Looking back

[Revman]

My top 3 players in this draft were :

Evander Hood-Round one Pittsburgh
Rey Maualuga-Round 2- Cincinatti
Alex Mack-Round 1- Cleveland

*Interesting that all 3 were taken by the black and blue division. These are all guys that will make names for themselves within 2-3 years. All will be starters for several years. Though I am not disappointed with our draft strategy, it does make me realize that however much we want to know, we do not run the draft. I keep thinking that had we drafted Maualuga to play ILB we would have solved a problem. Pat's of course did not know that Mckenzie would get hurt in minicamp. ILB could come back to bite us this year. Pats did grab 3 wide bodies to strengthen depth on front -Brace-Pryor-Richard-Brace probably the only one to make team. Pryor has some explosion-but will have to beat out Lekevin Smith to make roster. Richard has a shot at practice team-I think he will make it. Who is out thee that could actually help the Pat's at ILB position?

 

[mayoclinic]

I didn't particularly want any of your guys. I didn't like Maualuga, was iffy about Ziggy Hood, and liked Mack but didn't particularly think he was a 1st round need and liked Eric Wood just as much.

I had 3 guys I really liked at the top of the draft (Aaron Curry, BJ Raji, and Malcolm Jenkins) who I didn't really expect us to get (unless we traded up, most likely for Jenkins) and 3 guys I really liked in the late 1st/2nd round (Connor Barwin, Louis Delmas, and William Beatty). I will never understand why we passed on Barwin. I will always believe he was the perfect 3-4 OLB candidate for us. Obviously BB didn't like him as much as I did, and liked our depth at OLB better as well. We'll never know whether Delmas was BB's #1 safety ahead of Chung or not, as he went #33 to Detroit. And BB clearly was concerned about Beatty being "soft" and preferred a very different kind of OL from what I had envisioned.

As you say, we clearly learned that we're not in charge of the draft.

 

[alvinnf]

I didn't particularly want any of your guys. I didn't like Maualuga, was iffy about Ziggy Hood, and liked Mack but didn't particularly think he was a 1st round need and liked Eric Wood just as much.

I had 3 guys I really liked at the top of the draft (Aaron Curry, BJ Raji, and Malcolm Jenkins) who I didn't really expect us to get (unless we traded up, most likely for Jenkins) and 3 guys I really liked in the late 1st/2nd round (Connor Barwin, Louis Delmas, and William Beatty). I will never understand why we passed on Barwin. I will always believe he was the perfect 3-4 OLB candidate for us. Obviously BB didn't like him as much as I did, and liked our depth at OLB better as well. We'll never know whether Delmas was BB's #1 safety ahead of Chung or not, as he went #33 to Detroit. And BB clearly was concerned about Beatty being "soft" and preferred a very different kind of OL from what I had envisioned.

As you say, we clearly learned that we're not in charge of the draft.

I had a similar thought about Delmas. After thinking about it , I came to the conclusion that they were convinced Chung would'nt be the first S off the board. They where positioned perfectly to draft him whether a S came off at 22 or 46, or wherever. But initially I had the same thought on draft day. Then I went home and watched both guys play, and they got their guy not sloppy seconds.

 

[AzPatsFan]

I figured the Pats would use their top five draft picks, on the following positions.

The people I wanted were ILB, CB, NT, LOT, and S. Specifically, Lauranitis, Butler, Brace, Beatty and Chung. I thought these were the best positions to fill, and the players to fill them. Anyways I got my desires; three out of the five by name, and Vollmer was picked instead of Beatty, when both were available. I am always of the opinion that you draft LOTs high, and fill with other players. So I didn't understand drafting a ROT. But Volmer appears that he may be more than just a RT candidate.

The only guy that I wanted that they didn't pick was Lauranitis. Mackenzie in the last pick of the third round addressed the ILB need but I thought it was more urgent than that. I didn't want a WRas i felt there was no room, and would just be a player sent to another Team, in the final cut. Brandon Tate who may go PUP/IR is a fine solution to the problem, of how to start grooming a young receiver without the room to keep him.

All in all, the Belichick led Patriots drafted real well in my humble opinion.

 

[Feep50]

I had 0% in in Rey M.....
Hood wasn't on my radar.

I thought Mack might be a Patriot Target. I also thought they were gonna take Laurinaitis.

Chung was a big binky of mine, but NOT at #34......

Obviously BB thought highly of Chung and that's saying something.....

 

[Ochmed Jones]

My top 3 players in this draft were :

Evander Hood-Round one Pittsburgh
Rey Maualuga-Round 2- Cincinatti
Alex Mack-Round 1- Cleveland

*Interesting that all 3 were taken by the black and blue division. These are all guys that will make names for themselves within 2-3 years. All will be starters for several years.

