Patriots biggest draft blunder in the last 5 years?

[captain stone]

Everyone was anti Wilson and pro bequette. He has yet to contribute at all as a patriot.

Not everyone was pro-Bequette. I considered him more of a 5th-round talent, so I was
surprised & disappointed that he was taken 90th overall (I would've taken DT Brandon Thompson).
But later I started to hope that maybe Bill saw something in his agility tests & intangibles
that would manifest on the playing field. Unfortunately, because of his shoulder injury he
never did any strength testing at the combine or at his pro day; I have to believe now that
his utter lack of any playing strength is the reason that he has been a another complete
waste of a top-100 pick.

 

[captain stone]

Injury history does come affect draft position, along with talent and production. Gronk may have been a first round pick if not for his back issues.

WalterFootball.com: 2010 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Rob Gronkowski

interestingly Ras-i's injury history isnt reported here:
WalterFootball.com: 2011 NFL Draft Scouting Report: Ras-I Dowling

Regardless, I agree with you in that they were drafted where they were supposed to go. It was a weak CB class that year and BB picked the best available.

But why did Bill feel compelled to draft a CB at 33 when Pass-Rushers like Brooks Reed
& Jabaal Sheard were still available?

 

[coolguy]

But why did Bill feel compelled to draft a CB at 33 when Pass-Rushers like Brooks Reed
& Jabaal Sheard were still available?

Because those players were not high on his board. Bill must have thought he could mold him into a "patriot guy"

 

[Brady6]

I still don't get threads like this. Yes, the Pats have made some bad draft picks over the last five years, but have they been any worse than most other teams. You look at every teams' draft list over the last five years and most have some major disappointments or outright busts in the first two rounds.

I know this thread was started by a poster who can't get over drafting Cunningham over Carlos Dunlap. Which I don't get in the first place. Yes, Dunlap is much better than Cunningham ever was, but he is a good not great player. If you couldn't get over a draft pick, you should not get over missing on a stud not an above average players. Especially since if the Pats did draft Dunlap, they may not have drafted Chandler Jones who looks to be a stud in the waiting.

The draft is a crap shoot. We see as many busts in the top ten picks as we see in the bottom ten picks of the first round. The Pats do make a lot more picks that people scratch their heads when they make them than a lot of teams, but many of the teams who make the no brainers picks every draft miss just as much.

Just look at the Bengals. Every year they get an A the day after the draft and three years later these same drafts get an F. They have been much better in recent years, but they have had more misses than hits over the years doing the safe picks.

I think you like to see everything as roses and sunshine so you take any inclination of negativity as crapping on Belichick or the franchise. It's really just a discussion that would be no different than asking who the best pick of the past 5 drafts was. People give their opinions and justifications. You're choosing to come in here and defend every pick as if Belichick has never made a poor pick.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Well, if the Pats are not responsible for predicting the future, then the biggest draft blunder of the last 5 years isn't a person like Ras-I Dowling or Aaron Hernandez, who looked good when they were healthy and on the field, but a player like Ron Brace, Jake Bequette, etc. who has never looked good on the field.

Because isn't that what drafting is? Finding players who belong on an NFL field? Irrespective of what they become following injuries and other unforeseeable events?

Just trying to discover the criteria we're using here.

I actually agree with you there. I do think there's a caveat for whether or not the subsequent injuries were predictable and influenced the guy's draft stock in the first place. For example, if you're Tampa Bay and Da'Quan Bowers falls to the bottom of the draft because of a chronic, debilitating knee injury, then you are on the hook for the fact that he will have that injury going forward. And that may be somewhat the case with Dowling, where he did have a real injury history prior to entering the league.

Mostly, though, it seems like he messed up his hip while playing for the Pats and it killed his athleticism and derailed his career. I'm not going to hold the team accountable for that - could have just as easily happened to anyone. Likewise, if Chandler Jones gets his leg torn off tomorrow, I'm not going to suddenly decide that the Pats made a mistake by drafting him.

I agree that Brace is probably the biggest bust. I'm just really not sure what they ever thought they saw in him. He played next to BJ Raji at BC, so you'd think that if Brace was actually good the Eagles would have just been dominating people inside. But they weren't, which is a pretty strong indicator that Brace wasn't that great. Even if he projected as a guy who could be coached into a good player, you don't spend high second round picks on projects. I'd also through Chung into the mix there, since all of the shortcomings that led him to where is now were immediately apparently on the day that he was drafted. He's always been an undersized safety who can't cover and isn't big enough to absorb the punishment of being the enforcer (which is the only thing that he was any good at).

