PatsPropaganda

Sporting News has the Pats as the 5th most needy defensive line, but they should be all set for this season. I don’t really understand that logic, but I understand what they’re getting at. There’s still a question mark at RDE, and right now it looks like it will be Marcus Stroud vs. Brandon Deaderick barring any other free agent acquisitions.

5. Patriots. Just looking at the near future, they will be fine with Vince Wilfork and Ty Warren for ‘11, so now they need to protect against their age and injuries by making their 3-4 rotation deeper.

As always it just comes down to injuries. If the Pats stay healthy they should be just fine. Look at who they lost last year… Ty Warren, Mike Wright, Myron Pryor… basically three of their top four most experienced and best defensive lineman. How many teams could lose that kind of quality and still win 14 games? I’d say no one other than the Pats.

Here’s the results for the Football Outsiders 2011 Draft poll and it’s littered with Patriots stuff. There’s even a full question dedicated to the Pats:

New England’s trades for more 2012 picks: Good move?

54.5% No, they needed pass rushers and they’re running out of time in Tom Brady’s prime.

43.7% Yes, the picks they added have more value than the ones they gave away.

1.8% No, there won’t be a draft in 2012 so they gave away picks for nothing.

As always the Pats are all over the map with what people think of their draft. I attribute this to people not understanding what the Pats did on draft weekend, but it’s tempered with an underlying “they must know what they’re doing because they haven’t stopped winning no matter what any of have thought of their drafts”, so the result? New England is once again on both the best and worst lists.

The truth? There will be hits and misses with this draft class as there always are, but there will be another bunch of picks next year to cover the mistakes that were made.