Patriots possibly looking to trade N’keal Harry

[Snags]

@Doctor_Love

They chose to lock down DT with better talent available in the draft and roll the dice on WR. Unfortunately, that dice roll came up snake eyes. It was a reasonable calculated risk, and I can’t get all wound up when the luck portion doesn’t go the preferred way.

Yeah, I’m not upset about it. It is what it is at this point. Had we known we would have been able to Alim in the 3rd round, they might have taken Rondale in the 2nd instead of Levi, idk.
I liked Levi but didn’t quite get all the hype on him…but I think he gained a lot of attention at the Senior Bowl practices. I think Rondale was the better prospect but understand he’s had some injury issues as well…that’s why it’s so disappointing to hear that Levi has had back issues going back to college.

[wesleysh21]

@Doctor_Love

When you’re either a really good team already or you’re so terrible that you could use help literally everywhere, that makes it really easy to just pick the overall best player on the board.

In between those extremes, it takes some real vision to know exactly how much to prioritize need. Hopefully, we’ll see how Holmes & company adapt to that going forward.

I believe it was Brian Billick that said “we always tried to draft the highest rated player on our board instead of need. But it was amazing how often a player in a position of need coincidentally received a higher grade than he should have.”

[LionFrog]

@farmerted

“let the draft come to you” approach.

We had so many needs, fill them with the best you can get. It was never all going to get fixed in one off season.
Had we taken a WR, we’d be bitching about something else.

[wesleysh21]

@LionFrog

Had we taken a WR, we’d be bitching about something else.

Exactly

[Air2theThrown]

@farmerted

This is a good time to bring up that IMO DT is a sneaky draft need. It gets overlooked because we took two DL in rounds 2 and 3 last year. But Brockers is turning 31. Williams is 31. Hand will be a FA and he can’t ever stay healthy.

I’m with you Farmer.

I think DT is a major need. I honestly don’t believe we’ve solved anything yet. Sure we have some young prospects but no true studs.

I think DT and DL in general is definitely in play in the early rounds next draft.

[Air2theThrown]

@wesleysh21

Holmes and Campbell went over this. Sewell was the highest rated player on their board and the guy they wanted. They sat down and had a WR as the pick in round 2. However, they came back and realized they were force feeding the WR position rather than taking the best guy on the board, so they decided to change it. When round 3 came around it was the same thing, they would have been force feeding the pick. In round 4 the board and the need lined up

I think the mistake came in when they signed Reynolds, Perriman and Williams to be our starters. That’s 8+ mil that could have went to signing a solid starter who didn’t have nearly the concerns those 3 had.

We could have resigned Amendola and M. Jones and still had change left over. That’s just one example. Sometimes change isn’t necessarily better money spent.

We took unnecessary risks at WR and those risks came back to bite us.

[farmerted]

Yeah, when I do my mocks I consider this a lot. Pressure can come from a lot of places and it’d be really nice to have some pressure up the middle. Especially in this sort of attacking 3-4 style we have.

Its easy to focus on the back seven because its so painfully obvious we need help. But if last year’s draft is any indication its that Holmes/Spielman/Campbell seem to want to build the trenches. I just hope they draft better than Quinn!

[Air2theThrown]

@farmerted

Yeah, when I do my mocks I consider this a lot. Pressure can come from a lot of places and it’d be really nice to have some pressure up the middle. Especially in this sort of attacking 3-4 style we have.

Its easy to focus on the back seven because its so painfully obvious we need help. But if last year’s draft is any indication its that Holmes/Spielman/Campbell seem to want to build the trenches. I just hope they draft better than Quinn!

Keep in mind that Holmes saw first hand in Donald what a stud DT can do for a defense.

I think it’s a bigger priority than fans realize