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Saturday morning Patriots draft thoughts…

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With the lockout back on, and who knows where it’s all headed, this could be the last day of real football news in a long, long time. So try to enjoy it, even if your team hasn’t drafted who you think they should’ve.

Some brief thoughts on the Patriots haul yesterday.

  • Teams are going to need a lot of good running backs when the NFL goes to 18 games (and they will). Again, Pats are ahead of the curve.
  • Jets were smart to take two defensive lineman. Good fits for them, and they were definitely needs as well, especially when you look at the ground game that the Pats have been putting together over the past few years.
  • Frenz and I talked about it on last night’s podcast, but this offense in 2011 will be incredibly different than the spread, air-it-out attack of 2007 and 2008.
  • So Fred Taylor and Sammie Morris? Uh, buh bye. Sadly that could include Kevin Faulk too. Which kills me to think his glorious career ended on the field turf of the New Meadowlands. Ew.
  • I am more excited about the Ras-I Dowling pick than any other. Where they start him out in camp will be very interesting. But definitely looks like he’s a Free Safety down the road. Which was set to be a huge need next season.
  • Not surprised at all that the Pats haven’t taken a wide receiver yet.
  • Some OLB guys to keep an eye on today: Cliff Matthews, Greg Romeus, and Craig Marshall. Yes, there are still “pass rushers” available.
  • Doesn’t matter what the end game with Mallett is, the fact is that the Patriots have some cannon-armed competition for Brian Hoyer, and another layer of protection should anything happen to TFB. Who knows, they could end up flipping Mallett and Hoyer for picks.
  • How many shitty teams enter drafts dying for a left tackle and a quarterback and don’t get either? The Patriots aren’t going to have that problem for a while.
  • As predicted, Friday was a surgical strike of four picks, and then the Pats punted, picking up a late round pick and another 2nd for next year. Their board must’ve been pretty sparse for the rest of rounds 3 and 4.
  • There should definitely be some developmental lineman picked up today. The Pats having some low round picks is really going to go unsung, but those are important parts of team building and just look over the years at how many sixth and seventh rounders come in and play. Pretty often actually.

Tune in at 1:30pm EST as we welcome none other than Fitzy to the podcast to discuss the draft.

Patriots select RB Stevan Ridley and QB Ryan Mallett

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Welp it wouldn’t be a Patriots draft weekend if I wasn’t blown away at least once and here I was blown away on back to back picks.

First we have Ridley who is very much a Pats style running back, even though they already selected Vereen. That makes for a very crowded backfield and that’s even if Kevin Faulk, Fred Taylor and Sammy Morris don’t return.

Ridley was on my big board in the bottom 20 and unranked.

Mallett is very much a prototypical passing quaterback who physically reminds of Bledsoe meets Brady. But the true question is whose decision making he’s closer to.

Patriots select Cal RB Shane Vereen 56th Overall

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Vereen was a popular player on a lot of Patriots pundits lists. I had him at #37 on my Patriots big board. He’s a versatile back who runs hard. Perfect Pat. Here’s the description:

Shane Vereen (RB, 5-10, 210, CAL) shifty, sudden back with good awareness, could eventually contribute on third down. NFL.com: compact runner with a low center of gravity. Patient back that shows the ability to find holes and cutback lanes. Runs hard and fights for extra yards after contact. Possesses great hands and instincts as a receiver. Can split out wide and shows good effort and technique in pass protection.