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New England Patriots 2020 Draft: Grading another disappointing draft

By Michael DeVito

MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Safety Kyle Dugger #23 from Lenoir Rhyne of the South Team during the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Safety Kyle Dugger #23 from Lenoir Rhyne of the South Team during the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images) /
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New England Patriots Bill Belichick (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
New England Patriots Bill Belichick (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images) /

Grade for the 2020 New England Patriots draft

Throughout all those years and all those bad drafts and other personnel moves, there was one constant for the New England Patriots. One great equalizer. A player so singularly talented that he put the entire team on his back and on his own willed the team to unprecedented success.

In the process, he turned ordinary or mediocre players into stars, who often then left to cash in on his brilliance. Of course, that was Tom Brady.

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Because of bad decision making by the team’s ownership, which essentially abdicated its authority to the Head Coach, they lost this most prized asset to Tampa Bay after 20 years of loyal, sustained, and unequaled success.

Tom Brady was the ultimate fall-back position. The singular most capable individual player ever who could elevate teams to greatness or near greatness simply by being there at the helm of the offense.

The New England Patriots kicked him to the curb, this ultimate safety valve who time and time again provided a means of escape, deliverance, and extrication from the personnel ineptitude and poor drafting during most of those years. Now, that ultimate safety net is gone. He will no longer cover up the glaring flaws in drafting and personnel recruitment by the New England Patriots that were so obvious to so many for so long.

Bill Belichick and his draft team had an opportunity to break the mold this offseason and replace their legendary quarterback now lost to free agency with a new dynamic offense. That was the chance. The opportunity. The hope. They passed.

The Patriots will now rely on a journeyman and basically a rookie who has thrown 4 passes in his NFL career to step into the same Patriot offense and attempt to be Brady-like. It’s not happening. This is a prescription for a losing season and I absolutely see that coming.

My final grade for the 2020 NFL draft to this point is … D+. There is a slight chance that this could elevate their final grade perhaps even to a C with some good choices later in the draft.

Next. New England Patriots: Kyle Dugger will be a Bill Belichick prize. dark

This is totally wishful thinking (like my enthusiasm after the trade on Thursday night. Foolish.). Don’t count on it.

It’s not happening.

The New England Patriots are set in their ways and won’t or can’t change. But the difference in 2020 is, they won’t have that safety valve to bail them out again.

I see at best a 5-11 season on the way. Or, if New England Patriot fans are lucky, even worse and the Patriots win the race to the bottom and get to select Trevor Lawrence in next season’s draft with the No. 1 pick. Maybe they’d select him … In any event, expect the worst in 2020.

Maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. But don’t bet on it. I see a lousy fall and a long Patriots winter ahead.

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