Are We Ready For The Draft?

[patman52]

It seems the more disapointed in the pick, the better the pick seems to be.

Seymour over Terell
Mankins over Bass
McCourty over Hugnes
Solder over Jordan
Gronk over Kindle

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

My fear is that Bill Belichick will not draft a collegiate defensive end or collegiate outside linebacker this year suitable for the 3-4 defense.

BB seems to disqualify LBs unless they are a certain hight so that he would never draft Courtney Upshaw but instead drafts Shawn Crable types. So instead we let the Upshaws go to (say) the Steelers and become All-Pro.

 

[Dragda]

I use "PatriotsNews" by ZenMobi. It searches Patriots.com, Musketfire, The Herald, NFL.com, The Globe, and a few others I think, for anything Pats. Usually if something happens remotely newsworthy, I get an update within a few minutes.

I use Twitter. There is a little noise to filter out, but I know all the pciks even before they happen.

 

[JoeSixPat]

Ah - back to free agency BEFORE the draft!

I don't think too many fans appreciated what a warped year last year was with the draft happening before free agency and free agency so condensed.

It made it very difficult to really equip the team as Belichick likely would have desired. Especially since the draft can help fill in some gaps left over from free agency - filling in the mortar before you have the bricks of veteran free agents is difficult to say the least.

That, of course, makes last year's accomplishment all the more impressive.

You gotta wonder what Belichick and the team can do with a full offseason to prepare!

 

[Marqui]

It seems the more disapointed in the pick, the better the pick seems to be.

Seymour over Terell
Mankins over Bass
McCourty over Hugnes
Solder over Jordan
Gronk over Kindle

I don't know about that.

Brace over Barwin
Butler over Byrd
Tate over Wallace
Price over Graham
Whoever over Matthews

 

[Reckedtrek]

I use Twitter. There is a little noise to filter out, but I know all the pciks even before they happen.

That works, too! I let Mike Reiss and the others filter it for me. It gets tweeted, they grab it, report it and it's on the web 10 minutes later (maybe quicker during the draft) and I get the end result. Having said that, maybe I'll follow Mike and a few others to see how much faster it (twitter) is this year.

In either case, I'm not going to spend hours in front of the TV, get ready to burst with excitement with 3 or 4 solid possibilities at OLD/DE on the board, only to hear "The Patriots have traded the 27th pick to The Philadelphia Eagles" then followed by "with the 31st pick, The New England Patriots draft Murray Fishburn... TE, Framingham State University." and be left screaming at the TV, "WHO?!! W... T.. F...!!!!!!" while Chris Berman's saying "another classic Belichick pick..."

Now in 2 years, I may think that Ol' Fishburn is the be-all-end-all TE, but for a solid 24 hours I'm in NEP draft hell.

 

[ay-yo]

I don't know about that.

Brace over Barwin
Butler over Byrd
Tate over Wallace
Price over Graham
Whoever over Matthews

That "whoever" ended up as Butler, Tate, Edelman and some guy named GRONK. While the first 3 are JAGs at best, we still won the trade.

 

[BTTA]

In any case, I do not like an empty backfield formation, except as a audible or trick play. Five receivers plus a receiving running back is fine with me.

How do we do this? Doesn't six eligible receivers require 12 men on the field? I've got an awful cold which has lowered my IQ by 50% so maybe I'm missing something.

 

[mgteich]

Five receivers including a receiving running back line up as the 5th receiver. Faul has done this for years. The key is the RB can protect Brady.

How do we do this? Doesn't six eligible receivers require 12 men on the field? I've got an awful cold which has lowered my IQ by 50% so maybe I'm missing something.

 

[BTTA]

Five receivers including a receiving running back line up as the 5th receiver. Faul has done this for years. The key is the RB can protect Brady.

OK, so it's not five receivers plus a RB, it's five receivers including a RB. That's what tripped me up.

 

[Mystery Pats Fan]

This is my first post.

Regarding the draft - there have been many experts who have mock drafts telling us who they believe the patriots will select in the first round.

What they are all forgetting is who they are dealing with - Bill Belichick who has never drafted players that are on those lists. For all intents and purposes Belichick likes to play the draft day game and have people scratching their heads once the name of the drafted player is called out.