 

[Jackson 2]

Jake Bequette. He has incriminating photos of the coach, the owner, the commissioner and the pope.

 

[jsull87]

I still don't get threads like this. Yes, the Pats have made some bad draft picks over the last five years, but have they been any worse than most other teams. You look at every teams' draft list over the last five years and most have some major disappointments or outright busts in the first two rounds.

I know this thread was started by a poster who can't get over drafting Cunningham over Carlos Dunlap. Which I don't get in the first place. Yes, Dunlap is much better than Cunningham ever was, but he is a good not great player. If you couldn't get over a draft pick, you should not get over missing on a stud not an above average players. Especially since if the Pats did draft Dunlap, they may not have drafted Chandler Jones who looks to be a stud in the waiting.

The draft is a crap shoot. We see as many busts in the top ten picks as we see in the bottom ten picks of the first round. The Pats do make a lot more picks that people scratch their heads when they make them than a lot of teams, but many of the teams who make the no brainers picks every draft miss just as much.

Just look at the Bengals. Every year they get an A the day after the draft and three years later these same drafts get an F. They have been much better in recent years, but they have had more misses than hits over the years doing the safe picks.

I am by no means a BB draft pessimist. I think threads like these have their place when discussed in the right light. Rather than "OMG we should have drafted X rather than Y we would have won X number of SB's BB is an idiot". It's always good to look back on where we may have been better and have a look at what happened e.t.c

It's fine to say Ras-I for example as a miss is probably very big blunder. But I also am not throwing blame as the draft is a crap shoot and we have a good record in it.

Yeah you'll get the people with 20-20 hindsight saying we should have drafted X or Y but they are the same people who don't mention the other 4 players they wanted to draft who turned out to be duds.

 

[jsull87]

But why did Bill feel compelled to draft a CB at 33 when Pass-Rushers like Brooks Reed
& Jabaal Sheard were still available?

A combination of our poor secondary, His measurable were good, he was reported to be a top character and he had good college production.

I thin it's pretty obvious WHY we picked him.

Unfortunately he just didn't turn out to be the guy we needed. As Brady 6 pointed out, the guy did enough in re season to be our opening day starter before he got the hip injury... never made it back.

 

[RxJock1120]

Tom Brady without a doubt, taken 192 spots behind where he should have been! (Yes pure sarcasm!!!)

 

[Sciz]

But why did Bill feel compelled to draft a CB at 33 when Pass-Rushers like Brooks Reed
& Jabaal Sheard were still available?

Hey, Ras-I Dowling only has two fewer sacks than Brooks Reed this season. Heck, so do you and I.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Gronk has been disappointing

 

[Huckleberry1]

Gronk has been disappointing

lol.............................

 

[jsull87]

Hey, Ras-I Dowling only has two fewer sacks than Brooks Reed this season. Heck, so do you and I.

Yeah I have never gotten the Brooks Reed love. The guy is pretty military medium.

 

[Brady6]

Yeah I have never gotten the Brooks Reed love. The guy is pretty military medium.

That’s actually putting it nicely, Chandler Jones has as many sacks and forced fumbles in 13 games this season as Reed has in his entire career.

 

[BritPat]

Essentially the story you just told about Williams is a spitting image of the story most would tell about McCourty

But that's plainly not true.

McCourty was all world his first season, struggled for the first half of his soph year and then get better, then moved to FS where he's been all world.

Williams has sucked, sucked and then sucked some more.

either way we’d have been better off with Williams.

Well.....no. We'd have ended up having to find someone else to play the spot and we'd have been *****ing about what a waste of a pick it was so high in the second round. Like we are now.

Hindsight is always 20/20 however so it doesn’t really matter.

So why are you so butt-hurt by it and attempting to re-write history?

How bad the rest of the DBs were that year doesn’t change Dowling being a horrific selection at 33rd overall.

It does because it shows we'd have been screwed no matter who we took. And it shows that virtually everyone else missed as well. Because that's what happens, teams miss on players. It's the Draft. It happens. To every team.

In my opinion what most do not connect but I do is the failure of Dowling also cost us our 4th round pick this season and $5.5 million against our 2013 cap because had Dowling worked out and developed into the player he was drafted with hope of becoming we would not have had to trade for Talib and resign him in the offseason.

