Tremendous failure in 09 draft. {pats)

[KG Living Legend]

 It was a no brainer to take a LB last year.

 Everyone knew we needed more LB's all the writers from the herald and globe, my friends your friends, I spent hours researching all the top prospects becuase we had to have one.

 Bill said "we don't feel the talent of the LB positon warrents that high of a selection"   

 So he trades out of the 23rd selection twice, to draft wait for it, Darius Butler, Sigh, with the 41st pick. Ugh.

 So who did we pass on well there V Davis CB, that went 25th, Jerry DT 24th, H knicks 29th, K Britt 30th, and Beanie 31st,

 But what really really hurts is that the #1 OLB prospect and everything we needed all in one player was ripe for the picking. His dad is a H.O.Famer O.L. that made the Probowl every year, his name of course is Clay Mathews.

 So Green Bay happiy trades up with us to get him, and good for them they get BJ Raji 9th overall, And Clay 26th, to give them two Super Blue Chip, foundation defensive  players, and thei playing for a title.

 Oh it gets worse to. We picked RON BRACE 40th overall, and D. Butler 41st. Some guys we passed on were,Shonne Greene, L. Mccoy,R Malaluga, J Larinitus, Mike Wallace.

 Thank god for Volmer at 58th in that draft.

[xmuscularghandix]

He likes certain players, just because a guy succeeds in one system doesn't mean he'd succeed here. Ron Brace and Darius Butler are second year players asked to step up into roles that they weren't intended to step into yet. The full season injuries of Ty Warren and Leigh Bodden affected those two directly, Darius and Ron went from 3rd stringers to getting serious time right away. The Jury is still out on them.

And your leaving out the picks of Patrick Chung and Brandon Tate so that you can make your argument. Chung is the best safety on this team, NOT Brandon Meriweather. Brandon Tate may not be a great receiver but he's a top of the line kick returner who can develop into a decent receiver.

These guys may not be pro-bowlers but they all played their part in this team winning games. If your going to pick a part a draft, why don't you pick apart one that was actually a "tremendous failure"

And also, your leaving out Julian Edelman too, who's a pretty [dang] good punt returner and backup receiver.

[KG Living Legend]

 your wrong. Butler and Brace both stink. We took tate 83rd and Mike Wallace went 84th another mistake.

 Chung can't cover or fake punts, other that that he's good.

 But I still would rather have Laranitis from the rams.

 I was hopefull of Butler on draft day but he's clearly no good.

 And Brace was a disgrace then and now. At 40 overall?? Come on. You telling me you wouldn't rather have L. Mccoy or green or DT Moala from Miami,

 So honestly with three picks in the top 41, you think we did weel with Chung, Butler and Brace.  Come on man. Bad drafting, we needed Linebackers. We could of had Mathews at 26, then Laranitis The #1 and #2 rated prospects at their positions.

 And are you telling me that's not a good fit or there not patriot type players? And we still might have gotten Chung at 40 with the raiders pick. 

 If not Chung we could have easily gotten L Mccoy 53rd DT Moal 56th Shonne Greene 65th, all those guys more talented than Brace.

 Even without Chung on our D, Say we had Sanders and Brandon at safety. Banta Cain, Mayo, Laranitus, And Clay Mathews At LB, don't you think we are a better football team. I do.

[Rondo2287]

Before Getting Injured Brace really picked up his game and was and made an impact when Wright went down.  It was a shame that he got injured.

Chung is going to be a very good player in this league, he made plays all year long on both defense and special teams.

While Mike Wallace looks good in hindsight, Tate was the right pick in our situation.  With losing Ellis hobbs we needed somebody that could return kicks and give us good field position.  While he is still learning the WR role, he has done great with kickoffs.

[Roy H.]

I know a lot of people thought Matthews should go to the Pats at the time, so this isn't hindsight. 

The Pats have made out okay, though.  Essentially, the Pats traded the Matthews pick, a 5th rounder, and a 6th rounder for picks that turned out to be Butler, Tate, Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski.  That's a decent return.

Of course, the Pats still probably could have found a way to keep Matthews *and* draft at least a couple of the other guys.  Still, in terms of value for the pick, the Pats did okay.

[Rondo2287]

I know a lot of people thought Matthews should go to the Pats at the time, so this isn't hindsight. 

The Pats have made out okay, though.  Essentially, the Pats traded the Matthews pick, a 5th rounder, and a 6th rounder for picks that turned out to be Butler, Tate, Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski.  That's a decent return.

