Rd 1, #29 - Cole Strange, IOL, Chattenooga

I think Strange will be good (he better be) but it's also true the Pats had been able to use low picks to stock both guard spots for many years.

Zach Cox: "In fact, every single regular iOL starter for the Patriots since Mankins left in 2014 was drafted in the third round or later, or went undrafted:

Dan Connolly: undrafted
Ryan Wendell: undrafted
Bryan Stork: fourth round
Tre’ Jackson: fourth round
Shaq Mason: fourth round
David Andrews: undrafted
Joe Thuney: third round
Ted Karras: sixth round
Mike Onwenu: sixth round.

 
I think Strange will be good (he better be) but it's also true the Pats had been able to use low picks to stock both guard spots for many years.

Zach Cox: "In fact, every single regular iOL starter for the Patriots since Mankins left in 2014 was drafted in the third round or later, or went undrafted:

Dan Connolly: undrafted
Ryan Wendell: undrafted
Bryan Stork: fourth round
Tre’ Jackson: fourth round
Shaq Mason: fourth round
David Andrews: undrafted
Joe Thuney: third round
Ted Karras: sixth round
Mike Onwenu: sixth round.

Thus the logical conclusion to be drawn is that Bill Belichick is REALLY GOOD at drafting OL guys. Thus, a first rounder will have a chance for the HOF.
 
Thus the logical conclusion to be drawn is that Bill Belichick is REALLY GOOD at drafting OL guys. Thus, a first rounder will have a chance for the HOF.

That's what I'm banking on. But then again people said NKeal must be good bc he never took a 1st rounder WR before. I hope all the past plethora of OLine hits weren't just due to Dante Scarnneccia. And with Scar retired now we have to spend huge draft capital to replicate his OLine magic.
 
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That's what I'm banking on. But then again people said NKeal must be good bc he never took a 1st rounder before. I hope all the past plethora of OLine hits weren't just due to Dante Scarnneccia. And with Scar retired now we have to spend huge draft capital to replicate his OLine magic.
imo, drafting is hit or miss regardless.
definitely fair to wonder about coaching and braintrust changes and their impact.
 
Dante Scarneccia confirms he hadn't seen a single snap of Cole Strange. So a big test if the Pats can still pick good linemen without Scar. It was clear last year the first 6 weeks of OLine play was a total disaster without Scar and Popivich left.

 
The obsession is with anyone that is in the slightest critical of the moves Bill had made. I haven't been shy about expressing my feelings about how he handled the offseason or draft, less the offseason, I can see being somewhat conservative given the cap space, but the draft, that's a different story. Bill is out on a limb with literaly every pick. One thing is for sure, this class is on him, for better or worse.
It's perfectly fine to be critical, but I disagree that Belichick has drafted poorly this year. We simply don't know yet.

And whose opinion should be given creedence in these kinds of discussion? People like you and me and other Planeteers?

Draft experts like Mel Kiper and Pete Prisco?

Or Bill Belichick, who drafts/signs guys we never heard of like Joe Thuney, Malcolm Butler and JC Jackson, coaches them up, and makes them rich?
 
It's perfectly fine to be critical, but I disagree that Belichick has drafted poorly this year. We simply don't know yet.

And whose opinion should be given creedence in these kinds of discussion? People like you and me and other Planeteers?

Draft experts like Mel Kiper and Pete Prisco?

Or Bill Belichick, who drafts/signs guys we never heard of like Joe Thuney, Malcolm Butler and JC Jackson, coaches them up, and makes them

It's perfectly fine to be critical, but I disagree that Belichick has drafted poorly this year. We simply don't know yet.

And whose opinion should be given creedence in these kinds of discussion? People like you and me and other Planeteers?

Draft experts like Mel Kiper and Pete Prisco?

Or Bill Belichick, who drafts/signs guys we never heard of like Joe Thuney, Malcolm Butler and JC Jackson, coaches them up, and makes them rich?
Oh, let me be clear, the results remain to be seen. My contention is simply that just about every single one of Bill's picks fell significantly outside the collective projections for those players. That should be obvious even for the *********. Ultimately if they work out it doesn't matter, on the other hand if they fail the questions won't be just coming from the fan base, they'll be coming from the man that signs the checks.
 
Oh, let me be clear, the results remain to be seen. My contention is simply that just about every single one of Bill's picks fell significantly outside the collective projections for those players. That should be obvious even for the *********. Ultimately if they work out it doesn't matter, on the other hand if they fail the questions won't be just coming from the fan base, they'll be coming from the man that signs the checks.
Exactly. The so-called draft experts like Kiper and Prisco don't have to own their mistakes - they're paid to have opinions. It doesn't matter how egregiously wrong they are year after year. They don't have to coach the players they tout, they don't have to invest time and effort and training into players, only to see them get hurt, or lose their desire to play football when it becomes more a job than a game, or just not have the right mix of talent/training/luck/dedication. The draft experts don't have to deal with any of that - they don't have any skin in the game. And so their opinions don't have to be as nuanced as those of a GM/scout, and for that reason I don't weight those opinions very highly.

