I'm going to go over the
Patriots drafts over the past 5 years and state what players are still with the Patriots and in an active role.
2019 draft class 10 picks
WR N'Keal Harry, DE Chase Winowich, P Bailey, QB Stidham. Active.
CB Joejuan Williams, RB Harris, OL Froholdt. Inactive/IR.
2018 draft class 9 picks
OL Isaiah Wynn, RB Sony Michel, LB Bentley, TE Izzo
2017 draft class 4 picks
DL Deatrich Wise
2016 draft class 9 picks
OL Joe Thuney, OL Ted Karras, LB Elandon Roberts
2015 draft class 12 picks
OL Shaq Mason, LS Joe Cardona
2014 draft class 9 picks
RB James White
Looking back, the draft years of 2017, 2015, and 2014 look especially bare as the Patriots were 1/4, 2/12, and 1/9 respectively in drafting players who could even stick to the roster.
2019 class. The Patriots already have made some notable misses in terms of WR. Harry has not looked good, but he's a rookie coming off injury. Joejuan Williams is essentially a healthy scratch or DNP each game, and Harris is on IR.
2018 class. Do we really need to go over Chubb vs Michel. This issue is only so agonizing because Michel is having his worst year while Chubb is among the league leaders. It painfully brings to mind Giannis Antetokounmpo vs Kelly Olynyk draft decision by the Celtics.
The Pats have always managed to do more with less. But the cupboards look extremely bare right now on offense. We never got a bona fide tight end replacement, and Izzo is not the answer there. Our WRs outside of Edelman, whom we drafted 10 years ago have no clue how to properly get open and run the offense.
The Pats are particularly adept at trading for players to patch holes, but this year seems to have been the rare miss, Sanu for a 2nd rounder does not remind us of Welker for the same bounty. Who pays the price, Tom Brady, our offense, and our hopes of playoff advancement.
We are now finally paying the price for poor drafting over the past 5 years. Our rate of success was very low from 2017-2014. I count us only hitting on 1 pick per draft. Hmm does a long snapper count? I guess they do, so that's 2 in 2015.
And the past 2 years the players we picked up look nothing special. In fact one can argue that the punter was the best pick of the lot, which means you're in serious trouble.
EDIT: I was wrong Jordan Richards is finally out. What a horrible 2nd round reach he was.
Added Ted Karras and Elandon Roberts to 2016 class. They are only 2nd stringers but provide depth. Unfortunately if they are called upon to start, then we're in trouble.
Added LS Joe Cardona to 2015 class.