Of course, the Pats still probably could have found a way to keep Matthews *and* draft at least a couple of the other guys.  Still, in terms of value for the pick, the Pats did okay.

Agreed.  I really can't blame them for not going after Mathews though.  Its incredibly documented that Rush DE/OLB have crazily high bust rates.  Don't get me wrong, I would love to have him now, but Vernon Gholsten was supposed to be better than Mathews right?

[Rondo2287]

And Also, while Cushing and Mathews have performed well, I heard a couple of times that people were not sure about them because of how the USC offense performs. 

I heard alot of the pundits saying that NFL teams were scared because of how the USC offense gets huge leads and then the USC OLB's can pin their ears back and go after the QB

[Greenbean]

And Also, while Cushing and Mathews have performed well, I heard a couple of times that people were not sure about them because of how the USC offense performs. 

I heard alot of the pundits saying that NFL teams were scared because of how the USC offense gets huge leads and then the USC OLB's can pin their ears back and go after the QB

This seems like over scouting to me. Over thinking things. Unless they saw something in his skill set that showed him as completely deficient against the run, then his ability to get to the QB when he pins his ears back should be in the PRO list, not the CON list.

Whenever we let our OLB's pin their ears back this year, they got picked up by rb's consistently.

[Rondo2287]

And Also, while Cushing and Mathews have performed well, I heard a couple of times that people were not sure about them because of how the USC offense performs. 

I heard alot of the pundits saying that NFL teams were scared because of how the USC offense gets huge leads and then the USC OLB's can pin their ears back and go after the QB

This seems like over scouting to me. Over thinking things. Unless they saw something in his skill set that showed him as completely deficient against the run, then his ability to get to the QB when he pins his ears back should be in the PRO list, not the CON list.

Whenever we let our OLB's pin their ears back this year, they got picked up by rb's consistently.

Not saying that its on the Con list, bu I just think they took it into account as to why the sack totals were so high and other things. 

I mean its kinda like saying the patriots had a great defense in 2007.  They were decent, but not great, they just knew the other teams offense was going to be passing 90% of the time.

[guava_wrench]

I am really not a fan of analyzing draft picks 2 years later because people will fixate on all imperfections and miss how the same draft philosophy led to many successes.

[KG Living Legend]

 Mind you this was Bill's first draft without Pioli.

 My point is The LB draft was talented but thin.

 We took the #4 rated ILB Tyrone Mckenzie and he's gone.

 The Real talent was the three USC linebackers, B Cushing, C Mathews, and R Maulaluga. A. Curry, he was and is the man.

 And James Laurinatis from Ohio State.

 That's five deep for the top tier talent and we had needs at both ILB and OLB. And only Curry was gone when we had are chances at ANYONE else we wanted. We had two chances to draft one of these great talents and all of these top prospects are really good players no busts here. Only after the top talent did you fing busts in this dfart like Clint Sintim, And are gut Mckenzie.

 Any of those guys would look great next to Mayo, and I think everyone would agree that you would take any of those guys over Darius Butler, which is who we took over these guys.

[Donoghus]

Hindsight's always 20/20. 

As I recall, the secondary was a HUGE area of need for the Patriots going into this draft.  There was a lot of turnover and the stopgap solutions weren't panning out.  LB was a need but CB & S were HUGE needs, also.

Belichick has always been very particular about the LB position going back to his days with the Giants.  Big DE types coverted to OLB has always been more of his style. Fits right in with his philosophy of playing a 3-4 defense.

The problem with that is that it makes a heck of a lot tougher to gauge the college prospects at the OLB position because most college programs run a 4-3.  Part of that thought has led to the Patriots' reluctance to draft OLBs early in the draft. I have to think that their belief is that its a real crapshoot in regards to who pans out and who doesn't.  I have to think the Pats had real question marks about that linebacker crop and their ability to mesh with a 3-4. 

Also, the Patriots have always been about value and trading down to acquire additional picks has always been a big draft day philosophy to them.  Green Bay presented an opportunity to the Patriots that they deemed good value and went with it.  That turned out alright if you look at the results.

[KG Living Legend]

 Turned out to be alright? Come on man. Butler and Brace are garbage for being selected high in the second round.

 The top of the second you have to come away with really good playersand we did not do that.

[Cman]

Yeah, I also wish the Pats took Clay Matthews.  There are 20+ other teams that feel the same way.

You win some, you lose some.  Overall, I really like what BB has been able to do with his draft picks.