If this draft is the work of Eliot Wolf’s grading system then

[Mike the Brit]

We've heard rumors and inferences from Wolf that Mayo didn't have a vision nor knew what kind of player he wanted in his program. That left the personnel dept to it's own devices. We saw the results.

This is why i'm stopping short on the, "Wolf Sucks" narrative. A good GM/personnel guy needs input from the coach on what kind of player to target. That increases the odds of success the player will do well here.

We can speculate if they are using Wolf's "grading system" or not but there is no question each player chosen or signed in FA is a guy Vrabel has vetted (to varying levels) and has signed off on that player being part of his program.

MAYO: We'd like wide receivers who can get open and can catch the ball.

WOLF: Oh! Why didn't you say so?

SMH

 

[TomPatriot]

So we can’t just enjoy what appears to be a very successful draft? We have to argue over which regime/disciple gets credit?

 

[VJCPatriot]

Gut reaction is Wolf sets the board based on his system and what Cowden (via Vrabes) prioritizes as important

Vrabes via Cowden determine player coachability, culture fit and how the player's intangibles can help the team win.

I believe Vrabel and Cowden were a huge influence on this draft.

The scouts can provide the basic intel, but it's up to decision makers to really make sense of the data and make tough calls to put a draft together.

 

[Real fan 02]

And this is largely why Bill isn't here. People can **** on Kraft all they want for firing him, but the truth is he had an iron grip on this franchise and it hit a point where the team building aspect stopped working and he was an albatross for the rest of the scouting department doing their job.

Kraft wanted a more collaborative process, this is the fruit of that. A coach and GM with a unifying vision, a GM who is able to set the draft board, a coach who can give input, a clear hierarchy, one guy not stepping over everyone else.

Excellent post Lance. As I've posted myself. When a GM has stability at the QB position for so long it gives them free range to do what Bill did over the years. Once goat left the same draft and roster building mentality never adjusted.
Now we are seeing Vrables vision and how he wants to coach this team. I absolutely love all the draft picks and have to love farmer.. this guy is everything you want in a rookie, like Campbell he has that chip on his shoulder.

 

[Thelonious]

GIF

GIF. "Graphic Interchange Format."

Rhymes with "spliff." Makes sense.

 

[TommyD4207]

GIF. "Graphic Interchange Format."

Rhymes with "spliff." Makes sense.

 

[ALP]

I'm not a college guy, but many of the picks we took were connected to us by all the so called experts making mock drafts, and lots of fans here on the site, hence the happiness, it's because what we got, was what we expected to a much larger degree than the last 20 years

now, we shall see if the national experts, and our own forum experts are good scouts and talent evaluators. If this and future classes that follow the mainstream expectations hit well, then there's something to be gained by majority consensus. If these classes don't hit much better than others, consensus is a faulty guide

I'd be interested to see if all the feedback i heard from the last 20 years by board members of how BB should have drafted differently ends up being retroactively correct, or incorrect

 

[Thelonious]

Gosh, Tom. I have NO idea what this one means. I like the hats, though.

Maybe you are suggesting I get with the times. No thanks.

 

[TomPatriot]

LOL, Piel’s beer.

 

[Steve102]

GIF. "Graphic Interchange Format."

Rhymes with "spliff." Makes sense.

I always said “spleef” when pronouncing spliff. What the hell do I know ?

 

[mayoclinic]

I'm not a college guy, but many of the picks we took were connected to us by all the so called experts making mock drafts, and lots of fans here on the site, hence the happiness, it's because what we got, was what we expected to a much larger degree than the last 20 years

now, we shall see if the national experts, and our own forum experts are good scouts and talent evaluators. If this and future classes that follow the mainstream expectations hit well, then there's something to be gained by majority consensus. If these classes don't hit much better than others, consensus is a faulty guide

I'd be interested to see if all the feedback i heard from the last 20 years by board members of how BB should have drafted differently ends up being retroactively correct, or incorrect

I don't completely agree with this.

