Somehow, every WR drafted is worst than the last.

[upstater1]

Huh? AJ Brown’s college tape blew away Harry’s . Deebo was more highly touted as well. Metcalf “unable to run routes”. Was Harry able to run routes? Or just win jump balls against B level smurfs?

It’s not retrospective or revisionist, I have the college evaluations during those time periods. Keenan Allen never should have dropped below Aaron Dobson. Not on anyone’s board.

We constantly wasted high draft picks on WR “projects” from lesser conferences instead of drafting the well known college studs from big schools.

The long track record of deplorable evaluations of WR talent, and the perfunctory effort put forth to rectify this issue has resulted in the worst nfl offense in the past 3 years.

We've been over this 100x.

The draft thread still exists where everyone posted great scouting evaluations of Harry. There was only one poster who said otherwise.

The draft of drafts (consensus draft) showed him going even earlier than where we picked him.

Why do you think Metcalf went so late? It was because he was knocked constantly by evaluators.

You think he was highly rated but people passed on him twice?

And again, you ignored all the other busts that went before Metcalf.

BTW, none of these WRs went to big schools. Mississippi and South Carolina are not considered top football schools.

 

[upstater1]

Agreed. A very interesting selection given how pedestrian our offense had been the year before…with a young QB who needed weapons to succeed.

Are you serious? You're knocking Gonzalez as a bad pick?

I'm done with this discussion.

 

[archstanton543]

Are you serious? You're knocking Gonzalez as a bad pick?

I'm done with this discussion.

He is when you have bigger needs on the team. Needs that still exist to this day.

 

[festy1986]

Take the tenth WR off the board at 37 what did Wolf expect?

Not only that but he traded back to do it. It made no sense.

 

[upstater1]

He is when you have bigger needs on the team. Needs that still exist to this day.

We need to draft another CB even WITH Gonzalez.

Imagine we didn't have Gonzalez.

Every single NFL team including the Ravens would trade you a Zay Flowers for a Gonzalez.

Please.

This isn't even a discussion.

 

[Ray Ray 717]

Are you serious? You're knocking Gonzalez as a bad pick?

I'm done with this discussion.

You can be done with the discussion but I implore you to state your opinion on the the state of our offense the past 5 years, specifically the WR position and how it can be ameliorated to enable us to win games.

 

[upstater1]

You can be done with the discussion but I implore you to state your opinion on the the state of our offense the past 5 years, specifically the WR position and how it can be ameliorated to enable us to win games.

5 years?

Well, since we're going back that far. 5 years ago we had Julian Edelman, we brought in Antonio Brown, Demaryious Thomas, Josh Gordon, traded a 2nd for Mo Sanu, and used a 1st on Harry. I'd argue that our desperation to keep the Dynasty going when we were clearly too old set us up for what was to come. We spent too much money, we traded away premium picks. We did the wrong things.

I don't blame them because that team was long overdue for a breakup, and they tried to win one more.

The problem is Kraft didn't give them a grace period for doing things like trading #1s for Brandin Cooks, or a grace period for losing 4 premium picks because of Deflategate. Instead, he acted like he had a young head coach who hadn't done anything before. At the end of the day, Kraft thought he knew something about football. But he didn't.

As for the poor offense, we had horrible QBs last 4 years. Newton, Jones, Zappe. Bad, Bad, Bad. Now we have a real QB but no coaches. Apparently.

But one thing so many Patriot fans forget about the team the last several years: our defense was old and slow. Van Noy, Hightower, McCourty, Jackson, Chung, Jamie Collins, a hurt Gilmore.

How did people forget we didn't force a punt in 2 games against the Bills. The defense needed to be rebuilt. And it was. The last 2 years, our defense was fast and shut teams down.

Judon, Barmore, Keion, Wise, Mack Wilson, Peppers, Dugger, Anfernee, Marcus Jones. We made 9 additions, and all the old guys left. It was a total overhaul.

Now we're back to watching a sieve of a defense for a variety of reasons (departures, injuries, but also coaching). I'd submit it is much much worse to watch a poor defense than it is to watch a poor offense. Getting run on is embarrassing. With a poor offense, you win some games like the Patriots did over the brutal 2021-2023 span.

 

[Hammer of Thor]

 

[DaBruinz]

Only two drops? Is that what that's supposed to mean?

If that's what he thinks, he's smoking cheap stuff.

Kid had 4 drops coming into the game. He had another 2 clear drops and 1 that was knocked away that he really should have been able to hold onto.

 

[DaBruinz]

I never want to see players injured. If I'm Mayo/Wolf, I put Polk on the IR. Let him get his act together. Let him catch 2-3K balls a day off the juggs machine.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

Then this year even casual college fans like myself wanted us to trade up a few spots to snag Brian Thomas, or Xavier Worthy.

Instead we got Polk and Baker... it's wild how someones getting paid to do a worse job than the fans could do for free.

It was Kraft making the picks, at least in the early rounds. Remember how he thinks he can do a better job than BB? He took a bad team and made it worse by meddling in the FA period and the draft. Kraft may also have been behind the decision not to redo Judon's contract....so Bob, how's the pass rush doing?

I wonder what BB would have done with the 2024 draft? I am pretty sure he would have traded down from 3 and built up the O-line.

 

[FredFromDartmouth]

Patriots WR Draft Management

2006: Trade up to 36th overall. Draft Chad Jackson. Pass up on Greg Jennings

2009: 3rd round. Draft Brandon Tate over Mike Wallace. Wallace is drafted with very next pick.

2010: 3rd round. Draft Taylor Price. Pass up on Golden Tate in 2nd round.

2012: Draft Jake Bequette over TY Hilton.

2013: 2nd round. Drafted Aaron Dobson, passing up on Keenan Allen.

