The 2024 Draft

[Big/Sky/Fly]

Look at the comments in that clip. Bill has become incredibly popular now with fanbases outside of NE. That will only continue and he'll be listed to by football fans everywhere. This is the great hammer blow for Kraft. Since Bill has left, Bill has gotten way more popular and Kraft is now hated by his own fanbase...

Good

 

[ViperGTS]

Look at the comments in that clip. Bill has become incredibly popular now with fanbases outside of NE. That will only continue and he'll be listed to by football fans everywhere. This is the great hammer blow for Kraft. Since Bill has left, Bill has gotten way more popular and Kraft is now hated by his own fanbase...

You are correct, but his hiring of his friends/questionable drafting was abysmal. He had a part to play in his own demise but overall I agree with you sentiment.

 

[aloyouis]

You are correct, but his hiring of his friends/questionable drafting was abysmal. He had a part to play in his own demise but overall I agree with you sentiment.

No. You need to better understand what was really happening and who was making decisions. The timelines are pretty clear as are the picks.

 

[ViperGTS]

No. You need to better understand what was really happening and who was making decisions. The timelines are pretty clear as are the picks.

Explain what you mean? I know Kraft owns a lot of it, as does Gisele, TB12 as well.

 

[Hawg73]

I'm looking forward to this year when we have the privilege of listening to Bill on the McAfee show in his run-up prior to the draft. Bill already said he'd be talking mostly about the QBs but also about the OTs and WRs. I'm interested in learning what Bill really thinks about all these prospects and who he thinks will draft whom. Interestingly, on Wednesday's McAfee show
Bill said a lot of the info leaked within 12 hours of the draft turns out to be far more accurate than stuff leaked previous month. Can't wait.

I've been trying to hold my horses until later in the process every year just to avoid having to retool everything based on late info which
was often dramatically different from the stuff that came out early in the year. Every step in the process, most importantly the games
themselves, but also the FCS playoffs, the all-star games, the combine and all the pro days & interviews refines the info so that January's first
rounder is a late 3rd and so forth. It all changes.

When Bill said that bit about the 12 hours I tried to recall anything like that off the top of my head and really couldn't, but I'm not doubting that he's right.

I think the process is changing every year.

As an example of how different drafting is now then when it was back in the dark ages there is a story from, I believe, the 60s where
the Pats scouts and staff were sitting around in the war room waiting for their turn in, say, the 10th round or something, and one
of them was looking through Street and Smith's College draft guide and pointed at a name and said he thought we should take
him, but somebody else threw some cold water on the idea by saying "Nope. We can't. That guy is dead". and he was
correct. The player had been killed in a car accident or something. We came pretty close to drafting a dead guy except one
guy in the room had heard about his unfortunate passing.

I can't recall the exact details now, but that story is supposedly legit.

 

[Hawg73]

Also, I'm going to follow who gets Joe Milton, and hope it's a team with a good development staff. I think if he had shown any ability at all to read a defense, he'd be the #1 overall pick. I'm also assuming that's something that can be taught, although that might not be true.

Milton has some similarities to Anthony Richardson who went 4th overall last year. Big bodies, great athletes, big arms, but major
questions about accuracy etc.

I thought Richardson was going to be a joke, but he did some good things until he got hurt. I wouldn't be surprised if Milton goes late
on day 2 the way things are going. He's an impressive specimen, at least and had some good games at Tennessee.

 

[gomezcat]

You know it's trendy now to piss on BB the GM. But think back over the years and look at all the very, very good players that he had drafted over the years.
Rewatch the 6 SB winning teams and look at the really good players on those teams.
Yes, there was Tom as the common denominator. But Tom had so many good players on those teams to help him and even bail him out from making bonehead mistakes.
I would love to know what was going through BB head when he saw both DMac and Gronk on the board at the same time.

Really good point about his drafting. I'd be really interested to know why we went from consistently drafting solid guys (Light, Warren, Seymour, Mc Courty etc etc) to the past years. What changed in the process?

 

[chevss454]

Really good point about his drafting. I'd be really interested to know why we went from consistently drafting solid guys (Light, Warren, Seymour, Mc Courty etc etc) to the past years. What changed in the process?

Look what happened shortly after Caserio left. Onwenu, Dugger, Uche and Jennings from the 2020 draft have all re-signed. When was the last time we did that? That's not a coincidence.

 

[king of kings]

Look what happened shortly after Caserio left. Onwenu, Dugger, Uche and Jennings from the 2020 draft have all re-signed. When was the last time we did that? That's not a coincidence.

