DRAFT - Top 3 Rounds

Crazy Patriot Guy said:

Were the Lions good at drafting WRs in the 1st round before Calvin Johnson?

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Triumph said:

Eh, Calvin Johnson is a blip on the screen.

Dude played 9 seasons and averaged 9 TDs a season. Just give me a starter from the draft who dominates NFL defenses and can consistently put up 1000 yards and 10 TDs a season like it's child's play. That's all.

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Huckleberry1 said:

The idea is to build the best team in football. You don't accomplish that by passing on better players to fill perceived needs. Are there exceptions, yes, but they shouldn't drive the overall approach to putting a team together. Christian Gonzalez is a great example. They really needed a left tackle, but those left weren't deserving of that pick, so they went BPA and came away with an All Pro CB. The Patriots have a number of significant needs this draft, OT, Edge, Iff the ball LB, TE, and WR, they can address those needs and still go BPA, it's just a matter of when you address them. In all likelihood they will take one of those positions in the first round, and probably 2 of the other needs on day 2.

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40yrpatsfan said:

You could be right but every year there there’s a mid round OT who becomes a starter at some point. I think if Miller or Max are there, take him but if not then don’t reach, and take a RT later. Pick an edge or maybe even a dominant LB.

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Crazy Patriot Guy said:

I'm not even sure what stance you're taking at this point. Do you want them to avoid drafting WRs altogether? I didn't get the impression you wanted one after your post about the next WR selected after us will be in the HOF.

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Triumph said:

Obviously I would rather draft a WR who actually is a player who deserves a 2nd contact because he is a producer.

In reality the Patriots fail to get the job done in spades. Branch and Givens were eons ago and Edelman was converted and developed into a Stud WR. Boutte, Douglas and Williams are OK, but as somebody else noted, those guys became invisible down the stretch and into the Super Bowl.

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Crazy Patriot Guy said:

Well I don't think it's fair to expect late round WRs like Boutte or Douglas to become studs. There's certainly examples out there, but let's not pretend most teams have 5 or 6 of them over the last 20 years.

If we're talking about the top couple of rounds, the fact that Chad Jackson was a bust after being drafted two coaches ago has absolutely nothing to do with the chances of the next guy turning into a player. Obviously we have much more recent examples of 1st and 2nd round busts, but again, it's not the same guys making the picks.

But even if it was, you still can't make the conscious choice to ignore that position. Belichick was in charge of 24 drafts here. Here's the results of drafting a CB in the top 2 rounds over his first 23 drafts:

Brock Williams
Eugene Wilson
Terrence Wheatley
Darius Butler
Devin McCourty
Ras-I Dowling
Cyrus Jones
Duke Dawson
Joejuan Williams

Wilson and McCourty moves to safety, Devin obviously became a very good one. Beyond that, it's a lot of suckage.

Then Christian Gonzalez happened in 2023. That's why you have to keep going at it.

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Wozzy said:

I don't understand the line of reasoning in this conversation.

Regimes (GM's/Coaches) succeed or fail at drafting positions.

Just because Belichick, who rarely drafted WR's high or at all, wasn't successful at drafting WR's... doesn't mean anything in relation to Vrabel/Cowden.

Franchises don't do anything. What came before is irrelevant.

As far as we know Vrabel didn't have much personnel power with the Titans. We're starting at zero.

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Crazy Patriot Guy said:

That's what I'm arguing. I can at least understand if someone is a little gun shy of the Patriots drafting a WR in the first couple rounds, but I'm totally against any stance that says we should ignore that position completely because they're destined to be another Harry or Thornton.

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turkeyneck said:

OL-LB-TE

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Wozzy said:

Yeah, the funny part is the guy you're speaking with says I'm crazy and the Pats are going to stink because they need a WR1... whatever that is. Meanwhile in draft threads I have very clearly put WR as a real need on my list of needs for this team barring an AJ Brown trade. He seems to think the draft has a zero percent success rate... odd.

Stud WR's come in every round, they very often from the middle (3rd, 4th, 5th) rounds. Also WR statistically has one of the highest failure rates in draft history. Take the machine gun approach in the middle and late rounds and in UDFA. Bring in a bunch of these guys. Bring in a bunch and you will probably find one, maybe two. I don't understand the panic when the unit is pretty good already and they have 11 draft picks.

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mgteich said:

So, draft accordig to need whoever is available when we pick at 31

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ctpatsfan77 said:

Some more data on the first round here.

Post in thread 'Will Pats cut Bradbury? [OG title mentioned a non-existent option bonus]'

Feb 16, 2026

One-If-By-Sea said:

Yup. That is what happens. Draft picks have only a 35% chance of success. It happens ALL THE TIME.

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That's a pretty reductive statement. If you define "hit" as "signs a second contract with the team who drafted them", then, for first-round picks (2000-2019):

• C [12] was the best choice, with >90% hits
• OT [64] was second, with ~60%
• G [28] was third, at 50%
• In the 40-49% range: LB [50], QB [56], EDGE [104], DT [60]
• Below 40%: CB [71], RB [48], S [41], TE [24], WR [77]

Edited to add: I added the # of players drafted at each position. The average across all...

• ctpatsfan77

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