2014: Draft a backup QB in 2nd round, pass up on Jarvis Landry who is selected with very next pick.

2017: First selection in 3rd round Draft Derek Rivers. Pass up on Chris Godwin, who is selected with very next pick.

2018. Two first round picks. Pass up on DJ Moore and Calvin Ridley.

2019. Draft N’Keal Harry at 32 overall. Pass up on AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, and Deebo Samuel.

2020. Trade down from 23 to 37. Pass up on Brandon Aiyuk, Tee Higgins, and Michael Pittman.

2022. Trade up to 2nd round draft Tyquan Thornton. Pass up on George Pickens who is selected with very next pick.

2023: Pass up on Zay Flowers and Jordan Addison in round 1.

Draft Keion White in round 2, pass up on Jaylen Reed and Rashee Rice.

2024:

Draft Ja’Lynn Polk.

Wow, nice research. Sure, the draft is a crap shoot, but the Patriots have been appallingly terrible drafting WRs and I blame BB for that; he could not deal with the typical primadonna WR crap. As far as the 2024 draft, I suspect that it was Bob Kraft who picked Slo-Poke in round two.

 

[notex]

Malcom Mitchell had some potential and Jakobi Myers. Neither were high picks but solid. Douglas is a good piece and Boutte…

But clearly haven’t hit on a true #1/2… we seem to do OK drafting in rounds 4-7 for the #3/4 roster spots.

I keep thinking they should have hung on to Jones and wouldn’t have needed to pick Gonzalez… and resigning Myers would have freed up 2nd and 4th round picks they wasted on Polk and Baker.

So a 1st/2nd/4th picks to try to beef up OL… would have made a big difference.

 

[TheRainMaker]

How come he's trailing every play? No INT's. No pass breakups.

He has one INT and 3 pass break ups. He reminds me of Nmandi Asomugha. Tall-lengthy CB where the media hyped him up so much that teams started avoiding him. The Pats were the first team in 2011 that I saw show the cracks in his game and LeSean McCoy said he was getting roasted in practice with the Eagles his rookie year. Veteran players were telling LeSean that Nnamdi was a shut down corner when he signed with the Eagles, but they quickly realized in training camp that he was a fraud. The point is, teams are starting to attack Gonzalez and the cracks are showing.

Agreed. A very interesting selection given how pedestrian our offense had been the year before…with a young QB who needed weapons to succeed.

Although CB was a dire need, surrounding Mac Jones with the best supporting cast possible should’ve been priority number 1. Bill had thrown away too many draft picks on mediocre defensive players.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that hes upset with anyone but himself?? With brissett the qb i get it but drake has given him many chances to make plays the last two weeks. Some were tough catches and some were routine, he couldn’t catch a single one.

 

[thecore762]

Wanted us to pick Ladd…would have been a much better pick too…

 

[PatsFan2]

Can’t make it up.

IF MAYO doesn't sit Polly's @ss starting this week he'll be One and Done as a HC here. RK can cut his loses very easily Mayo looks very much over his head.

 

[PatsFan2]

Our 2 best WRs were drafted by Bill how's that for irony

I would like to see Tyquan Thornton running a go route with Drake: another BB WR. Suggesting for a friend.

 

[upstater1]

Malcom Mitchell had some potential and Jakobi Myers. Neither were high picks but solid. Douglas is a good piece and Boutte…

But clearly haven’t hit on a true #1/2… we seem to do OK drafting in rounds 4-7 for the #3/4 roster spots.

I keep thinking they should have hung on to Jones and wouldn’t have needed to pick Gonzalez… and resigning Myers would have freed up 2nd and 4th round picks they wasted on Polk and Baker.

So a 1st/2nd/4th picks to try to beef up OL… would have made a big difference.

Jack Jones? The guy singled out by his coach recently for not caring and not playing hard? He's the guy that's considered a chief cause of the Raiders imploding. He didn't care to make it to practice here, he doesn't care to play there. And he's not in Gonzalez's league.

This team without Gonzalez would be dying for a CB right now.

Jon Jones is 32 yrs old.

If we went exclusively with OL the last 2 years, we would've ended up with a bunch of busts. Look up how the only OT in the 1st round of the 23 draft is doing. It ain't pretty. The new guys this year are too young to decide, but they're not setting the world on fire either.

Imagine declining to take a guy who will be a perennial Pro Bowler (Gonzalez) in order to fill needs, when it's obvious the CB position is, or would have been, a huge need.

 

[upstater1]

He has one INT and 3 pass break ups. He reminds me of Nmandi Asomugha. Tall-lengthy CB where the media hyped him up so much that teams started avoiding him. The Pats were the first team in 2011 that I saw show the cracks in his game and LeSean McCoy said he was getting roasted in practice with the Eagles his rookie year. Veteran players were telling LeSean that Nnamdi was a shut down corner when he signed with the Eagles, but they quickly realized in training camp that he was a fraud. The point is, teams are starting to attack Gonzalez and the cracks are showing.

Although CB was a dire need, surrounding Mac Jones with the best supporting cast possible should’ve been priority number 1. Bill had thrown away too many draft picks on mediocre defensive players.

As yesterday showed, priority #1 should have been shoring up the defense. When you have no defense, it's the worst thing in football. The only thing worse than not being able to stop the running game is not stopping the passing game. Both those things are worse than a bad offense.

As for Gonzalez, do you guys watch football? Every guy gets burned. Sauce Gardner was burned last night. Sometimes you tip your cap on a perfect throw and great catch that seems indefensible. In fact, when a WR crosses like that, the outside CB has ground to make up. Gonzalez did that.

He reminds me of Gilmore, who was tossed over in Buffalo because he too was burned occasionally, and Buffalo did a lot of losing, and they didn't prioritize keeping him. He comes to New England and becomes DPOY.