Malcolm Mitchell waived

[maineman209]

Ok. I'll look for some blocking plays. I may already have some from the Tampa game loaded up. I'll check.

If you can find it, I recall one from the second half of the season (I think) on a Dion Lewis run. May have been a Lazar clip featuring Lewis.

The Pats were in, or pretty close to, the Red Zone. Lewis took a handoff for a run up the middle. Dorsett blocked a DB (I think), then turned and took on an LB, delaying him just long enough for Lewis to get by. IIRC, that sprung Lewis for an extra five yards or so.

It was a great block that very few noticed, although I'm sure BB did.

 

[maineman209]

You may not like what he says, but can you really argue without being a homer? These are their highest picks, and while Edelman turned out to be good, it took a long time, it almost wasn’t to be, and I could include a long list of late rounders as well.

-Bethel Johnson
-Chad Jackson
-Taylor Price
-Aaron Dobson
-Josh Boyce
-Malcolm Mitchell (though the injury risk has been well covered)

As @Triumph stated, you need to go back to Givens and Branch to find guys that made any type of contributions and weren’t complete disasters.

I’ll say this though: I think the Patriots are very reluctant to draft a WR high because they have no idea how these guys will adapt to a very complicated offense, so there’s a greater bust potential that these physically gifted freaks in the first/early second round will just be wasted talents since they can’t grasp the mental game. Brady is a perfectionist and very demanding quarterback. I think Chad Jackson really made them pause and reevaluate.

Fortunately, they’ve solved this problem throughout the years by identifying undervalued talent around the league and made some great free agent signings, buying low and getting huge returns. Welker and Hogan are the best examples. Amendola is another, though he didn’t come cheap.

As for Pittsburgh, it really is a different system with more of a schoolyard offense. Despite the great WRs, they often have a middling offense because they turn the ball over way more than the Patriots and have a ton of “bust” games where nothing works. Their offense is really inflexible and dependent on the defense, whereas the Patriots are more adaptive and require more versatility and intelligence from their players. The Patriots offense is always better than the Steelers offense - they score more points, lay fewer duds, and turn the ball over way less. So, there is certainly a price the Steelers pay in their love for athleticism and highlight reel receivers. You may also want to consider that Burress, Holmes, Wallace, and Brown are also selfish turds with huge egos, with Brown’s surprising reveal coming last year while seething after a win that he didn’t get the ball enough and constantly *****ing about everything that wasn’t designed around padding his stats...but that’s just what they got on camera. I imagine he’s a real team guy when those locker room doors are closed (eye roll.)

During BB's tenure, the Steelers have drafted a lot more WRs than the Pats have, including a significant percentage of outright busts. In fact, the number of their busts is roughly equal to the number of WRs that Pats have drafted in total, IIRC.

 

[maineman209]

To me it is easier to project players where you have NFL level tape than kids coming out of college.

Same thing with RBs. The Michel pick was surprising to me because BB spending a draft pick on an RB has been rare over the past decade. Most other teams seem to draft at least one RB every other year.

 

[luuked]

Same thing with RBs. The Michel pick was surprising to me because BB spending a draft pick on an RB has been rare over the past decade. Most other teams seem to draft at least one RB every other year.

Gotta be one of the highest evals they had in a long time. To be fair his blocking ability looked really, really good. And if you listen to Lombardi describing Sony it is difficult not to be excited.

But this kid, to me, is the prototypical NFL back. He can catch the ball, he can impact the passing game. Remember how we have to evaluate running backs– it’s block, catch, run. It isn’t run, catch, block. And this kid blocks well. This kid can be impactful. I love this kid as a player.

We know BB and Lombardi worked together on the eval system already back in the Browns days so you can kinda take this verbatim for what BB thinks.

 

[DarrylS]

Too bad for Malcolm, hope he keeps up his efforts to get kids to read...

 

[Mack Herron]

 

[Snooky97]

One thing to remember about our WRs - They need to be smart, they need to understand Routes, Timing, precession.

There are very few WRs that come out of college like that. Steelers WRs they need to
Be strong fast. We ask more from our WRs that most teams do in the league. Look at Dorsett he understands blocking. It’s little things like that which is why WRs are hard for us to draft

 

[ensoul]

Thought he looked good when he played but he was always injured. Oh well we'll just add him to the large pile of other bust WR BB drafted.

