So how do you grade this year’s draft?

[Brotherblues]

If we’re banking on McGrone at LB. Oof things are worse then I thought.

McGrone isn't being banked on as anything other than the third or even fourth ILB in 2022. Wilson and Bentley are the lead guys there, with McMillan probably ahead of McGrone as well.

OLB/Edge other than Judon is a whole 'nother matter...

 

[40yrpatsfan]

They scouted the player because they had no chance to get him at 104?? You obviously don't realize how dumb that sounds. You think because the Patriots reached for the player in the 1st round that the Rams concluded their player evaluation was wildly wrong? The Rams had Strange valued at 104... their evaluation of the player doesn't change because some other team obviously overvalued the player. Seriously, get a clue.

Strange was going within 15 picks of where he got picked. There's been numerous confirmations of that, including from Giardi today. The Rams guys were laughing because their fantasy of landing him at 104 blew up spectacularly, they were laughing at themselves.

As for the argument that you don't take a G in round 1, what about the other two guards taken above us? What about the Jets last year? Almost every year there's a G taken in the first round. Stupid argument that you don't take a G.

I commend the Pats taking the guy they wanted at 29. They'd already made some draft capital by trading down from 21. They probably were trying to trade down again a few spots but couldn't, so they made the choice. He sounds like a very rare athlete, can't wait to see him play.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Tom E. Curran of NBC Sports broke down games played and snap percentages for each of the Patriots draft picks since 2019. Only 2 of the 28 players drafted have played more than 75% of the snaps (Mac Jones and Michael Onwenu). Just 12 of the 28 have participated in more than 50% of the games played since they were drafted and only 5 of them have been on the field for more than 50% of the snaps in the games they played. 8 of the 28 players never appeared in a game. Makes you wonder if the Patriots know what they want?

Here's the raw data from Curran's report:

Mac Jones (Rd 1, 2021): 100% games, 96% snaps
Christian Barmore (2, 2021): 100% games, 55% snaps
Jake Bailey (5, 2019): 100% games
Michael Onwenu (6, 2020): 96% games, 77% snaps
Chase Winovich (3, 2019): 91% games, 34% snaps
Kyle Dugger (2, 2020): 87% games, 63% snaps
Justin Herron (6, 2020): 85% games, 43% snaps
Joejuan Williams (2, 2019): 73% games, 23% snaps
Rhamondre Stevenson (4, 2021): 70% games, 34% snaps
N'Keal Harry (1, 2019): 67% games, 53% snaps
Josh Uche (2, 2020): 63% games, 31% snaps
Damien Harris (3, 2019): 55% games, 27% snaps
Anfernee Jennings (3, 2020): 42% games, 33% snaps
Byron Cowart (5, 2019): 38% games, 31% snaps
Devin Asiasi (3, 2020): 30% games, 28% snaps
Dalton Keene (3, 2020): 18% games, 40% snaps
Hjalte Froholdt (4, 2019): 16% games, 11% snaps
Yodny Cajuste (3, 2019): 14% games, 17% snaps
Jarrett Stidham (4, 2019): 14% games, 11% snaps
Cassh Maluia (6, 2020): 6% games, 2% snaps
Ronnie Perkins (3, 2021): 0%
Cam McGrone (5, 2021): 0%
Joshuah Bledsoe (6, 2021): 0%
Will Sherman (6, 2021): 0%
Tre Nixon (7, 2021): 0%
Justin Rohrwasser (5, 2020): 0%
Dustin Woodard (7, 2020): 0%
Ken Webster (7, 2019): 0%

It doesn't paint a pretty picture that your most consistent/most used pick since 2019 is a punter. LOL.

The fact that N'Keal Harry stole 53% of WR snaps doing pretty much nothing except blocking and acting as a decoy is a travesty. He stole snaps that probably belonged to better players who could actually contribute as a pass catcher! OOF.

Really hoping Tyquan Thornton can reverse this negative trend. It would be pretty unbearable if we got a repeat N'Keal experience where pretty much every single WR taken afterwards was a substantially BETTER player!

 

[venecol]

Pats Grade: D (worse of all 32 teams).

 

[Zuma]

A++++++++

Ugh my bad…I missed the last + …

A+++++++++

 

[Patsgofor4]

We took so many old guys!! (insert whine session here). Why did we pass on Lloyd at 21?! (resume whine session).

 

[SHOWTIME15]

We took so many old guys!! (insert whine session here). Why did we pass on Lloyd at 21?! (resume whine session).

Despite bringing in Peppers and Wilson, I was told Bill did nothing to address the front 7.

