CBS with their grades:
17. Patriots: Christian Gonzalez, CB, Oregon
Grade: A
I had him ranked as the top corner in this draft. For him to fall this far is amazing to me. The Patriots traded down and still filled a major position of need. Nice job.
46. Patriots: Keion White, EDGE, Georgia Tech
Grade: C-
Patriots EDGE all the way. Huge, thick, powerful hands. Tested well but doesn't play to that level on the field. Can be slippery getting upfield or stiff and stagnant when he takes on blocks. Can he win fast enough in the NFL? No offense?
76. Patriots: Marte Mapu, LB, Sacramento State
Grade: B-
Safety who'll play LB in the NFL. Found the football often in coverage too. Big hitter with range. Plus athlete. A little redundant with Kyle Dugger on that defense. And still no offense?
107. Patriots: Jake Andrews, C, Troy
Grade: B
Andrews is a mean battler at center with some burst. Understands angles/leverage very well, particularly for the ground game. Low center of gravity. Played guard before his final season. Must add sand in his pants in pass pro to deal with bull rushers. A little early but a very Patriots pick.
112. Patriots: Chad Ryland, K, Maryland
Grade: F
Accurate kicker but doesn't have a big leg. I get kickers can be drafted but trading up for a kicker in the fourth round?
117. Patriots: Sidy Sow, OG, Eastern Michigan
Grade: A
Ultra-experienced, big, balanced, athleticism specimen at guard who's rarely out of position or off balanced. Combo-blocking machine. Hand work is good. Hard to find a flaw to his game. Bit surprised no offense weapon has been added yet.
144. Patriots: Atonio Mafi, G, UCLA
Grade: C-
Enormous, phone-booth blocker and will devastate smaller rushers at the next level. Only problem is he doesn't have lateral quickness whatsoever and his balance needs work.
187. Patriots: Kayshon Boutte, WR, LSU
Grade: B+
Boutte's testing numbers were bad, which is likely why he sunk this far. After the catch, he combines balance with plus cutting skill to knife through the defense. Not a major separator. Low-risk, possibly high-reward WR for Patriots who works best underneath.
192. Patriots: Bryce Baringer, P, Michigan State
Grade: B-
Arguably the best punting prospect in the class. Big, booming leg, which occasionally leads to him outkicking his coverage. Lacks touch on shorter kicks.
210. Patriots: Demario Douglas, WR, Liberty
Grade: A-
Small, decently compact slot WR who runs good, not amazing routes. Explosive after the catch. Very tough to corral. Flashes a bigger catch radius than his size would indicate. Very Patriots pick.
214. Patriots: Ameer Speed, CB, Michigan State
Grade: D+
Oversized outside CB who wins with physicality at the line. Decent explosiveness. Long speed is an issue.
245. Patriots: Isaiah Bolden, CB Jackson State
Grade: C+
Jackson State had a lot of talent at cornerback, which forced Bolden to play out of the slot quite a bit. He has great length and speed to transition to a more traditional boundary role for a player with his traits.
Every draft I learn more about how language can be used. The word of this year's draft, apparently, is "plus" as an adjective modifying a modifier of "skills."
Note that unlike Orwell's predicted use, "plus" doesn't need "good" to apply that way.
So rather than saying he is a plus good cutter, he has plus cutting skills.
That's some plus writing skills right there.
Draft-grading is a three-year project, sometimes more. Alex Smith was finally having a nice little late bloom like a decade in, before he got hurt (although that kind of bloom is too late to wait for.)
Mac "fell" all the way to "open competition in camp and I really mean that" after last year. He's got a big bounceback opportunity this year. But there's another interesting guy hanging around. It's silly to have been waiting around for the Pats to go QB.
WR seemed to be treated as too big a drop-off to be worth chasing. Think of it as BB doing exactly what you guys want, and
not reaching for a receiver nobody would use a high pick on. Whatever blue chip goodness we woulda coulda shoulda had at 14 (or 17, as it actually happened,) we wanted the corner who could cover him more. In fact, it could be that as they looked for the absolutely greatest receiver possible and every time they found that guy, they kept seeing them covered by Gonzales (and by the way can we just say Gonzo)?
