Return of the Patriots Rookie Eyeball Test: 2019 Edition

An annual fixture on the blog, for some reason I missed last year’s rookie eyeball test so we’ve got to bounce back this year and there’s plenty of guys to critique with an entirely superficial judgment of them solely on their helmet/facemask choices.

We used to be able to also include number selection but that’s on the backburner once again this year as Bill Belichick has repeated what he did last year — giving rookies numbers in the 50s based on their draft order.

Let’s run it down in order of pick/50’s number, click on the player’s name link to see a pic of them.

50 – N’Keal Harry – A+ – He doesn’t even have a number yet but as long as he doesn’t end up with 17, Harry looks like the real deal. My favorite part, the throwback mouthguard. The first-rounder was making plays all over the place in Thursday’s OTA and that, combined with his look, is a good sign that Harry might just be a superstar.

51 – JoeJuan Williams – A – Williams seems like the rare player that is just such a prototypical football body that anything will probably look good on him. A bigger guy, Williams is long, lean and cut, the perfect cornerback specimen. He doesn’t need the Ty Law facemask to make him look like he’s good, his body and movement do that. The clear shield is a nice little touch. When Williams and Harry get their real numbers no one will be more excited than your faithful blogger.

52 – Chase Winovich – D – I really want to love Winovich and despite his temp 52 making him look like Clay Matthews Jr. Jr. this facemask/helmet combo has got to go. This pic of him next to the second coming of Jamie Collines (literally) says it all. Collins, despite rocking 8, looks pretty badass even if I do prefer his old unsafer helmet choice. Winovich looks JV right now and I’m really disappointed for completely non-football playing reasons. I’m sure he’ll figure it out, but if you can’t even look good wearing a good number it shows how far he has to go.

53 – Damien Harris – A- – Numbers have huge weight with running backs but Harris is off to a good start although the helmet/facemask combo is pretty standard now. Unfortunately/fortunately safety has really eaten into football helmet style. Harris is one of the guys I’m most excited about, I think he and Michel could really make a powerful 1-2 combo. But more exciting will be finding out what number he gets.

58 – Jarrett Stidham – INC -This has become kind of the generic quarterback look with the new helmet. Gone are the days of tons of choices for quarterbacks. Honestly you won’t even be able to tell Stidham and Danny Etling, who also wore 58 last year, apart. Numbers are huge for QBs but gone are the days of quarterbacks getting to choose the now-banned Brady helmet. Now even Brady will have to use this one (though he got rid of the second top bar before going back to old reliable for the last time in 2018).

60 – Jake Bailey – B – It’s hard for me to get really excited about a punter look unless someone tried to bring back the Tony Franklin single bar with one shoe off. That would be bold and way dangerous. Given some other terrible directions Bailey could’ve gone we’ll ring him up with a solid B, with a good number pick possible to elevate that to a B+, which is pretty much the highest a punter look can go.