Again, no. When Dowling was playing or available to play, he was pencilled in at RCB. Before Talib even joined the team. Talib plays LCB, McCourty's old spot. The arrival of Talib was due to the domino effect of us sucking at Safety. McCourty moved there and his spot needed to be filled.

Not everyone drafts better than the patriots, actually they do a great job drafting but the concept of the thread was to pick the player who I considered to be the worst selection in the past 5 years, my answer was Dowling. I am participating in the thread, and I am not going to troll in here like a clown and suggest Belichick has made no draft blunders in the last 5 years and every pick way perfect. My desire to be “SUPER FAN” is not that strong that I am going to become delusional.

It shouldn't, no, but then also it shouldn't mean you need to re-write history or come up with plain old bull*****.

If you're gonna say "WAH WAH WAH DA PATRIOTS MISSED ON SHERMAN AND A GOD AWFUL CORNERBACK" then you should also note on the players they avoided. But hey, I guess that's how you 'truthers' like to play it, eh?

 

[BritPat]

Patriots needed a CB and after 3 were picked in the first round, there wasnt a whole lot left. Sure Sherman was a diamond in the rough, but given Ras-I's measurables the pick was justifiable. Of course, with the exception of his injury history.

Guys like that are a risk. some work out (Gronk) others don't (Ras-I)

2011 NFL Draft Results by Position - Cornerbacks - ESPN

That's exactly it. Dowling was a terrific prospect in College, spoken about as a mid-first round pick at times. I'd have had no problems taking him in the first as it happens. Here's Nolan Nawrocki's take on his plus points from the time:

Excellent body length. Quick feet and loose hips. Good athletic ability, movement skills and body control for a tall corner. Flips his hips and runs effortlessly downfield (see Clemson '09 vs. Raiders WR Jacoby Ford). Transitions efficiently. Plants and drives quickly and breaks on throws. Has leaping ability and good hands to make plays in the air and highpoint interceptions. Has special-teams experience. Solid personal and football character. Motivated and hardworking.

Some times teams take a chance. Too bad it didn't work out.

Oh, and to add to my last post to Brady6 - we're forgetting Leigh Bodden was still with the team when Dowling was Drafted. He'd been excellent in 2009 at LCB and missed the 2010 season. It was hoped he'd come back to fitness and help the depth of the secondary......but didn't. That's part of the reason we went after Talib last year.

 

[Rob0729]

I think you like to see everything as roses and sunshine so you take any inclination of negativity as crapping on Belichick or the franchise. It's really just a discussion that would be no different than asking who the best pick of the past 5 drafts was. People give their opinions and justifications. You're choosing to come in here and defend every pick as if Belichick has never made a poor pick.

First, I don't see everything as rosy and sunshine. I have pointed a lot of things wrong with this team all year. I am sorry but I don't dwell on the negative considering this team is a favorite to make the Super Bowl from the AFC if not the favorite along with their past success.. The team isn't above criticism, but some people seem to nitpick and dwell on the negative. I choose to focus on the positive.

Second, this threat was started for the sole purpose to continue a biatch session that started in 2010 about taking Cunningham over Dunlap. It was nearly four years ago at this point. Time to let it go.

Sorry, I don't get why people still feel the need to complain about personnel moves several years ago. Belichick has made some bad personnel moves in his career here. I don't get dwelling on it.

 

[Rob0729]

I am by no means a BB draft pessimist. I think threads like these have their place when discussed in the right light. Rather than "OMG we should have drafted X rather than Y we would have won X number of SB's BB is an idiot". It's always good to look back on where we may have been better and have a look at what happened e.t.c

It's fine to say Ras-I for example as a miss is probably very big blunder. But I also am not throwing blame as the draft is a crap shoot and we have a good record in it.

Yeah you'll get the people with 20-20 hindsight saying we should have drafted X or Y but they are the same people who don't mention the other 4 players they wanted to draft who turned out to be duds.

I don't think these threads don't have a place for discussion on this board. Unfortunately, though they turn into people doing the "I told you should have drafted X player instead of Y player" or people who have never gotten over drafting a certain player an opportunity to continue to biatch.

Yes, Ras-I Dowling was a bad draft pick. The problem is that some people will never get over it. There will be people five years from now still complaining how the Pats wasted a second rounder on the guy. Just like there are still people who complain the Pats should have drafted Clay Matthews or Dez Bryant or Carlos Dunlap.