This is a good point and I think that it shows a good bit about the types of players these teams are drafting to counter the types of players already in the division.

I think Cleveland's selection of Mack was influenced greatly by what Mangold did for Mangini in NY. But nevertheless, Mack was a great addition and he will have his hands full in that division.

 

[mayoclinic]

I had a similar thought about Delmas. After thinking about it , I came to the conclusion that they were convinced Chung would'nt be the first S off the board. They where positioned perfectly to draft him whether a S came off at 22 or 46, or wherever. But initially I had the same thought on draft day. Then I went home and watched both guys play, and they got their guy not sloppy seconds.

I wasn't suggesting that Chung is "sloppy seconds". I'm guessing they had Chung and Delmas ranked well above the other safeties, and when Delmas went #33 they figured they had better not risk losing out on Chung. They might have had Delmas ranked slightly ahead of Chung or vice-versa, but my guess is they thought those 2 were clearly the top 2 safeties. Then again, a lot of my other guesses didn't pan out, so who knows?

I think Delmas and Chung will both turn out to be great, and I can't wait to see what Chung and Butler add to our secondary. Clearly the secondary and the lines were BB's priority in the draft, not the LB corps like everyone thought.

 

[mayoclinic]

I figured the Pats would use their top five draft picks, on the following positions.

The people I wanted were ILB, CB, NT, LOT, and S. Specifically, Lauranitis, Butler, Brace, Beatty and Chung. I thought these were the best positions to fill, and the players to fill them. Anyways I got my desires; three out of the five by name, and Vollmer was picked instead of Beatty, when both were available. I am always of the opinion that you draft LOTs high, and fill with other players. So I didn't understand drafting a ROT. But Volmer appears that he may be more than just a RT candidate.

The only guy that I wanted that they didn't pick was Lauranitis. Mackenzie in the last pick of the third round addressed the ILB need but I thought it was more urgent than that. I didn't want a WRas i felt there was no room, and would just be a player sent to another Team, in the final cut. Brandon Tate who may go PUP/IR is a fine solution to the problem, of how to start grooming a young receiver without the room to keep him.

All in all, the Belichick led Patriots drafted real well in my humble opinion.

Strong work. You obviously did a terrific job of targetting guys who the Pats ended up taking. It would have been extremely difficult to get all 5 of your guys. Like you, I targetted Beatty at LOT, but obviously BB didn't like him (I suspect because of the "soft" label) and thought Vollmer had more upside.

I'm curious as to why you had specifically wanted Brace, as he was nowhere on my radar and that pick caught me by surprise more than the others. Was it simply because you wanted a true backup NT (as I did) and thought he was the best true 3-4 NT who would be available to us? Or was it something else. I wanted one of the more athletic but more raw NT's who would have been available later - specifically, one of Dorell Scott, Chris Baker, Sammie Lee Hill or Vaughn Martin. Early reports are that the Charger's like Martins athleticism a lot and are trying him at both DE and DT, which the Packer's are also doing with Raji. I thought that we could do a lot of things with an athletic widebody who we could move around in multiple fronts, and I'm skeptical that Brace has the athleticism to be more than a pure 2 down run stuffing NT.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Early reports are that the Charger's like Martins athleticism a lot and are trying him at both DE and DT, which the Packer's are also doing with Raji. I thought that we could do a lot of things with an athletic widebody who we could move around in multiple fronts, and I'm skeptical that Brace has the athleticism to be more than a pure 2 down run stuffing NT.

The problem is that the Pats would not be in a position to get Raji. And what's wrong with a pure 2 down run stuffing NT in the 2nd anyway? With Brace you get a guy who's game resembles Ted Washington, and that's pretty good to have as a backup. The Pats obviously were pretty high on Brace to give up 2 more picks to move up to get him, a 4th and a 6th.

Hood and Maulauga are players I saw as stricly 4-3 type players, so I didn't envision them as Pats players. Brace was arguably the 2nd best 3-4 NT available in this year's draft. I didn't think the Pats would spend a 1st rounder on an offensive lineman unless an absolute stud like Clady was available. Is Oher the next Clady? I have my doubts and apparently so did BB who traded out of 26. Vollmer was somewhat surprising to me as he wasn't on my radar, but on tape his physicality and size stand out. He could be a good one.

The only position the Pats didn't address directly was OLB and as I thought, ILB wasn't that high of a need given the emergence of Guyton. It's still a shame that McKenzie got hurt in minicamp of all places. Hopefully the Pats can pick up JT or another vet OLB and we'll be all good to go in 2009.