Seriously? Graham, Watson and Maroney were outright busts, and Meriweather, IMO, will never live up to his draft position (he should not have been a pro bowler and won't repeat it). So of 9 first round picks, he's hit on 5, plus one middling. That's a decent track record, no more, no less.
Meriweather has been a *two-time* pro-bowler. Look, I know that's not a perfect way to judge talent...there are flaws with pro-bowl selections. But he's already been selected twice...not just once. Clearly, the guy can play.
I've already said that Maroney and Watson were disappointments. I wouldn't call them "busts" though. A "bust" is someone that is drafted with high expectations and contributes nothing. Vernon Gholston comes to mind. Maroney, though not as productive as we'd have liked, was still a starter. He was hurt one year, but in the other three years with the Pats he rushed for 2337 yds (4.2 avg) and 21 td. That's an average of 779 yds and 7 td a year. That's not a "bust", not for the 21st overall pick. It's not as much as we wanted, which is why I labeled him a disappointment, but he wasn't a "bust".
Watson, meanwhile, was similar. In his 5 full seasons with the Pats (he only played 1 game in 2004), he had 2086 receiving yds and 20 td. That comes to 417 yds and 5 td a year. Again, not as productive as we had hoped, but not many TE in the NFL averaged 5 td a year from 2005-2009. It might surprise you, but it's the same # of TD that Jason Witten had over the same time span.
Again, he wasn't as productive as we hoped he would be, no doubt. Hence the label "disappointment". But a "bust"? No, a bust is a guy that really gives you nothing. Ben Watson certainly didn't give the Patriots "nothing". He was a starter.
Dustin Keller, meanwhile, a guy you labeled a "hit", has put up, in 3 years, these numbers: 1744 yds and 10 td. That averages out to 581 yds and 3.3 td a year.
So the Jets' "hit" at TE has averaged 581 yds and 3.3 td a year.
The Pats' "bust" at TE averaged 417 yds and 5 td a year.
Ok.......
Again, I just listed facts regarding BB's 10 first round picks with the Pats:
- 4 all-pros
- 6 pro-bowlers
- 10 starters total
- 2 non-pro-bowl, but solid starters
- 2 non-pro-bowl, but disappointing, starters
Zero "busts". Not all home runs....but a lot of them were.
(By way of comparison only, here are Mike Tannenbaum's first round picks:
Ferguson (hit), Mangold (hit), Revis (hit), Gholston (miss), Keller (hit), Sanchez (hit), Wilson (Jury's out) - that's 5/6, 5/7 at worst.
Ozzie Newsome's last 10 years:
Heap (hit), Reed (hit), Suggs (hit), Boller (miss), Clayton (miss), Ngata (hit), Grubbs (hit), Flacco (hit), Oher (hit) - 7/9 good picks.
Those are good first round records (though Tannenbaum is way too small of a sample size to really make a judgment on him, yet)
