My tradition is to spend a good chunk of the Sunday after the draft watching video of the Pats UDFAs looking to notice a gem or two. It’s just a part of the process that particularly interests me. Last year I identified Myles Bryant, J J Taylor and my fav Isiah Zuber. The jury is still out on all 3, but I still hold to my belief that they’ll be good players.
With the Patriots moving slowly with UDFAs this year, I decided to spend some of my Sunday doing a review of the Pats draft class instead and came away very, very impressed.
The Pats selected a better version of Jimmy Garappolo with Mac Jones. The guy completed 77% of his passes last season in the SEC. That’s crazy! Trey Lance didn’t complete 77% of the passes he threw at his first pro day against air. It’s easy to attribute that to the talent around him. But, when you watch him, it’s hard to find a bad or stupid throw or instances where his receivers bailed him out with great catches. Jones’ accuracy is first rate especially on long throws which is not a strength of Jimmy G.
Christian Barmore reminds me of a quicker more athletic Ty Warren who was a fantastic football player overshadowed by Seymour and Wilfork. Time will tell if Barmore has the work ethic to fulfill his talent. But, if he does, he’s going to improve the Pats’ D significantly. What I saw of him against Notre Dame and Ohio State was nearly as dominant as Seymour against the Rams in SB 36. it’s foolish to compare any rookie to a HOFer like Seymour or Brady, so I’ll stay with the Warren comparison.
Ronnie Perkins plays much bigger than his actual size. I haven’t seen how long his reach measurement is, but Perkins gets his hands on Olinemen so quickly that they struggle to keep their balance. Against Oklahoma State, Perkins straight armed a RT right back into the QB’s face. He’s going to quickly find himself on the field as an edge rusher on passing downs. My comparison is Perkins is a smaller version of Chandler Jones who actually plays bigger. Not bad at the end of the 3rd round.
Rhamondre Stevenson does something that all good RBs do. He accelerates in the hole and as he changes direction. Sometimes, you can tell how fast/quick a player is by how he pulls away from players rather than their measured time. How quickly a back gets to his top speed is more important that what his top speed is. The comparison we’ve heard is LaGarrette Blount. Blount accelerated like this guy and played faster than his 40 time, but Stevenson can catch the ball. YAC is a good measure of how natural a player catches the ball, and Rhamondre averaged over 10 yards a reception. They say he’s good at pass blocking, but I didn’t watch and video of him as a blocker. My comparison is Corey Dillon not Blount.
I’m overjoyed with these first 4 picks. I’ve been critical of the Pats drafting over the years with, I believe, good reason. But, it’s hard to be critical of a draft where their first 4 picks can be favourably compared to Garappolo, Warren, Jones and Dillon. I truly expect all 4 to be contributors in their rookie season, and, if they stay healthy, to all have good, noteworthy careers.
