Let's Play "This was the TE to take"

TheRainMaker said:

Just trade for George Kittle. Problem solved.

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A case of where the draft forum knew better than BB.

BradyFTW! said:

I agree that Sternberger is the TE that we might regret having missed out on, but I don't get the nickname and generally ****ting on Williams. Yeah he ran a pretty slow 40 time, but so what? Malcolm Butler ran the same 40 time at his pro day, some guys have better game speed than shorts-and-t-shirts speed. Some guys just have a bad day. Some guys don't spend weeks leading up to the combine refining their sprinting technique in a way that maximizes their 40 time without contributing in any way to their game speed. If Williams' game tape doesn't show him to be overly slow--and it doesn't--then writing him off based on a bad combine 40 time is just lazy and makes little sense.

In Williams' case, if his 40 time is .05 seconds faster he probably goes in the first round. If nothing else, I'd think a good takeaway from this draft should be that Belichick doesn't necessarily care all that much about 40 times.

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Butler ran 4.62 at his pro time while Williams ran 4.55. It was an excellent pick.

Without having the time and resources to devout to scouting TEs its impossible to say.

George Kittle fell into round 5. Kelce went round 3. People that are paid 6 figures do a poor job evaluating talent.

cmasspatsfan said:

And your choice? I thought they would take Irv Smith Jr, but BB has a plan we're not privy to.

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I’m not a draft studier or second guesser.
But if pressed I’d say I would have used a 5th on a TE instead of a punter.

reamer said:

Two of us did, at least. I forgot to mention the pick, but I went into day 3 thinking any of the 4th rounders were a solid spot for him. I agree I'd have kept 134 and taken Moreau. We'll see if that turns out to be a good choice or not.

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I was incorrect to say no one.

manxman2601 said:

Or maybe the simple explanation is that we don’t have one.

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Again I’m speaking to those who are criticizing or implying they could do better. I could have worded it much better.

Grabbing a punter in the 5th was a head scratcher....pick up a 7th rd or UDFA punter unless BB just fell in love with this guys Hang Time......or maybe it's Allen's eventual replacement and he gets stashed on the PS...Beats me.

Why worry....Gronk will be hitting his stride around thanksgiving

BlueThunder said:

Grabbing a punter in the 5th was a head scratcher....pick up a 7th rd or UDFA punter unless BB just fell in love with this guys Hang Time......or maybe it's Allen's eventual replacement and he gets stashed on the PS...Beats me.

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If he's at least nearly as good as Allen he saves the team $4 to $5 million over the next four years. That's worth a 5th round pick.

LJRomanoff said:

If he's at least nearly as good as Allen he saves the team $4 to $5 million over the next four years. That's worth a 5th round pick.

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but perhaps we could have used our 7th plus brought in punters to have competition

PERHAPS
I was a little hasty. I must admit that I wouldn't have taken the punter, and would have taken a shot on Kaden Smith. Some had him as a second round talent. BTW, he was drafted at 176, a bit later than the punter.

He would be unlikely to make the team, but he would have a shot, and might have made our Practice Squad.

scott99 said:

Sternberger was the one. Despite not being a GREAT blocker, he has similar ability to catch the ball as Dallas Goedert in my opinion. If drafted, he automatically becomes the best pass catching TE on the team. And OBVIOUSLY instead of SlowJuan, whom I wasn’t a fan of.

No offense, I actually HATE this thread. It’s a real sore subject for me. The usual Belichick draft apologists will say, “oh he must’ve hated this TE class”, like they say every time when he passes up a TE in the draft. The last TWO draft years were extremely deep at the TE position. Is it possible the maniacal trade downs keep taking him out of position to take one he likes ?

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I don't assume that BB hated the TE class at all. Maybe they considered a player at another position to good to resist; maybe they simply missed out on a TE they liked, given that there are 31 other teams drafting. In fact, a plausible case was already made in this thread that BB would have taken Warring in round 3 if he'd been available (and most observers would have expected him to be available at that point).

The problem, to me, is that among the 13 possible TEs, one is inevitably going to be really good. And then three years from now people will be shouting "We could have had him! What was BB thinking??"--totally forgetting that there was zero consensus, among "experts" or Patriots fans, whether Sternberger or Smith or Knox or Warring or Oliver or Moreau or Sample etc. etc. was the guy to target, and when.

