Injuries impact how the Pats draft

[BobDigital]

So I was reading this article

http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports...for-at-nfl-combine-from-patriots-perspective/

And point 4 really got my attention "Overall, since 2010, the Patriots have made 14 first or second round picks — of those, eight didn’t complete 100 percent of combine workouts due to injury."

This was kind of passed off as "they are not afraid to pick these players". I think differently. I think this is likely proof positive they target these players. More than perhaps any team with their top picks they seem to like to take risk with injured players who have talent but fall due to them.

If this trend holds true it tells me the Pats plan to draft an injured player if they fall below their natural draft stock. This is not truly news that injured players can be good value but considering it is 8 of 14 times in the past and perhaps was not possible some of those other times it comes off to be as a remarkable consistent trend.

With that in mind lets look at the most likely targets

Todd Gurley - RB (already made a thread about this)
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu - CB (slot CB)
Tevin Coleman - RB
Cedric Obbuehi - OT/OG (more of a OT than OG but has played OG before)

Any other injured guys that could fall I am missing?

 

[patsfaninpa]

Manx will come over from England and beat you down for not mentioning DeAndre Smelter - WR - Ga. Tech. Late season ACL tear.

 

[BobDigital]

Manx will come over from England and beat you down for not mentioning DeAndre Smelter - WR - Ga. Tech. Late season ACL tear.

Well yeah but he is not a top 64 talent... At least from what I have read from talking heads.

 

[mayoclinic]

So I was reading this article

http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports...for-at-nfl-combine-from-patriots-perspective/

And point 4 really got my attention "Overall, since 2010, the Patriots have made 14 first or second round picks — of those, eight didn’t complete 100 percent of combine workouts due to injury."

This was kind of passed off as "they are not afraid to pick these players". I think differently. I think this is likely proof positive they target these players. More than perhaps any team with their top picks they seem to like to take risk with injured players who have talent but fall due to them.

If this trend holds true it tells me the Pats plan to draft an injured player if they fall below their natural draft stock. This is not truly news that injured players can be good value but considering it is 8 of 14 times in the past and perhaps was not possible some of those other times it comes off to be as a remarkable consistent trend.

With that in mind lets look at the most likely targets

Todd Gurley - RB (already made a thread about this)
Ifo Ekpre-Olomu - CB (slot CB)
Tevin Coleman - RB
Cedric Obbuehi - OT/OG (more of a OT than OG but has played OG before)

Any other injured guys that could fall I am missing?

Injuries that check out medically but which prevent a prospect from working out and make him a relative bargain are definitely something to watch.

Tevin Coleman is interesting because Indiana's Pro Day is quite late (April 15), so teams won't get to see him work out until 2 weeks before the draft.

I think the Pats are very likely to take someone who has injury issues, but also that they will pick their spots. They aren't likely to take more than one guy with an ACL tear who is likely to miss most of 2015, for example, or at most 2 (if one is a day 3 pick). So I wouldn't expect Gurley, Ogbuehi and Smelter to all get picked.

 

[mayoclinic]

Well yeah but he is not a top 64 talent... At least from what I have read from talking heads.

I disagree.

 

[BobDigital]

I disagree.

Well disagree with them not me : P

I am just saying that is what they are saying. I have seen zero tape on him yet.