NFL Draft Info - New England Patriots

“With the 27^th pick in the 2010 NFL Draft the New England Patriots select……WHO?”  Let’s meet their first pick, Devin McCourty, cornerback from Rutgers University.  Many think that Bill Belichick made a mistake with this pick; they could have picked Dez Bryant, but traded down with Dallas and let them take the receiver.  I disagree that this pick was a stretch, to me, this pick shows the Belichick is back to taking his kinda guys.

During the draft they really did not do Devin McCourty justice when they were talking about him.  Yes, he is considered a “special teams demon,” but he also had 80 tackles last season.  His numbers are amazing, opponents completed just 35% of the passes that were thrown his way last year, and he shut down every receiver he faced, just letting up 2 touchdowns the entire year.  He may not pick off a ton of passes, but this kid is a drive killer, he recorded 94 third down stops and 33 fourth down stops, he accounted for killing 39% of the drives he faced.  He is capable of being a shut down corner, but he is also not afraid to get his nose dirty and stop the run, 91 of his 236 career tackles were inside the box.

He is a complete player, a former point guard in high school; he possesses great leadership skills and is considered “a coach on the field.”  He is a student of the game and studies film and can diagnose the plays before they happen.  This is the type of player that the Patriots have been missing since Harrion, Bruschi, and Samuel left.  Look for McCourty to step in and be a contributor right away.

Talking with several people after the first round, people were already questioning if the Pats have lost “it.”  What makes the Patriots so good, is the rest of the draft, and the “value picks.”

That brings us to the second round, and this is where they made a huge splash drafting a tight end, a defensive lineman, and a linebacker.  Let’s start with Rob Gronkowski, tight end from Arizona.  This guy is massive at 6-6 265 pounds, and he is the most complete tight end in the draft, sure Gresham is good, but he is more of the receiver type, Gronkowski is a stud.  “Gronko,” as he is referred to is a traditional tight end that has soft hands and can catch anything thrown his way, and can also line up next to the tackle and be an effective blocker.

Blessed with great hands, he holds many records at Arizona after just two seasons in the Pac-10.  He is a solid route runner and a force to be reckoned with once he gets the ball in his hands.  Often compared to Jason Witten, “Gronko,” should make an immediate impact.  The one downside is that he missed the entire 2009 season with a back injury electing to have surgery in September and just started running again in January, but it should not be a factor in the upcoming season.

The next pick started a trend for the Patriots taking Florida Gators, Jermaine Cunningham, defensive lineman.  This was a questionable pick in my mind, he is a decent pass rusher, but I wonder what they would like to use him for.  His total tackles have decreased each year, but he was still able to get in the backfield and disrupt plays consistently.  He is not the big guys that the Pats usually have on the line in a 3-4 scheme.  By no means and I calling him small, 6-3, 266lbs, but traditionally in a 3-4, the lineman occupy blockers and the linebackers make the plays and Cunningham is not built to do so.  He lacks the overall strength to hold up blocks and blow up run plays, he is more of a off the end pass rusher.

Don’t get me wrong this guy played in the SEC and performed his entire career; he is a good football player that makes plays.  He has great stunting ability and has the football smarts to get in the way of plays, as well as the knack of putting his hands up and batting passes down.  Again, I just question how he fits into the Pats defense.

I was surprised what the Pats did next, but I did like it, they went Gators again and picked Brandon Spikes, the Gators’ middle linebacker.  I love how Spikes fell into the second round because of his lack of speed, the combine kills me sometime, this kid produced and made plays in the SEC, that should be enough to go on.  Spikes was to the defense as Tebow was to their offense, he was their leader and captain like his fellow Gator/Patriot Cunningham.

Often compared to his cousin, Takeo Spikes, Brandon, has great explosiveness and can read plays very well.  He is cerebral in his approach to the game and can break up plays as they happen.  He is athletic enough to also sit back in coverage and be affective in covering a back or tight end.  The things he needs to work on is to not be overly aggressive where he plays himself out of the play and opens up lanes for the ball carriers and he does need to work on his hands to disengage from blockers better.  All in all, Spike is a solid addition to the linebackers.

The only pick in the third round was spent on a receiver, Taylor Price, an underrated receiver out of Ohio University.  He is impressively built at 6-1 and a solid 212.  Ohio doesn’t throw the ball often as Frank Solich, former Nebraska coach runs the option, but even with that against Price, he was 28% of the Bobcats office and can be used in the “Wildcat” formation.

Price is a solid route runner and has decent speed with the ability to blow past cornerbacks and he is gifted athletically to make tough catches in traffic as well as in the air.  Price has great hands and can catch well with his arms extended, and can catch just about any type of pass that is thrown to him.  The only drawback I have seen with Price is blocking, but he has shown flashes of downfield blocking.  Price maybe the sleeper pick in the Pats draft, as he seems very poised and ready to contribute right away.

Round four brought the Patriots the third player from Florida in the draft, Aaron Hernandez (Connecticut Native, too), a tight end and one of Tim Tebow’s favorite targets last year.  Like everyone else, I was forced to watch a ton of Florida football as they were on TV almost every weekend, and this kid is a legit player.  I am very surprised that he was picked this late in the draft, but at least he fell to a team that needs him.

Hernandez is 6-2, 245, and is a athletic tight end, more like a Chris Cooley and Dustin Keller rather than a traditional tight end that is a blocker that can catch.  After Harvin and Murphy left Florida for the NFL, that was Hernandez’s time to step up and he did, catching 68 passes for 850 yards more than any other tight end in the country.  Those numbers gained him all SEC honors and he was the first Mackey Award winner out of the SEC.

Hernandez has great ball skills and he poses a threat coming out of the three point stance or out of the backfield.  He has a decent burst of spend which makes him a tough match up for LBs and he has a tremendous vertical leap to get to the high passes.  He is not the strongest blocker due to his size, so you may see him split out more like a WR.

The only thing that held him back in this draft was his size, but how many times have we heard that before and the player became a perennial pro bowler?  I am not saying that Hernandez will even make one pro bowl, but he played in the SEC against some of the best competition in the country and produced game in and game out.  Just add Hernandez to the list of weapons for Tom Brady to through too.

So that is the recap from rounds 1-4.  The Patriots draft was widely criticized by fans, talk show hosts, and sportscasters all over.  I think “at the end of the day,” (my favorite cliché) we will look back on this draft as a time that the Patriots restocked with some good young talent.

Lastly, there were two schools that Belichick has visited the last several years for clinics, Florida and Rutgers, interesting that he knew more about some of these guys then anyone else.

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