For whatever reason and I do not know why but I believe he has done much better with 2nd and 3rd round picks.

 

[Marqui]

That "whoever" ended up as Butler, Tate, Edelman and some guy named GRONK. While the first 3 are JAGs at best, we still won the trade.

Eh, the Gronk and Matthews selections have pretty much nothing to do with eachother. They could have gotten him whether they picked Matthews the previous year or not.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

This is my first post.

Regarding the draft - there have been many experts who have mock drafts telling us who they believe the patriots will select in the first round.

What they are all forgetting is who they are dealing with - Bill Belichick who has never drafted players that are on those lists. For all intents and purposes Belichick likes to play the draft day game and have people scratching their heads once the name of the drafted player is called out.

For whatever reason and I do not know why but I believe he has done much better with 2nd and 3rd round picks.

Say what bro? BB has scored with his 1st picks worst being Maroney who started for several years and got us a pick in trade. The 2nd & 3rd rounds have been a mixed bag.

Welcome to the board.

 

[Joker]

2001 Richard Seymour DT Georgia
2002 21 Daniel Graham TE Colorado
2003 13 Ty Warren DT Texas A&M
2004 21 Vince Wilfork DT Miami (FL)
32 Benjamin Watson TE Georgia
2005 32 Logan Mankins OG Fresno State
2006 21 Laurence Maroney RB Minnesota
2007 24 Brandon Meriweather S Miami (FL)
2008 10 Jerod Mayo LB Tennessee
2009 No first-round draft pick
2010 27 Devin McCourty CB Rutgers
2011 17 Nate Solder

 

[NewFeep]

I just KNOW one of these drafts BB is gonna pull a total Mind-Scramble on us all and trade up once or twice to target 2 high impact defensive beastly-play-makers....

Just not this year................ again!

 

[Mystery Pats Fan]

Say what bro? BB has scored with his 1st picks worst being Maroney who started for several years and got us a pick in trade. The 2nd & 3rd rounds have been a mixed bag.

Welcome to the board.

I probably overstated. Just cant seem to remember any outstanding first round picks.

Thanks for the welcome.

 

[TB146]

I just KNOW one of these drafts BB is gonna pull a total Mind-Scramble on us all and trade up once or twice to target 2 high impact defensive beastly-play-makers....

Just not this year................ again!

History tells us that he'll probably take the #27 and trade down about 3 spots picking up another 4th rounder, then trade it again into the second round this year and another first next year. Then actually make a pick with #31. Then take #48 and combine it with #126 in the fourth to trade for #52 and another third rounder.... etc.

But given the amount of FA moves the Pats have made (12 I think) I wonder if this year they don't need as many picks to fill the TC roster, and can combine some of them to trade up for fewer, higher quality picks.

But I still doubt it.

 

[Mystery Pats Fan]

I just KNOW one of these drafts BB is gonna pull a total Mind-Scramble on us all and trade up once or twice to target 2 high impact defensive beastly-play-makers....

Just not this year................ again!

I dont know. This is the year he may just surprise everyone and do it. He has fared reasonably well in free agency so now with the draft being the target he just might be looking at one particular player and make the move to get him.

Of course that would be very un-belichick like.

A top flite shut down corner type is as important as a top flite pass rusher, IMO.

Of course Dowling should be returning and unfortunately we really do not have much to go on because of his season missing injury.

My personal choices at both of those positions would be Kirkpatrick at corner and Nick Perry at DE, over Mercilus.

I would also be very happy if they took Shea McLellin at OLB. He might last till the second round and if he was there he would make a good pick.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

BB will absolutely positively trade down this year but it is not clear which pick(s) he will trade. He has no picks after the 4'th rounder and there is no way he goes into day 3 with only one pick.

 

[BlueThunder]

How many FA's has BB signed. I think it's about a dozen, maybe 13?

IF TC is limited to 80 then BB doesn't have much wiggle room, especially if he starts picking up extra picks in later rounds by trading down. He always signs UDFA's also so if any year is a bundle and trade up year to grab a player he covets, this may be the year.

Make it so !!