 

[Keyser Söze]

Mack Wilson wasn’t good enough to start for Cleveland..,

 

[Patsgofor4]

‎Patriots Beat: NFL Draft Recap w/ Shrine Bowl Director Eric Galko on Apple Podcasts

‎Show Patriots Beat, Ep NFL Draft Recap w/ Shrine Bowl Director Eric Galko - May 3, 2022

podcasts.apple.com

Guest (Shrine Bowl Director) mentions that Strong was one of the best pass blocking RBs in the draft. Thornton, Roberts and UDFA Ray are also discussed.

 

[Patsgofor4]

Mack Wilson wasn’t good enough to start for Cleveland..,

Ignorant take. First, Wilson did start for them as a rookie and played well. By all accounts, when he got the chance to play last year he played well and was liked by the coaching staff. He was just a victim of numbers, plus the Browns analytic guys loved Winovich.

Also here is a list of players who were not good enough to start with their previous teams but became starters under Belichick:

Hamilton
Vrabel
Nink
Van Noy
Lewis
Hogan

I’m sure that there are others whom I am forgetting.

Woodhead’s talent was wasted by the Jets. He was never technically a starter for the Patriots but it was hugely impactful. He just needed to play in the right system, and for the right coach.

Hicks was a starter for New Orleans but did not blossom into a stud until his one (partial) season with the Pats.

Every team in the league has “change of scenery” success stories. Dismissing Wilson because he did not start the last two years for the Browns, when you did not watch him play for the Browns, and before he has taking a single snap in the Patriots system, is just dumb.

 

[*ChungFu*]

Pats Grade: D (worse of all 32 teams).

Have you noticed the early 2023 Mock Draft? The first five teams are the current ones scrambled. Guess they know either their grades are nonsense, the players drafted won't make a difference, or both.

 

[crawhammer]

You have a major reading problem. It's bad...I mean really bad.

What you're writing is making little sense. You say we don't know where Strange was on the Rams draft board but you also claim they thought he would be available at 104. If the latter is true, which I agree, then we know the Rams had Strange at 104 or lower on their draft board. It's not complicated. Hence why they thought it was so comical that another team would take him so early.

Strange was going within 15 picks of where he got picked. There's been numerous confirmations of that, including from Giardi today.

Giardi during an appearance on the NFL Network:

"I've talked to plenty of people around the league who think Cole Strange is gonna be a very good football player in this league. No one I talked to believed he was a first-rounder."

By the way here's what Giardi said about Tyquan Thornton:
"Tyquan Thornton believed maybe to be a fourth or fifth-rounder." Yikes. This pick is getting blasted more than Strange. Just a bizarre pick especially considering that they traded up to get him when there obviously was no need for any urgency It's hard to believe they could whiff so badly on yet another WR in the draft... hopefully Thornton can break the trend but there are a lot of doubters already.

As for the argument that you don't take a G in round 1, what about the other two guards taken above us? What about the Jets last year? Almost every year there's a G taken in the first round. Stupid argument that you don't take a G.

Specific to the Patriots, here's the problem with taking a G in the 1st round... it wasn't an area of need heading into the offseason. They created the need by trading away Mason and not resigning Karras. Just spinning their wheels. The QB and RBs drafted also not addressing areas of need. And taking a WR in the 2nd round who doesn't look like he'll be anymore than 4th or 5th on the depth chart. We'll see about the CBs, although I like the added kick returning ability of Marcus Jones. Overall I don't see a draft class for the Patriots that's going to make them any better from last season. By contrast the Bills and Jets both seemed to have definitely improved their teams through the draft (after both having had productive free agencies).

 

[SHOWTIME15]

What you're writing is making little sense. You say we don't know where Strange was on the Rams draft board but you also claim they thought he would be available at 104. If the latter is true, which I agree, then we know the Rams had Strange at 104 or lower on their draft board. It's not complicated. Hence why they thought it was so comical that another team would take him so early.

You're having a hard time, aren't you? The Rams have their own draft board. We don't know here Strange was on said draft board. They THOUGHT he would be available at 104 or later based on their thinking of what other teams might do between picks 1-103. For all we know the Rams could have had Strange ranked 10th on their board but still thought that he would slide to pick 104 for a number of reasons. For whatever reason you think that every team follows the same draft board, which is dumb.

 

[venecol]

Bill has a fall guy.

 

[40yrpatsfan]

What you're writing is making little sense. You say we don't know where Strange was on the Rams draft board but you also claim they thought he would be available at 104. If the latter is true, which I agree, then we know the Rams had Strange at 104 or lower on their draft board. It's not complicated. Hence why they thought it was so comical that another team would take him so early.