So I thought it would be interesting to ask what, specifically, everybody thinks the Pats should have done. Not just "drafted a tight end," because realistically the majority of the TEs drafted from 32 on are going to amount to very little.

patchick said:

I don't assume that BB hated the TE class at all. Maybe they considered a player at another position to good to resist; maybe they simply missed out on a TE they liked, given that there are 31 other teams drafting. In fact, a plausible case was already made in this thread that BB would have taken Warring in round 3 if he'd been available (and most observers would have expected him to be available at that point).

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That said, the rules that go into the early-round picks don't matter nearly so much on day 3: the net benefit from those late-round picks is small enough that there's probably not much of a difference between, say, a high 5th on the one hand and a low 5th and a 7th on the other.

So why not, say, take a flyer on the best TE left on the board?

patchick said:

I don't assume that BB hated the TE class at all. Maybe they considered a player at another position to good to resist; maybe they simply missed out on a TE they liked, given that there are 31 other teams drafting. In fact, a plausible case was already made in this thread that BB would have taken Warring in round 3 if he'd been available (and most observers would have expected him to be available at that point).

The problem, to me, is that among the 13 possible TEs, one is inevitably going to be really good. And then three years from now people will be shouting "We could have had him! What was BB thinking??"--totally forgetting that there was zero consensus, among "experts" or Patriots fans, whether Sternberger or Smith or Knox or Warring or Oliver or Moreau or Sample etc. etc. was the guy to target, and when.

So I thought it would be interesting to ask what, specifically, everybody thinks the Pats should have done. Not just "drafted a tight end," because realistically the majority of the TEs drafted from 32 on are going to amount to very little.

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The interesting question for me is what would have happened if Denver didn’t take Fant? Would we have traded up to 21?

ctpatsfan77 said:

That said, the rules that go into the early-round picks don't matter nearly so much on day 3: the net benefit from those late-round picks is small enough that there's probably not much of a difference between, say, a high 5th on the one hand and a low 5th and a 7th on the other.

So why not, say, take a flyer on the best TE left on the board?

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Because he took a flyer at a different position. There are 22 starting positions and 22 more backup positions. Some aren’t going to get drafted.
Sometimes it seems like people think (not saying you) that Belichick just didn’t realize he has a shortage at TE. Like he just sits on the computer in his living room reading draft reports and forgets who is in his team and what players he needs and what roles they are going to fill.
He has a reason he didn’t draft a TE. And when he drafted a punter and traded away 2 late picks to move up, then didn’t do much with UDFA TEs I suppose he’s good with that reason.
Personally I think he conversation is better directed toward how will this change our scheme as we deemphasize the TE than why he didn’t draft a guy he apparently feels he doesn’t need.
One is a very interesting conversation to me and the other is pointless.
But that just me maybe.

manxman2601 said:

I think it’s clear BB didn’t want a pass catching only TE who, after all, are just bigger, slower WRs. So, for me, Drew Sample on day three, but of course he was long gone by then. I liked him but not to the same degree the Bungals did.

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Yet he drafted, then extensively used successfully, and then generously extended Hernandez, who was exactly that, a pass catching only TE.

So maybe he just didnt like anyone.

Biffins said:

Yet he drafted, then extensively used successfully, and then generously extended Hernandez, who was exactly that, a pass catching only TE.

So maybe he just didnt like anyone.

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They had Gronk then. And a different offensive co-ordinator.

BradyFTW! said:

In general, I think the whole idea of replacing Gronk is misguided, because nobody was ever going to. We're not going to get a TE who offers even a half-decent approximation of him, because that guy simply doesn't exist. Or more accurately, if he does exist in this draft then we would have had to trade up to the top of the first to get him. No matter who the Pats picked we were going to be having this conversation at at least one or two positions, you can't fix every hole in the draft. I'm happy with who they picked.

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And I'm glad that BB didn't succumb to the temptation of trying to replace an unicorn, in any way, shape or form.

I frankly think that we're going to see an overhaul of the offense, a change in philosophy, namely moving away from utilizing the TE as a U or "move" to more of a Y who stays inline. I wouldn't put it outside them to use Harry as a Joker.

My thinking going into the draft was to take Irv Smith at #32 if Dexter Lawrence was gone. I was assuming the Pats would draft a couple of WRs in the 2nd and 3rd, hoping they would target Terry McLaurin, Andy Isabella, Deebo Samuel, AJ Brown. So the WR pick would be at the expense of the RB they chose.

BlueThunder said:

Grabbing a punter in the 5th was a head scratcher....pick up a 7th rd or UDFA punter unless BB just fell in love with this guys Hang Time......or maybe it's Allen's eventual replacement and he gets stashed on the PS...Beats me.

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BB might carry 4 specialists. Bailey is good at kickoffs and our kickoffs (coverage) sucked last year.