Not getting FA's to sign here. The biggest factor to resign them. I'm not going to knock Caserio . Last year Draft picks. Turned around that Franchise.

 

[chevss454]

Not getting FA's to sign here. The biggest factor to resign them. I'm not going to knock Caserio . Last year Draft picks. Turned around that Franchise.

Yes but my point was that Caserio either 1. didn't fully understand what Bill wanted in players from the draft or 2. he didn't do his job properly being new at it under Bill. One or the other.
Each year in Houston his drafts have improved. It's understandable that he should be getting better at it, imo. He very simply wasn't good under Bill when he was learning how to do it.

 

[grog]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that rugby players, wrestler projects, division 3 stretch picks, and unknown players from Rutgers are not in the draft mix for the Patriots this year.

 

[aloyouis]

Explain what you mean? I know Kraft owns a lot of it, as does Gisele, TB12 as well.

When BB controlled the drafts the outcomes were good. Simple as that.

The other drama is water under the bridge.

 

[aloyouis]

Not getting FA's to sign here. The biggest factor to resign them. I'm not going to knock Caserio . Last year Draft picks. Turned around that Franchise.

The biggest factor has been revealed to be Kraft's cheapness. At the end of the day, MONEY talks.

Lack of money also talks as you have seen but might not yet appreciate fully.

 

[chevss454]

If NFL teams weren't batshit crazy, Nix would be. I think Penix would be a top-50 pick.

I think they both go in the first round, at this rate.

If things were assessed normally, I think it would go:

Williams - Top 5
Maye - Late 1st
Daniels - Late 1st, Early 2nd
Penix - Mid 2nd (top 50)
Nix - Early/Mid 3rd
McCarthy - Day 3 (Late 4th/Early 5th)
Milton - Day 3 (5th round)
Pratt - Day 3 (6th/7th)
Rattler - UDFA
Travis - UDFA
Hartmann - UDFA
Reed - UDFA

That's still 4 QBs in the top 50, which is a pretty strong class. However, I think you could see those top 6 QBs going in the first round, which is crazy, and all of those QBs getting drafted, which is even more crazy. I think at this rate, if Bailey Zappe were in this class, he'd go Day 2, the way things are going.

You could be right since it's all a crapshoot guessing game now and for the next year or 2.

You have Williams as a top 5 and Nix as an early 3rd. For the life of me, I can't see that wide of a disparity between them.

And then there's Penix who you have above Nix.

 

[ParanoidPatriot]

The pats are in their current position. He haven't delivered a successful draft in years. The offense went to shit. While he was focused on the Defense & Running game.

You just can't replace the players that are lost to retirement, FA, or they just wear down.
We got away with it for a long time. It is what it is. It happens to every NFL dynasty. It just look us longer than others.

 

[aloyouis]

The pats are in their current position. He haven't delivered a successful draft in years. The offense went to shit. While he was focused on the Defense & Running game.

I don't know what to say to this other than you are wrong.

 

[ParanoidPatriot]

That's his responsibility as GM. To replace those players . He kept trying to repeat the success. Drafting Value on offense. It was a total failure. The offense kept getting worse every year. That's why WR has to be a priority on day 2 & 3.

We do live in a what have you done for me lately world now.

 

[rabidfireweasel]

Not only that but Daniels has had the best offensive talent around him of any QB coming out of college in years.

CJ Stroud had Olave, Wilson, JSN and Marvin Harrison jr.

Joe Burrow had Chase and Jefferson.

AJ Brown played with DJ Metcalf at Ole Miss.

Tua had great wr’s.

It is not like the LSU WR class is absurd historically.

 

[chevss454]

CJ Stroud had Olave, Wilson, JSN and Marvin Harrison jr.

Joe Burrow had Chase and Jefferson.

AJ Brown played with DJ Metcalf at Ole Miss.

Tua had great wr’s.

It is not like the LSU WR class is absurd historically.

Each situation gave the QB and their WRs an advantage to look great, including Daniels.

Too bad the Pats haven't had that situation in a long time. Talent helps everyone on a team look better.

It's true the QB is the most important player on an offense but it's also true that no player is more dependent on the players around him than the QB.

 

[Hawg73]

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that rugby players, wrestler projects, division 3 stretch picks, and unknown players from Rutgers are not in the draft mix for the Patriots this year.

There's a Safety from Utah named Sione Vaki who also played at RB and KR for them and if Bill was still here I'd be penciling Vaki in as one of his
classic versatility picks, which is how I nailed the Marcus Jones selection. Now, who knows?

Everything has changed. It's a lot.