Theory on Belichick's drafting philosophy

[lurker1965]

I'm glad there is a list of people who think a post that begins with "I could be wrong. I am not BB but..." is rated "disagree. I'm glad you disagree that I think that.
At least 3 of you recognized it was humor.

Seriously, people, here's what the trolling example would assume.

Belichick having his morning coffee on day 2 of the draft: "I'll read a few hundred mock-drafts and acknowledge their wisdom by doing something purposely stupid." Maybe Gronk (who was, if I remember a round #2 pick) would do that but I can't see Bill.

That said I would have been OK with #32 being Owamagbe Odighizuwa if Belichick said, "we like the player and all, but we really just wanted to make Goodell try to pronounce that."

Oh, Am I evil because I want to see the Giants-Patriots game so Owamagbe Odighizuwa can tackle Michael Hoomanawanui?

 

[neuronet]

Nice misquote. What I actually wrote, with the part you left out in bold, was:

tl;dr

I just found it funny to see "It has nothing to do with a big board" juxtaposed with the big board in their draft room. I have nothing substantive to add to the discussion.

 

[neuronet]

I'm glad there is a list of people who think a post that begins with "I could be wrong. I am not BB but..." is rated "disagree. I'm glad you disagree that I think that.
At least 3 of you recognized it was humor.

In my defense, I invoke Poe's law.

 

[hwc]

BTW, if I'm right that the players in red were players the Pats had on their draft board, here are players the Pats might have considered taking at some point in the draft. Of course, there's no way to tell how highly the Pats had any of them rated and obviously, some were never going to be available to the Pats. At least it gives some idea of the positions the Pats might have been looking at.

Round 1

QB Winston
QB Mariota
OLB Fowler
WR Cooper
DE Williams
OG Flowers
RB Gurley
CB Waynes
OT Peat
RB Gordon
DT Armstead
CB Peters
WR Agholor
DE Ray
OT Humphries
OLB Thompson
WR Perriman
DT Brown

Second Round:

SS Collins
OT Smith
DT Edwards
RB Yeldon
DT Goldman
WR Green-Beckham
WR Funchess
CB Collins
ILB McKinney
CB Darby
NT Phillips
TE Williams
OLB Gregory
SS Richards

If I'm right, then it appears that the Pats were looking at DL, SS, CB, LB, OL, WR, and RB as their key positions of need. It's certainly reasonable to think that the WR, CB, and RBs that they liked were picked higher than the Pats had them graded. For example, they obviously liked DT Brown better at 32 than RB Yeldon, WR Green-Beckham, WR Funchess, CB Collins, or CB Darby.

 

[Sciz]

BTW, if I'm right that the players in red were players the Pats had on their draft board, here are players the Pats might have considered taking at some point in the draft. Of course, there's no way to tell how highly the Pats had any of them rated and obviously, some were never going to be available to the Pats. At least it gives some idea of the positions the Pats might have been looking at.

Round 1

QB Winston
QB Mariota
OLB Fowler
WR Cooper
DE Williams
OG Flowers
RB Gurley
CB Waynes
OT Peat
RB Gordon
DT Armstead
CB Peters
WR Agholor
DE Ray
OT Humphries
OLB Thompson
WR Perriman
DT Brown

Second Round:

SS Collins
OT Smith
DT Edwards
RB Yeldon
DT Goldman
WR Green-Beckham
WR Funchess
CB Collins
ILB McKinney
CB Darby
NT Phillips
TE Williams
OLB Gregory
SS Richards

If I'm right, then it appears that the Pats were looking at DL, SS, CB, LB, OL, WR, and RB as their key positions of need. It's certainly reasonable to think that the WR, CB, and RBs that they liked were picked higher than the Pats had them graded. For example, they obviously liked DT Brown better at 32 than RB Yeldon, WR Green-Beckham, WR Funchess, CB Collins, or CB Darby.

Are you sure Richards has a red card? Outside of him, that appears to be just the list of underclassmen.

 

[The Boomer]

Just a random thought but the Pats just won the Super Bowl after a draft that included an injury limited DT in Round 1 (Easley), a non-productive backup QB in Round 2 (Garropolo) and no third rounder. Only Stork from among their 9 picks contributed significantly to last year's champions. Mainly, they bolstered their roster with veteran CB rentals (Revis and Browning) after losing Talib.

This year, Brown, Richards and Grissom along with everyone picked later (particularly in their quality 4th round) looks like a much bigger draft haul. Sheard and Cadet (just a gut feeling) look like great FA signings.
The Pats, though diminished mainly at CB, nevertheless go into this new season with much more depth and a front 7 on defense that could make their ordinary secondary look much better than it is.

The Pats have some salary cap room to snag free agents or make trades to bolster weaknesses that need attention this coming season. It looks like they are going into this season in much better shape coming off a championship than last season when everyone questioned whether BB and Brady would ever be champions again.

 

[hwc]

Are you sure Richards has a red card? Outside of him, that appears to be just the list of underclassmen.

Good catch! I went back and found a clear shot of round 2 in the round 3 video. Richards had a black card. So, the red probably was for underclassmen.

So forget what I guess about the red being players of interest to the Pats.

Thanks!

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It also appears that the Patriots selections all have a colored box around the outside of the name plate -- red box, blue box, green box -- as do other names scattered up and down the actual draft list. Could be that these are players on the Pats draft board? There aren't photos to really see that level of detail for an entire round to see.

There is one shot of the wall with the Pats draft board players, a shot from the third round.. It's not clear enough to read any names, though. Just name plates sorted vertically (draft grade) and horizontally (position).