Other than Will Campbell - the pick I personally have the most doubts about - I'm not sure any of the picks were particularly linked to the Pats by the mediots. Some were by top 30 visits or other meetings, but that is hard to read.

The draft board has a lot of people who watch a lot of film and put a lot of work into grading players and projecting possible fits. BGC, Manxman2601, Bakes781, and many others. Manx was on the Henderson, Williams and Swinson bandwagon months ago.

What I think people are excited about is that the picks generally were players that we thought were quality players who fit, many taken at value relative to their predicted range.

The Pats got 6 players who were on many respected draft "experts" top 100 boards:

4 Campbell: Brugler 6, Jeremiah 11, ScoutD 7
38 Henderson: Brugler 49, Jeremiah 32, ScoutD 47
69 Williams: Brugler 91, Jeremiah 57 ScoutD 45
95 Wilson: Brugler 58, Jeremiah 55, ScoutD 78
137 Farmer: Brugler 70, Jeremiah 77, ScoutD 68
146 Swinson: Brugler 100, Jeremiah 87, ScoutD 82

This was a very deep draft, there were a lot of other good players who would have made sense as well. But overall the team added significant talent at areas of need without major reaches, often getting value, and with some consistency in terms of the type of player they wanted. Hard not to like.

 

[Huckleberry1]

I'm not a college guy, but many of the picks we took were connected to us by all the so called experts making mock drafts, and lots of fans here on the site, hence the happiness, it's because what we got, was what we expected to a much larger degree than the last 20 years

now, we shall see if the national experts, and our own forum experts are good scouts and talent evaluators. If this and future classes that follow the mainstream expectations hit well, then there's something to be gained by majority consensus. If these classes don't hit much better than others, consensus is a faulty guide

I'd be interested to see if all the feedback i heard from the last 20 years by board members of how BB should have drafted differently ends up being retroactively correct, or incorrect

Belichick’s hits and misses were always pretty obvious, but I think his views on team building were what led to him making drastically different decisions than most other teams, and 9 conference championships and 6 Lombardi’s make it hard to argue with the caliber of teams he built, but individually was a different story. And I think the reason for this was that Belichick tried to draft for multiple roles he believed he would need, primarily on special teams. So he would take a guy he saw filling 3-4 different roles over taking the guy who was a better receiver or defensive back, but would fill those special teams roles. Whereas I think the approach we saw in this draft was more of taking the best player available for their position, and let the special teams roles take care of themselves when doing final cutdowns. He would also try to draft versatile players, like an OL who could play 3 positions, over the guy who was a better Guard, but had less position versatility. So overall I think he just had a different way of evaluating and choosing players than we saw in this draft.

 

[goheels22002]

I'm not a college guy, but many of the picks we took were connected to us by all the so called experts making mock drafts, and lots of fans here on the site, hence the happiness, it's because what we got, was what we expected to a much larger degree than the last 20 years

now, we shall see if the national experts, and our own forum experts are good scouts and talent evaluators. If this and future classes that follow the mainstream expectations hit well, then there's something to be gained by majority consensus. If these classes don't hit much better than others, consensus is a faulty guide

I'd be interested to see if all the feedback i heard from the last 20 years by board members of how BB should have drafted differently ends up being retroactively correct, or incorrect

The main thing I see here with selections within the ratings by multiple sources is that these kids come from top tier college programs with good coaching at their respective positions. Belichick was consistently selecting guys from off-the-beaten-path programs and guys at schools that do not have the most respected position coaches. He thought his group could teach them what they needed to know and that players like Edelman, McCourty, Mankins, etc. proved his point. But if you look back over Belichick's drafts you see all sorts of guys and say who?!?

This year's draft is, others have pointed out, kids from NCAA Bowl Division playoff caliber teams. 2025 has six SEC players, three ACC players, and two Big Ten players. The only outliers are Kyle Williams from the PAC-10 expansion mess, and Mr. Irrelevant from Memphis in the AAC - American Athletic Conference. We don't expect Kobee Minor to do anything, and given his speed, Kyle Williams was picked within the range of expectations in the third round.