 

[patriot1136]

Not sure where I read this, but supposedly Mitchell has some kind of degenerative knee condition?

 

[maineman209]

Thought he looked good when he played but he was always injured. Oh well we'll just add him to the large pile of other bust WR BB drafted.

It's actually a fairly small pile compared to other teams.

 

[IllegalContact]

just add him to the endless list of lousy WRs

 

[IllegalContact]

It's actually a fairly small pile compared to other teams.

and your basis for this is?

 

[luuked]

Thought he looked good when he played but he was always injured. Oh well we'll just add him to the large pile of other bust WR BB drafted.

Dont see MM as bust at all. For where he was drafted to directly contribute in a SB win is worth the pick alone.

 

[Kontradiction]

Dont see MM as bust at all. For where he was drafted to directly contribute in a SB win is worth the pick alone.

Agree. Not a home run by any stretch of the imagination. That would be insane. But the selection at that draft spot was more than worthwhile for a Super Bowl stretch run alone.

 

[luuked]

Agree. Not a home run by any stretch of the imagination. That would be insane. But the selection at that draft spot was more than worthwhile for a Super Bowl stretch run alone.

Definitely not a home run. Someone like Trey Flowers was an absolute home run. That is approximately the trajectory you would have to show to be considered a great pick.

 

[Triumph]

During BB's tenure, the Steelers have drafted a lot more WRs than the Pats have, including a significant percentage of outright busts. In fact, the number of their busts is roughly equal to the number of WRs that Pats have drafted in total, IIRC.

What indication leads anyone to believe that if NE drafted more WRs that they would become good players?

 

[Triumph]

just add him to the endless list of lousy WRs

WRs and RBs.

This Sonny guy is off on the wrong foot too.

 

[n6249c]

During BB's tenure with the Pats, the other 31 teams have drafted something like half-again as many WRs, on average, including at least two in the 1st round. BB's success rate isn't significantly below average on drafting WRs, especially considering how late the Pats typically draft in each round. Because he's drafted significantly fewer WRs than most other teams, he has fewer "hits" to show for it. And fans tend to compare the raw quantity of "hits" without taking into account the context.

Same thing with RBs. The Michel pick was surprising to me because BB spending a draft pick on an RB has been rare over the past decade. Most other teams seem to draft at least one RB every other year.

Seems like strong evidence that BB does not regard the draft as his preferred means of acquiring talent in these positions. Looking at his draft history it seems to me he prefers to build the core front seven through the draft and then fill in around them however he can pick up talent. That's why he has built a reputation for taking other teams cast-offs and turning them into solid performers. Then they go elsewhere to cash out and he does it again. and again. while the armchair interwebz experts froth about his inability to draft. 7 AFCCG appearances in a row (and counting) says his approach works.

 

[IllegalContact]

WRs and RBs.

This Sonny guy is off on the wrong foot too.

with the RB's, there has been some relative success......White, Vereen, Ridley.....you have to go back to Maroney for failure

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

During BB's tenure, the Steelers have drafted a lot more WRs than the Pats have, including a significant percentage of outright busts. In fact, the number of their busts is roughly equal to the number of WRs that Pats have drafted in total, IIRC.

I’ll take your word for it, but they’ve also drafted many good/superstar receivers in Burress, Holmes, Wallace, E Sanders, and Brown. Schuster is also looking great. Arguably all five of those guys were better than Branch from a real simple look (though more on that in next paragraph), the Patriots best receiver. There are no similarities in any way...the Steelers have been light years ahead when it comes to success rate, possibly the #1/#32 teams, even if the Steelers have made more picks. Your facts may be true, but it just means the Patriots need to draft about six consecutive home run picks at WR for the teams to be even. How likely is that?

I’ve already made my thoughts known in my last post, though, which is I suspect the Steelers “success” with these players has a lot to do with simpler schemes and has a lot of drawback, almost like an unintuitive sabermetric look at the situation. Their offense is rarely elite and there are problems with players that don’t have brains and don’t sacrifice for the good of the team. Outside of Brown - who is a huge diva -not one of those other star players - Burress, Holmes, Wallace, or Sanders - was re-upped after their rookie contracts. Leads me to believe they are more replaceable within that offense than the common fan would believe.