New England Patriots missed the boat on Jason Taylor in the 1997 draft

Taking a look back at the New England Patriots 1997 draft and a player they could’ve drafted in Jason Taylor.

The New England Patriots are like every team every year in the NFL Draft are on the clock.

They hit (hopefully) on some picks and they miss on some. Patriots fans, of course, dwell on the misses every year and take pot shots at their draft room for not taking this player or taking that player.

That’s an annual occurrence – a right of passage for that year’s draft. A necessary result of the crap-shoot that is the NFL draft.

Patriots big hits or big misses leave a lasting impression, not only on the Patriots and their fans – but maybe also also on the league, as well.  One such “Big Hit” was a certain draftee in 2000 named Tom Brady, the 199th selection in the 2000 draft.

Teams including the New England Patriots passed up this rather famous player 198 times before one smart, lucky or in this case very, very fortunate team decided to take a chance. It was a low risk affair for the Patriots.

A 6th round pick – little risk. How’d that work out for the Patriots? Pretty good, right?

But Patriots fans also remember the clunkers in the draft. One that has always stood out in my mind is a decision in the 1997 Draft’s third round, when the Patriots passed on one of the best pass rushers of the last generation, Jason Taylor, of Akron. Taylor was taken by Miami with the 73rd pick of that round.

The Patriots, and their Director of Player Personnel, Bobby Grier, however, with the 61st pick of that very same round chose the immortal running back from Iowa, Cedric Shaw. According to Pro Football Reference, Shaw gained a whopping 236 yards with no touchdowns in his two seasons with the Patriots. Ouch, that hurts. What about Taylor?

This is what the New England Patriots missed.

According to Pro Football Reference, Jason Taylor went on  to play 15 seasons in the NFL, 13 with Miami, racking up 139.5 sacks, 8 interceptions and 29 fumble recoveries. Many of those sacks were much to the chagrin of one Tom Brady of New England – who must have a tattoo on his back with Jason Taylor’s name on it – having been hit so many times over the years by him.

So why does this draft miss rank so highly in my mind?

That’s an easy question to answer. I can remember sitting in front of the TV that draft day, like the lyrics to the old Dusty Springfield song say: “Wishin and Hopin”.  I was “wishhin’ and hopin’ and thinkin’ and prayin” that for once the Patriots would make the right choice and take Jason Taylor.

Needless to say, the New England Patriots took Mr. Shaw and both he and Mr. Grier were part of Patriots history not too long afterward.

Mr. Taylor, however, continued to torment Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and every other team against he played for more than a decade, earning a Hall of Fame jacket in the process. And the rest, as they say, is history.