It looks to me like there are at least four, maybe five rookie impact players in year one. Belichick never did that if I recall correctly.

 

[goheels22002]

I don't completely agree with this.

Other than Will Campbell - the pick I personally have the most doubts about - I'm not sure any of the picks were particularly linked to the Pats by the mediots. Some were by top 30 visits or other meetings, but that is hard to read.

The draft board has a lot of people who watch a lot of film and put a lot of work into grading players and projecting possible fits. BGC, Manxman2601, Bakes781, and many others. Manx was on the Henderson, Williams and Swinson bandwagon months ago.

What I think people are excited about is that the picks generally were players that we thought were quality players who fit, many taken at value relative to their predicted range.

The Pats got 6 players who were on many respected draft "experts" top 100 boards:

4 Campbell: Brugler 6, Jeremiah 11, ScoutD 7
38 Henderson: Brugler 49, Jeremiah 32, ScoutD 47
69 Williams: Brugler 91, Jeremiah 57 ScoutD 45
95 Wilson: Brugler 58, Jeremiah 55, ScoutD 78
137 Farmer: Brugler 70, Jeremiah 77, ScoutD 68
146 Swinson: Brugler 100, Jeremiah 87, ScoutD 82

This was a very deep draft, there were a lot of other good players who would have made sense as well. But overall the team added significant talent at areas of need without major reaches, often getting value, and with some consistency in terms of the type of player they wanted. Hard not to like.

The top 100 rankings tell only part of the story. The fact that Patriots also got the top placekicker and top long snapper for special teams is very significant. If those guys can pan out, they have the long-term solution to an iffy kicking game in 2024, and a replacement for a great but older special teams center who is arguably the most important player on field goals and PATs other than the kicker. If this kid Borregales is automatic from inside 45-yrds, it really shortens the field for scoring drives.

 

[sb1]

I am team BB through and through but his drafting was piss poor. This year's choices feels good. Of course they are yet to play but the picks makes sense, fit needs and based on perspicacious research and not because someone wants to look smart and find a diamond in a rough.
I feel BB got off in making weird picks with hope that it will pan out. I-Ras, Strange, Thornthon, Harry, Tate, Price, Dobson, Boyce to name a few. The lack of production from this group was disgusting really. He was good but had weakness in selecting college talents unless they fell to him.

Yep. Contrarian all the way. Who else reaches 5 rounds too soon for Jordan Richards?

With Strange one can say he was picked a little too early but at least he belongs in the NFL if and when he's healthy. Can't say that about any of those other guys.

Glad nobody will be laughing at our picks now.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Given how this “ collaboration” turned out maybe Wolf wasn’t the problem with Belichick’s bad drafts? Maybe it was ………..Belichick

 

[RobertWeathers]

Given how this “ collaboration” turned out maybe Wolf wasn’t the problem with Belichick’s bad drafts? Maybe it was ………..Belichick

It was BB going rogue on a few picks and BB's system which favored a coach's assessment of a player than analytics. He simply didn't evolve his scouting and grading system

With that said, in his final years here he did pick players who start and are still in the NFL.

The problem is he missed more than he hit when he absolutely needed to hit.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Given how this “ collaboration” turned out maybe Wolf wasn’t the problem with Belichick’s bad drafts? Maybe it was ………..Belichick

What about Wolf's draft last year?

Last year's draft: 2 Wide Receivers, 2 Offensive Linemen. This year: 1 Wide Receiver, 3 Offensive Linemen.

Message: last year's draft sucked.

Either someone else has taken over, thank goodness, or Wolf has already recognized that he went 0 for 4 with Polk, Baker, Wallace, and Robinson.

 

[manxman2601]

I can't stress this strongly enough: DO NOT CHANGE A THING! We've had an almost perfect draft. Great picks, great trades, great UDFAs. Take what they did this year and keep doing it.

 

[Thelonious]

I always said “spleef” when pronouncing spliff. What the hell do I know ?

The bigger the spleef, the less you know, I have found. Size matters, as they say.