Belichick (the GM/coach) is paid to build a winning football team - it matters whether he gets his picks correct. And not just draft picks, but free agency, UDFAs, and trades as well. And there's a coaching staff that has to recruited and trained as well, and it too gets tweaked from year to year. He has to get all of that right. It doesn't have to be 100% perfect, of course, but it has to be pretty damn good.

During his tenure with the Patriots, Belichick has done a better job of doing all those jobs than anyone else in the league.

And it's not even close. Belichick has six championships as a head coach. The number of active coaches (not named Belichick) with more than one is this: zero.

It's really hard to build a team that wins multiple championships. I for one appreciate the significance of that.
 
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In the games I watched towards the end of last year, Mac Jones was getting killed by an up-the-middle pass rush right through the left guard. Cole Strange allowed one sack in his entire career. I can see why BB might want to keep Mac upright.

Media is starting to coke around after a week of knee-jerk worship of Mel Kiper:


"He allowed one sack in his entire college career," Adams said. "PFF had him graded out as one of the best guards. He's versatile, he can play anywhere on the line, you've gotta protect Mac Jones. I'm not mad at the pick."
Think the change in the guards is more of a function of getting the finances in order than skill level of the guard play. 29 teams had worse sack rates than the Pats, hardly a reason for such a drastic change. Those FA signings from a year ago are a burden on the cap.
 
Think the change in the guards is more of a function of getting the finances in order than skill level of the guard play. 29 teams had worse sack rates than the Pats, hardly a reason for such a drastic change. Those FA signings from a year ago are a burden on the cap.

Did they?

And if so was that a mistake?

Is Bill now chasing his tail?

No quip intended. Legitimately curious. 🤔
 
Informative bio on Cole Strange with some cool stories.
A snippet.

One day in the weight room, the team was maxing out on the bench press. Dylan put up 250 pounds and “felt unbelievable.” Two 45-pound plates and a little more on each side is no joke. That felt like a high-water mark until Cole, 15, followed him and lifted 275.

At Farragut, the coaching staff’s office is right near the weight room. Before long, they always knew when Cole Strange was the one deadlifting or hang-cleaning. There was an easy tell.

“When he dropped the weight, the whole damn place shook,” Doucette said.

On Friday nights, Cole’s energy and football’s natural aggression were a match made in heaven. He was thriving as an underclassman. By the time he was a junior, however, it was becoming a bit of an issue on the practice field. The Farragut coaches began to pull Cole out of drills for the safety of those around him.

“He played it the right way, he didn’t play it cheap, but I was afraid he was going to hurt one of his teammates,” head coach Eddie Courtney said. “It’s not that he was that much bigger. It was just his approach to the game of football. It’s old school. I can explain it this way: He plays to the echo of the whistle. It’s not cheap, that’s the way it should be played. He’s not going to help you up when he knocks you down, but he will shake your hand at the end of the game. That’s kind of the kid he’s always been.”

The week of the draft, intel began coming in fast and furious. Cole was likely going to be long gone by the third round, and his camp had gleaned that he’d probably be picked somewhere between No. 30-40; very late first round or early second.

At around 11 p.m., Cole’s phone lit up with an unknown number.

The voice on the other end of the line said it was the Patriots — they’d traded down to pick No. 29 — but Cole has some friends (and a brother) who are pranksters, so he was naturally a little leery. He slid next to his father on the couch and hit the button for speaker phone.

Here’s how that phone call went, according to Greg:

“(Cole) said, ‘Sir, I don’t mean to be disrespectful at all, but I’ve gotta know because I’ve got some crazy friends. Is this a prank?’ The guy said, ‘Hold on just a second.’ And then Bill Belichick got on the phone and of course, unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 20 years, you know Bill Belichick’s voice.

“As soon as I heard Bill Belichick’s voice, Cole and I both started screaming and hugging and acting crazy. Probably saying a bunch of inappropriate stuff. We were so excited. To his credit, you’ve gotta love the guy, Belichick is sitting there and when we got through, the first break he had, he said, ‘Hey Cole, you’ve gotta act like you’ve been there, man.’ It was classic to us. We absolutely loved it.”

 
It is hilarious. Had the Bucs drafted him we would have people on here gushing about the in-depth genius of their scouting teams finding this large diamond when idiot staffs like Belichick's missed it again.

Said pretty much the same thing to the Bills fan (not HipKat, the other one who's sig brags about back to back division championships :rofl:) on the Saturday after he was drafted - had he been drafted early in the 2nd by Tampa, the media would have no doubt gushed over how it was such a clever pick to ensure protection for Tom Brady and whatever QB comes after him in Tampa.
 

A plug and play starting guard (maybe a really good one) and 2nd and 3rd round picks for #21.

If Strange is even an average starting guard for the next 5-8 years how is this not a huge win for the Patriots?
Bcuz the TV draft peepole sed he wuz a 4th roundah~ BB the GM (executive of the year for 2021) is killing BB the Coach :coffee:
 
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