It has been suggested that only a safe, secure Coach like Belichick, would have drafted an overlooked guy like Tavon Wilson in the second round. There were certainly other palyers at other positions, that were second round draftees.
But there were no Free Safeties after Harrison from Notre Dame. Tavon may well have been the third best Safety, or rather the second best Free Safety available in this draft. Bellichick wanted a Free Safety, as that was the weakest position on the Team, and he knows a Team like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest link.
According to Mike Reiss, there were seven other teams who worked Tavon out, including San Diego, Baltimore, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis.
AJ Smith in San Diego, Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore, Thomas Dinsmore (sp?) in Atlanta, the Pittsburgh scouting group, all are no shrinking violets afraid of their own shadows. They are accomplished drafters, who have taken people that they judge are qualified despite the conventional wisdom. In addition, his ex-DB Coach at Illinois, now the DC at Indy and his mentor, surely knew of his talent, and the Colts needed a S too.
Indeed, AJ drafted a Safety on the next pick at #49. Gallimore the Indy DC was his mentor at the Illini, and loved him.
It appears as was true with Sebastion Vollmer, that Tavon Wilson was a guy who fell in the cracks, possibly because he played wherever needed, and had no fixed position. Making it difficult to pick him for all-League Teams, and hence for the All-Star games and Combine.
I recall Joel Butchbaum, the original Draftnik and FOB, discussing how he was able to compile his scouting lists, as a one man operation when the BLESTO scouting operation spent millions and had hundreds of scouts.
He said he screened the All-league teams, and Allstar team rosters, and Combine invitations, to cut the collegiate player lists to a manageble number of a few hundred; and then watched as many All star games as possible.
He admitted that it was difficult to find the small school standouts, and good players who were not invited to an All-Star team. Sometimes he overlooked them. He said as he got known and made friends with some pro scouts, they would feed him some tidbits of information. That helped. Sometimes he thought he was being used to spread disinformation, though.
I suspect that is how many of the amateur Draftniks operate their hobby. So I can see Tavon, a player from a big talented Conference, playing on a losing team, not at a set position, would get overlooked amidst all the stars in the League.
