Taking Christian Barmore was a gamble.

[Wozzy]

Haynesworth in TN- absolutely

Haynesworth in WAS or here- No!

That’s what I meant. The kid had a light come on the second half of last season and was dominant, his size and speed is intriguing.

 

[203Pat]

I would rather gamble on a potential head case who can play than play it safe with a choir boy who sucks. I am sure Jordan Richards was a delightful young man but my god was he a bad NFL football player.

 

[Steve102]

Huge difference in character issues and maturity issues.

 

[Wozzy]

There’s no lack of leadership on this Patriots team, especially on defense. Hightower is an Alabama legend, he won’t let a legacy player screw around and embarrass the brand.

 

[IllegalContact]

Would you really call Richards a "swing for the fences"? The arguments for taking him at the time were centered around an expectation of steady play despite very little upside.

yes ... unfortunately, whoever swung for the fences forgot to bring a bat

 

[RobertWeathers]

I would rather gamble on a potential head case who can play than play if safe with a choir boy who sucks. I am sure Jordan Richards was a delightful young man but my god was he a bad NFL football player.

"The NFL isn't made up of all choir boys"

-Bill Parcells

 

[Uptown]

Life’s a gamble..

 

[zydecochris]

patriots-christian-barmore-why-fell-in-nfl-draft. Read this article in SI. Apparently Barmore has some character issues, which scared off other teams. He would have gone in the first round otherwise.

“Alabama barely held him together,” said an NFC scout. “As a pro, he’s a real wild-card.“

I asked another scout if he had any specifics, and he said that just general accountability — getting to practice and class — was a struggle for him and Barmore has to be in a very tightly controlled environment, like Alabama has, to succeed. Barmore also was in a very heavy rotation — most players with his talent play upwards of 70 percent of snaps. His playing time just kept dropping to about a 50-50 split. That’s very unusual and sent scouts digging for answers.

“I think he’s going to be a big-time bust,” said one scout, again, before the Patriots picked him.

Then Again, it's not easy to play for BB. He is not like other NFL coaches. I hope he works out, I saw his highlight film and was really impressed.

There has already been some important insight into this subject in the previous Barmore draft thread and furthermore RobertWeathers gave important info in the “Zac Wilson already in trouble thread”. Basically the story is Barmore had some maturity issues and zigging when he was supposed to zag early on but according to RW Saban had a come to Jesus talk (my paraphrase) with him before his third year and after that he really turned it around. Certainly he absolutely dominated his last 4 games and was Defensive MVP in the National Championship game and a shoo-in for All SEC (which is saying something).

 

[Betterthanmost]

I think the niners took a gamble on a kid with limited experience and even that experience came against very weak completion. only Five FCS players were drafted compared to Bama which had 10 players drafted from just the team. SEC saw 65 players drafted. When I look at it through these lense, he was not a gamble. It is not like we mortgage our future to get him.

 

[TheRazorsEdge]

Would say his issues are more maturity/motivational. Seems like a kid who will benefit from structure and teammates who will hold him accountable.

Also given BBs Intel I'm pretty sure he knows what he's taking on and feels he can work with it.

The fact that he was present night 1 of the draft but didn't get his name called might be motivation enough.

 

[Wozzy]

Anyone who thinks this kid is lazy youtube his pro day forty. He ran with his shirt off, at 315 pounds the kid wasn’t some tub of lard with manboobs. He’s in good shape.

 

[TheRazorsEdge]

Anyone who thinks this kid is lazy youtube his pro day forty. He ran with his shirt off, at 315 pounds the kid wasn’t some tub of lard with manboobs. He’s in good shape.

Definitely not lazy physically. He's a tremendous athlete. Its about the motivation and or maturity to do the other things (film , practice , being accountable ) that come with the job. Nothing to be that concerned about at this point considering where he's landing. He'll be fine and if he isn't? Goodbye.

 

[mrbean]

The optimist in me thinks his ceiling is Richard Seymour and the pessimist in me thinks his floor is Ra’Shede Hageman. All I know is that our team captains could have a very busy year. There’s a lot of new (FA) and young (Draft) players joining this team compared to previous years. Guys like Hightower, D-Mac, Slater, etc.. are going to have quite a bit of locker room policing to do.

 

[Hyped]

Every player taken in the NFL draft was not a day older than 24 years old.

It's amazing how mature some of these kids are (e.g. Lawrence, Jones, etc...) and at the same time unsurprising how immature some will be.

At 24, I was an idiot....

 

[zydecochris]

I would rather gamble on a potential head case who can play than play if safe with a choir boy who sucks. I am sure Jordan Richards was a delightful young man but my god was he a bad NFL football player.

Perhaps, but I think "potential head case" is a bit strong. As far as I can tell he never got into any trouble, no DUIs, no bar-room fights, no one game suspensions for violating team rules, and according to Saban himself, no showing up at camp out of shape or off season troubles. According to RobertWeathers he made some immature tweets about not liking AL his freshman year and was late for a couple of meetings early on. And I found a quote where early in his second year Saban indirectly (very indirectly) complimented him by saying he had previously had a problem with going left when everyone was supposed to go right but he had improved and hopefully he would get more playing time, indicating that he did some zigging when he should have zagged early on. He seemed to turn it around his third year, he was slowed by injury early and then in the last 4-5 games just absolutely dominated. Hopefully Barmore's turnaround late in his third year will portend great things from him here with the Pats.

 

[Uptown]

All players aren’t choir boys..

 

[203Pat]

Perhaps, but I think "potential head case" is a bit strong. As far as I can tell he never got into any trouble, no DUIs, no bar-room fights, no one game suspensions for violating team rules, and according to Saban himself, no showing up at camp out of shape or off season troubles. According to RobertWeathers he made some immature tweets about not liking AL his freshman year and was late for a couple of meetings early on. And I found a quote where early in his second year Saban indirectly (very indirectly) complimented him by saying he had previously had a problem with going left when everyone was supposed to go right but he had improved and hopefully he would get more playing time, indicating that he did some zigging when he should have zagged early on. He seemed to turn it around his third year, he was slowed by injury early and then in the last 4-5 games just absolutely dominated. Hopefully Barmore's turnaround late in his third year will portend great things from him here with the Pats.

If his only issue is thinking the state of Alabama sucks then that is a plus in my book.

 

[Ivan]

Taking Rob Gronkowski was a gamble.

 

[ralmat55]

Heard Bedard in a podcast relate what he’d heard from some NFL scouts about Barmore. Basically, the knock is he’s not an intelligent guy. Thankfully, you don’t have to be a genius to play on the defensive line. A good chunk of his “immaturity” problem disappeared when he no longer had to pretend to be a college student which he had to do to play football. Even at Alabama.

Now, Barmore can just be a football player which is what he’s good at based on his All SEC status last season and his dominant college football playoffs performance.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

Heard Bedard in a podcast relate what he’d heard from some NFL scouts about Barmore. Basically, the knock is he’s not an intelligent guy. Thankfully, you don’t have to be a genius to play on the defensive line. A good chunk of his “immaturity” problem disappeared when he no longer had to pretend to be a college student which he had to do to play football. Even at Alabama.

Now, Barmore can just be a football player which is what he’s good at based on his All SEC status last season and his dominant college football playoffs performance.

We can hope. Pushing the pocket on passing downs would change A LOT.