After the first round, everybody could whine about how player X, Y,or Z was a golden opportunity, but the Pats were off and running on D-- in all likeihood, that was the plan.
Life gives you Rodgers, make HaterAde. Don't cross your fingers and try to outgun the gunslinger, punch him in the mouth, directly. Bad metaphor, bringing a punch to a gunfight, but let's hope we have more success than you'd think. As Pats fans, especially Brady-era ones, we're primed to think "just outscore the bastid." We're going the other way.
That said, where's our big deep threat coming from? We rolled those dice last year, but the injury put us in a state of TyQuantum uncertainty. You know, in a Tyquandary. Let's see what he can bring, not to mention some of the other guys on staff who might could shine in a decent system with a QB who doesn't feel like he's in that nightmare where you're trying to throw a TD but your arm is caught in the covers. BoB's not as allergic to the red zone and end zone as Patricia/Judge apparently were.
On Patricia, there is no truth to the rumor that he had a consulting role on any recently exploded gigantic heavy lift rocket, although it is possible that he did have a role in explaining the ways it can be considered a success. This was just a launch in which pre-launch testing was considered to last until orbital flight. Sound familiar from the first quarter of last year?
Mac might appreciate seeing results develop from hard work. The last part of your brain to fully form is the prefrontal cortex, and it takes until age 25. That is the piece that handles decisionmaking and planning. It's probably good for controlling yourself for a season. So maybe he was a victim of his phase of development. Mine didn't really fully form until I'ma say my late 30s, so I can't blame him too much, given last season's provocations -- unless he can't bounce back. I don't want to hear the weapons excuse. Givens, Patten, and Brown, plus Arthur Love at TE, right? That said, the defense won that first SB and most of the games that season. Let's not ask
more of Jones than we did of Brady. I'm fine with him giving an announcer goosebumps after the defense holds this year's "Greatest Show on Turf" to 17 points.
The no-pick at TE was a surprise. Hunter Henry is clearly our TE1 but we've shown we know how to use a TE1 and TE1A, and as we all know, 1A never materialized. I can see not getting a Dalton K.., that hasn't worked out for us in the past. But it was a TE-rich draft. If we wanted one, the volume was there.
A 4th round kicker and a 6th round punter is fine by me. Their evaluation rather than what sounds good to you sitting in your mom's basement is fine by me.
All the IOLs came with "football player" not [position] stamped on them. Solid group, solid concept, but
missing a sure-fire tackle prospect. Apparently we feel okay with where we are, and might be extending the blanket "the offense sucked because Patricia/Judge" logic to the tackle position. That might be in play to absolve, on a trial basis, lot of sins. I don't think anybody's
confident it's true, but I think they all drank the kool-aid on waiting a year before calling guys failures when they're trying to learn a new blocking scheme from guys who don't understand it themselves. How much suckage was Patricia/Judge is an unknown. One thing you can say from this approach is the comparison won't be ridiculously apples-to-oranges. If the guys we already have are suddenly better, I think the question's answered.
Usually excuses are anathema. When one lets you look at places where the picture is clearest -- i.e., where you can do what you know you do well -- maybe it's the wrong strategy, but it sure looks like playing to areas of competence rather than throwing picks at areas of more quesitona
So maybe it's a defense first draft, but maybe that's because of the comparison b/w knowns and unknowns. That translates to giving a lot of guys a shot on the offense, including the incumbents on the OL. It's a deep group with only Cole Strange currently expected to earn the spotlight. Mafi comes with a background at Tackle... lots of lego blocks to move around, and my guess is what they need to land is something approaching at least what Dante Scarnecchia mumbles in his sleep, on the coaching end.
I know lots of guys here are really better at this than NFL talent eval. departments, never mind my rantings.... but there's my 2 cents
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