The Haphazard Blog

After making six trades in the first 3 rounds, the Patriots made only one trade over the last 4 rounds. That meant they ended up making seven more selections (they had 8 picks and had to make 4 of them).

I’m not Todd McShay or Mike Mayock here, so I really know very little about how many of these guys will fare with the Patriots or in the NFL in general.

They took another TE (and another Florida Gator), Aaron Hernandez, with their 4th Rd pick. From what I gather this guy can line up anywhere (backfield, in-line or split out) so he seems more like a pass catching tight end but they said he should also be able to block. I think that is an expectation from all of New England’s TEs and RBs. So they couple him with Rob Gronkowski who is supposed to be a better blocker than receiver and Alge Crumpler who seems to be primarily a blocker at this stage of his career and there is a diverse group.

Next up was Zoltan Mesko, a punter. This is the first time the Patriots have drafted a punter under Bill Belichick. I also assume as long this guy is competent (he at least is pretty funny) he will be the Patriots punter, which means this will also be the first time under Belichick they have a young/rookie punter. One interesting fact is that Belichick seems to prefer left-footed punters.

Their next 2 picks were for offensive lineman (Ted Larsen and Thomas Welch) that the experts called projects followed by two more picks to take defensive lineman (Brandon Deaderick and Kade Weston). They closed out the draft with a QB, Zac Robinson who I can only assume is someone they believe they can develop. It’s good business, especially if you’re able to trade them later for a high draft pick or a good player.

Overall, it looks like a good draft for New England except for maybe addressing the right defensive end position long term. They traded Richard Seymour away before last season and lost Jarvis Green in the off season this year. My biggest hope is they got a really good CB in Rd 1 and they have finally stocked the LB position with enough depth to one day rival the 2001-2004 rotation. Almost 5 more months until the 2010 season begins…