Patriots Post Draft

Well this past weekend was interesting for sure.  The Patriots ended up drafting offensive tackle Nate Solder from Colorado with the 17th overall pick and traded away the 28th overall pick to the New Orleans Saints so that they could draft running back Mark Ingram.  That pick confused me to an extent and because Ingram was supposedly high on the Patriots draft board and I felt that he had great value at 28.

The rest  of the Draft was very interesting if you are a Patriots fan.  They apparently reached on corner back Ras-I Dowling in the second round with the 33rd selection.  I'm not saying I'm not a fan of the selection, however with other corners available such as Aaron Williams of Texas, I don't know if taking an injury prone Dowling was the right way to go.  Also lets not forget that the defensive line and linebacker are positions we should have addressed.  When the 33rd selection came around, Brooks Reed of Arizona was still available and in my opinion had better value than Dowling. The with the next two picks, the 56th and 73rd, the Pats took two running backs Shane Vereen of Cal and Stevan Ridley of LSU respectively.  The more I think about these picks, the more I like them however I don't think that taking TWO running backs that high was a good idea even though I like the players themselves.

The most controversial pick we had was selecting quarterback Ryan Mallet of Arkansas with the the 74th overall pick in the third round.  He has tremendous value at that pick however with Tom Brady coming off the year he had, I don't know if it is a good idea to make him unhappy.  From an organizational standpoint, this pick is amazing.  We get a young quarterback to be mentored by Brady and sit under his wing for a couple of years.  We also have an option behind Brady in case he gets hurt which is something we didn't have last season.  The third scenario is we keep Mallet long enough to mature and develop and then trade him for future picks which is more likely because that's the Patriots way.