Giardi during an appearance on the NFL Network:

"I've talked to plenty of people around the league who think Cole Strange is gonna be a very good football player in this league. No one I talked to believed he was a first-rounder."

By the way here's what Giardi said about Tyquan Thornton:
"Tyquan Thornton believed maybe to be a fourth or fifth-rounder." Yikes. This pick is getting blasted more than Strange. Just a bizarre pick especially considering that they traded up to get him when there obviously was no need for any urgency It's hard to believe they could whiff so badly on yet another WR in the draft... hopefully Thornton can break the trend but there are a lot of doubters already.

Specific to the Patriots, here's the problem with taking a G in the 1st round... it wasn't an area of need heading into the offseason. They created the need by trading away Mason and not resigning Karras. Just spinning their wheels. The QB and RBs drafted also not addressing areas of need. And taking a WR in the 2nd round who doesn't look like he'll be anymore than 4th or 5th on the depth chart. We'll see about the CBs, although I like the added kick returning ability of Marcus Jones. Overall I don't see a draft class for the Patriots that's going to make them any better from last season. By contrast the Bills and Jets both seemed to have definitely improved their teams through the draft (after both having had productive free agencies).

Strange: I didn't say he was a 1st rounder, but he was a mid-2nd rounder and would likely have been gone before #54.

Mason and OG: Belichick felt that guard WAS a need, partly for cap reasons and partly due to some decline, and that there were 3 real good guards that would be available in mid r1 to mid r2. Are you seriously gonna question his roster management decisions like this?

Thornton: in this case the Pats were at 54 and moved up to 50, because they felt a run on WR's was about to start, which in fact is what happened. They had their pick of the r2 WR litter, and they took Thornton, who they feel is the best fit for their team. Do you know better than they about Thornton vs those others? There's also been several reports that TT was going in the 2nd round. The draftniks were wrong as they often are - he was a 2nd rounder, not a 4th or 5th rounder. It was a great move to slide up to 50 and get their man.

QB: for a low 4th, they get a guy they must like, and it fixes the backup QB position for years, cheap. They don't like Stidham going forward.

 

[loosebearing]

Big Picture


Original Picks: 21, 54, 85, 127, 164, 200, 242

Comp Picks: None

Picks Made: 29, 50, 85, 121, 127, 137, 183, 200, 210, 245


Players Traded for Picks: Shaq Mason, Sony Michel, Ryan Izzo,

Players Added from Picks: DeVante Parker, Trent Brown, Shaun Wade, Isaiah Ford, Yasir Durant

Next years Draft: Traded their 3rd Round pick but picked up Carolina’s 3rd Round pick
Picked up a 4th Round pick from Rams
Traded their 5th Round pick


NEW: WR: DeVante Parker
Tyquan Thornton

OL: Trent Brown
Cole Strange
Chasen Hines
Yasir Durant
Andrew Stueber

RB: Pierre Strong
Kevin Harris

QB: Bailey Zappe


DL: Sam Roberts

CB: Shaun Wade
Marcus Jones
Jack Jones

 

[mgteich]

Mack Wilson wasn’t good enough to start for Cleveland..,

point well taken

Wilson should be considered a backup to Bentley and McMillan. The open question is whether anyone else will step up (McGrone? Jennings? Langi?)

 

[Patsgofor4]

point well taken

Wilson should be considered a backup to Bentley and McMillan. The open question is whether anyone else will step up (McGrone? Jennings? Langi?)

Again…

Wilson started and played well as a 21 year-old rookie. He was likely a player that BB and Co. were high on his draft year but the board didn’t fall their way.

Here is a list of players who were not good enough to start with their previous teams but became starters under Belichick:

Hamilton
Vrabel
Nink
Van Noy
Lewis
Hogan

I’m sure that there are others whom I am forgetting.

Woodhead’s talent was wasted by the Jets. He was never technically a starter for the Patriots but it was hugely impactful. He just needed to play in the right system, and for the right coach.

Hicks was a starter for New Orleans but did not blossom into a stud until his one (partial) season with the Pats.

Every team in the league has “change of scenery” success stories. Dismissing Wilson because he did not start the last two years for the Browns, when you did not watch him play for the Browns, and before he has taking a single snap in the Patriots system, is just dumb. To assume that Wilson won’t be a starter is very odd to me, at this point.

 

[Deus Irae]

With a dull pencil and a good eraser

 

[rochrist]

Mack Wilson wasn’t good enough to start for Cleveland..,

And we all know how a) Cleveland is the gold standard of football team management and b) Bill has never gotten an under-utilized castoff from another team and put them in a position to succeed, amirite?