Per NFL:
"The Patriots continue to add athleticism to their secondary with the selection of Dowling. He was viewed as one of the top cornerbacks in the country prior to last season, before injuries derailed his final season. However, he has been impressive in workouts leading to the draft and has the combination of size, speed and skill to be an outstanding cover man in Bill Belichick's aggressive scheme."
Aggressive Scheme?
"Dowling entered the 2010 season as one of the nation's top cornerbacks, but after playing in only five games due to injury, his draft stock may have taken a hit. He is a monster of a cornerback who seeks out contact in run support and is a sound tackler. He really excels in zone coverage with terrific instincts and has the ball skills to make plays on underneath routes. He does not have the recovery speed to play in a man-heavy scheme at the next level, but he should be a good fit in a Tampa 2 system. A potential first-round pick before the season, Dowling still likely will be a second-round pick"
That write-up looks good, but I have yet to see a bad write-up on NFL on any of the players. The line saying he was one of the top cornerbacks is definitely promising. I like that they picked a cornerback and a tackle because I believe that it is a good strategy to make your strengths even stronger so that 9 times out of 10 you can rely on your strengths (I leave the 1 out of 10 to chance, which you cannot account for). We know that just one good corner or one good tackle solves less than 50% of the problem because opponents will pick on the weaker of the two. Only by having both be excellent can one say that the position is truly one of strength. We know by experience from last season that having two good corners is not sufficient either, injuries cannot be discounted. D-Mac and Ras-I could possibly give us that duo. Same with Vollmer and Solder- that looks like a very promising combination. Hey, even the name pairings has a rhyme to it.
I agree with the positions, it remains to be seen if they took the right players...
Pass rush does need to be addressed though but clearly they decided that this draft wasn't a place for that.
