I’ve been laser-focused on just the Patriots’ draft strategy for a while now, and as yesterday once again proved, I (and everyone else) have no idea what they’re doing. Everyone has their opinions about who’s going to go where and how they’d fit in the system, but at the end of the day we’re all clueless compared to the son of the guy who literally wrote the book on football scouting.
I don’t want to disparage the two newest Patriots – safety Jordan Richards and DE/OLB Geneo Grissom, upon further review both have a lot of very Patriots-y traits. But both positions seem far below guard and cornerback in the needs department.
Both players were completely off my radar, but I’m finding myself certainly intrigued by Grissom. He seems like the defensive end version of Jamie Collins. An exciting athlete who just never had a base position in college. The hope is that the Patriots will find a role for him and once he’s able to fully focus on that, he’ll blossom.
Richards is a little more of a head scratcher. Yes, he seems like a Matthew Slater-level leadership guy so I get that part of it. But can we expect he’ll beat out Tavon Wilson, much less Duron Harmon or Patrick Chung? Nate Ebner might be the most realistic competition for him. And for a second-round pick, that feels wrong.
I gave up trying to rationalize or defend the Patriots drafts a long time ago. It would not be much of a surprise if both these day two picks bust – but that doesn’t mean I’m rooting for them to do so.
I do think it’s a bit interesting that the first three picks have all gone toward the defense, with two of them having a distinct “pass rusher-y” feel to them. The athleticism of the defense should be through the roof this year.
The Patriots have seven picks today, that’s a ton of players who, despite being day three picks, could legitimately play starting roles this year. It happens every year, and that includes the undrafted free agents they’ll pick up the rest of the weekend as well.
The important thing to remember is we cheer for our team not so they can get draft praise from Mel Kiper and other pundits. We want them to win and at this point how can we really get that upset? Only time will tell if RIchards and Grissom become the next Tavon Wilson and Jermaine Cunningham or the next Devin McCourty and Rob Ninkovich.
