Patriots Target Size and Speed on Day Two

The Belichick Era has begun, and the 2000 NFL Draft ended Sunday with the Patriots making a total of eight picks, and hopefully coming away with some quality players.

They added a variety of players at several different positions including an offensive tackle, a tight end, two defensive tackles, a defensive back, a quarterback, and another runningback. Head coach Bill Belichick said that the plan for the second day was to simply select the “best available” players at each position, and New England was able to add several players who have both great size and speed.

Their first choice on Day 2 of the draft came in the fourth round when they selected offensive tackle Greg Robinson-Randall from Michigan State. Size and strength appeared to be their thinking as they tried to add depth to their offensive line, and Robinson-Randall gives them both of those features. He’s 6’5″ 333 pounds, but is said to be much more effective down around 315-320. He was a first team All-Big Ten player last year and is one of the more consistent blocking offensive linemen. The one knock on the former Spartan is he has a history of difficulty controlling his weight.

Their next choice came in the fifth round when they selected tight end Dave Stachelski from Boise State. The former Washington native is again another big presence. He’s 6’3″ weighing in at 252 pounds, and is extremely strong. He bench-presses over 400 pounds, and squats over 600 pounds. He’s expected to compete with Rod Rutledge and Eric Bjornson for playing time, and will add much-needed depth to a very depleted position which saw Ben Coates and Mike Bartrum both released during the offseason.

Another player who is expected to possibly contribute fairly quickly is nose tackle Jeff Marriott who was drafted in the 5th round out of the University of Missouri. The son of a logger, Marriott went from a lanky 6’5″ 230 pound frame when he first came to the university, and ended up at a massive 300 pounds after some intense work in the weight room. Marriott was originally recruited as an end, but after adding 70 pounds of muscle he was moved to nose tackle. He will hopefully add an intimidating inside presence to a defensive line which has little depth. Marriott was not rated by most of the pre-draft publications, and was reportedly originally scouted by newly hired linebackers coach Rob Ryan.

With their first selection in the 6th round the Patriots next selected defensive back Antwan Harris from the University of Virginia. Harris is a speedy player who first impressed Virginia head coach George Welsh by running back an interception for a touchdown in a game that Welsh claims he wasn’t even aware Harris was playing in. He is a small player who impressed the draft scouts by having a strong workout at the scouting combine. The only knock on Harris is that he’s fairly injury prone and never played in more that nine games in a season during his college career.

Their next selection was rather surprising when the Patriots selected Michigan quarterback Tom Brady. Brady was rated lower than some of the other quarterbacks that were available at that point, but is said to have great poise, good accuracy, and reads coverages extremely well, making few mistakes. He’ll most likely compete for a back-up role behind John Friesz and Michael Bishop.

New England used their first 7th round selection on linebacker Casey Tisdale from the University of New Mexico. Tisdale is a former defensive end who has good size at 6’4″ 251 pounds. He was moved to outside linebacker before his senior season and played extremely well. He also has excellent pursuit and great speed, and runs a 4.71 40-yard dash.

For their final selection in the 7th round the Patriots chose to add more depth at the runningback position. They drafted Georgia RB Patrick Pass, most likely hoping that they found another Terrell Davis or Orlandis Gary. Pass is an excellent player who was originally drafted as a baseball player by the Florida Marlins back in 1996. He’s extremely agile and can catch the ball extremely well out of the backfield. He was very good friends with former teammate Robert Edwards and is excited about coming to New England.