favorite Patriot right now, because of his play on the field and his personality, but I'd have a tough time arguing that having only him is better than having Clay Matthews + Jimmy Graham.

PatsFan2 said:

Ain't going there Tip it's obvious the Welker situation is going in a direction we all dont want it to.

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Half way thru the 2012 NFL Season, the "Edelman experiment has failed".

ATippett56 said:

Yeah, Donald Thomas is more important than Wes Welker.

:bricks:

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I hope, at the very least, you've come around on Thomas.