This could be the most illuminating quote of the entire draft. I would have been "thrilled" if Ioki or Martin had been the Pats S selection.....as would most of Patriot nation. And those mediots and fans who might have disagreed with the pick would have done so without all the vehemence and stunned outrage that the Wilson pick engendered.
Iloka, Martin and Antonio Allen all were taken significantly lower than projections. As I mentioned earlier, there were 4 safeties drafted ahead of them from powerhouse schools like South Carolina State, Maine, Eastern Washington and Samford. This says to me that teams were looking for different characteristics for the safety position than the scheme-agnostic evaluations of scouting services. Given the rise of a combo/multiple TE world, it isn't surprising.
You can almost see Kiper calling the pick of Iloki or Martin "a slight reach, but understandable given the need". We then would have seen the clips they'd prepared and the night would have gone on with hardly a ripple.
Once again with the advantage of 20-20 hindsight we can see that it was Iloki AND Martin who would have been the "outrageous" reaches and it was Wilson who was the slight reach made understandable by the need. Instead what we got was wide eyed gasps and the shuffling of papers desperately trying to find out who Wilson was and trying to explain why the Pats would have drafted him in the 2nd round.
The pick makes sense if the following is true:
1) Wilson was a unique scheme fit for the Pats (meaning Wilson, not just a safety like Wilson, was the target)
2) The Pats needed a safety to make their draft plan "complete"
3) There was a reasonable risk that Wilson would be scooped up ahead of a trade-down
Can't comment yet on #1 though we can guess the Pats felt this way. Item #2 is almost a certainty. As for #3, that takes a little detective work.
The Ravens, Packers and Cowboys all had key needs at safety. The Pats knew that Wilson worked out for a number of teams besides them...more than a late round prospect would be expected to have. The Packers (#59) and Ravens (#60) were lurking in the 2nd round. Could the Pats have traded down and still gotten Wilson at pick #62? Possibly. Was it a certainty that both the safety-needy Packers and Ravens wouldn't take Wilson before the Pats got that chance? Not 100% and enough evidence to make Belichick paranoid. They were both part of the next tier safety run in the 4th and the Ravens pick (Christian Thompson) is a similar prospect to Wilson.
This tells me the Pats were zeroed in on Wilson and the haul they could get for pick #48 wasn't worth the chance (however slim) that he would go prior to #62.
Now I need you to find out how the F**k BB was talked into that horrible trade by GB, when Denver was giving away the store just a few picks later.
That was the best offer he had at the time. Teams don't always deal the same way (or at all) with every team. This does indicate to me that Wilson was the last bit of urgent business for Belichick and he was transitioning to secondary objectives (ST, projects, sliders, etc). In this case, it was more important to get quantity than hold out for quality. Did it really matter what pick they used to get Ebner and Ebert? They likely weren't holding their breath for Bequette and Dennard, but wanted to have picks in place to get them or their like. In a nutshell, the trade-down market wasn't great and he wasn't motivated to spend the time/energy to maximize value.
