G
Gridiron Renegade
Guest
Just saw this in Peter King's Monday Morning QB- Tuesday article
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"With what seems to be a large number of juniors coming out early in what was already a deep draft, what teams besides Cleveland look to be in the best positions to take advantage of this cornucopia of talent?''
New England has the most picks in the top two rounds -- four. I haven't gotten the exact spots confirmed yet, but I believe they'll be picking 22nd, 44th, 47th and 53rd overall. As one club president said to me Monday: "The Patriots are in the perfect spot to get some new pieces because it's going to be a pretty deep draft and they don't have the cost of one of the top six, eight picks.''
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Sounds like the long term future of the Patriots has the potential of being pretty bright. Everyone knows that the best way to develop a team is through the draft and then add some veteran FA here and there to compliment the "home grown players". That being said, the draft this year is critical for shaping the identity of the team in the years to come. Hopefully, the Pats can score 3 solid starters from their first and second round picks, and back that up with solid role players with their remaining picks.
While this year's draft class is still a work in progress with some picks (i.e. Brace, McKenzie, Tate), for the most part the draft class looked good this year with the Patriots getting production from Edelman, Volmer, Butler, and Pryor. If they can continue to produce and if Brace, McKenzie, and Tate can justify the high picks used to get them the Patriots should be in good shape. The realist in me is expecting one solid starter to come out of that group, one good role player, and one bust. The optimist in me is hoping that two solid starters come out of that group.
While this year's early exit was definitely a disappointment, the reality is that the NFL cap system doesn’t allow you to dominate all the time. Hopefully Belichick et al have set things up so that they can quickly re-stock the team with good young talent and start a new decade of dominance.
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"With what seems to be a large number of juniors coming out early in what was already a deep draft, what teams besides Cleveland look to be in the best positions to take advantage of this cornucopia of talent?''
New England has the most picks in the top two rounds -- four. I haven't gotten the exact spots confirmed yet, but I believe they'll be picking 22nd, 44th, 47th and 53rd overall. As one club president said to me Monday: "The Patriots are in the perfect spot to get some new pieces because it's going to be a pretty deep draft and they don't have the cost of one of the top six, eight picks.''
------------
Sounds like the long term future of the Patriots has the potential of being pretty bright. Everyone knows that the best way to develop a team is through the draft and then add some veteran FA here and there to compliment the "home grown players". That being said, the draft this year is critical for shaping the identity of the team in the years to come. Hopefully, the Pats can score 3 solid starters from their first and second round picks, and back that up with solid role players with their remaining picks.
While this year's draft class is still a work in progress with some picks (i.e. Brace, McKenzie, Tate), for the most part the draft class looked good this year with the Patriots getting production from Edelman, Volmer, Butler, and Pryor. If they can continue to produce and if Brace, McKenzie, and Tate can justify the high picks used to get them the Patriots should be in good shape. The realist in me is expecting one solid starter to come out of that group, one good role player, and one bust. The optimist in me is hoping that two solid starters come out of that group.
While this year's early exit was definitely a disappointment, the reality is that the NFL cap system doesn’t allow you to dominate all the time. Hopefully Belichick et al have set things up so that they can quickly re-stock the team with good young talent and start a new decade of dominance.
