New England Patriots select.... (1 Viewer)

[David Yudkin]

Two final notes: I never knew BB drafted Faulk - that relieves me a little. And Agreed on Brandon Tate - he was falling due to his ACL & MCL, and BB had the luxury to wait for a year as well as the picks. Hope he pans out.

BB didn't draft Faulk. He was drafted in 99 and BB came to town in 00. I just looked at the Pats organization as a whole in roughly the past 10 years. I was not so much disagreeing with you, only that I don't think they have been terrible drafting even on offense (although skill position wise early picks haven't done great).I also think that they were in an unusual position in that at their peak the Pats had very few roster spots available and drafted differently because of it. It seemed life they went out of their way to find special teams help.My main concern over the years was that they spent far too much time playing their regulars and nowhere near enough time playing developmental players. So when the vets left or retired they were left without a lot of knowledge about the other guys on the roster. Now they are forced to play younger, less proven guys because of it.

 

[munchkin]

The team certainly has been hurt by it's early round misses. They invested heavily in Bethel Johnson, Chad Jackson, Laurence Maroney, Ben Watson and Daniel Graham. The depth of the offensive skill positions suffered because those guys never developed into the players they had hoped. When you let productive players go like Givens and Branch, which is part of the natural cycle in the NFL, due to salary reasons and the players you drafted to fill those voids don't step up it hurts the team. Now Moss and Welker have certainly been great for the team but we can't deny where the team has come up short in their past drafts.

 

[Adebisi]

I would say the following guys were worth their investment as Top 100 picks as offensive players over the past 10 years:...2002 #21 Daniel Graham...

Graham was worth the 21st pick in the draft? You can't possibly be serious.

Graham has always been an excellent blocker and has been used as a part time receiver. Not everyone is Tony Gonzalez in the passing game. I think too many people play fantasy football and have expectations that are too high.

"Not everyone is Tony Gonzalez in the passing game?" The Patriots weren't necessarily banking on a Hall of Fame tight end, but I'm absolutely certain that they were expecting more than a great blocker with shaky hands when they used the 21st pick in the draft on him.

Looking at it from the narrow view of whether Daniel Graham was a Hit or Miss, I would say Graham was a hit.

What if we changed this narrow view question to, "Did Graham fulfill expectations?"

 

[Adebisi]

people on here are saying graham is some kind of failure for not living up to his draft spot, but how many players on that list would you say were better picks?

I don't think anyone said that Graham was a "failure," or even a bust. Just that he did not live up to the expectations the team had of him when they drafted him 21st overall.Frankly, I'm more than a little surprised that there's even an argument otherwise.

 

[Kool-Aid Larry]

it sounds like it's just coming down to semantics at this point.

you could say a lot of players don't live up to first round expectations if they aren't in the pro bowl every year, but the reality of the nfl draft is that if you get a guy who's productive for a few years you're doing pretty well, as evidenced by that list I put up there.

there are maybe one or two players drafted around him that you could say were more productive picks, and at least the denver organization thought pretty highly of him well into his pro career to sign him as one of the higher paid at his position in the league ---- that wasn't a speculative first round contract based on his college career, it was based on his established nfl production.

I suppose you could make the case that expectations were possibly for even MORE production, as the optimism is never so boundless as the first round, but I think that's picking nits.

 

[Cassius]

I also don't see much room for debate - in no way did he live up to expectations, but he was also far from a bust.