New England Patriots: Drafting Justin Rohrwasser very questionable

The New England Patriots continued their “race to the bottom” by botching their first pick of day 3 of the 2020 NFL draft in the 5th round.

The New England Patriots continued to waste valuable draft capital on questionable picks in the 5th round of the NFL 2020 draft.

What began on Friday with a day full of questionable picks has continued into Day 3 of the draft. The Patriots selected a kicker in the 5th round.

The selection of a kicker was neither unexpected nor unwelcome. They didn’t have a kicker entering the draft. This time the faux pas was the specific kicker they selected. They took the relatively unheralded Justin Rohrwasser a placekicker from Marshall.

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Now using a draft pick on a kicker or punter is not altogether unusual though the use of a not-insignificant 5th round pick is questionable, in my opinion.

The Patriots themselves selected punter Jake Bailey in last year’s draft in the 5th round and Bailey beat out incumbent punter Ryan Allen for the job. OK, but that was still a reach in the 5th round. But at least Bailey was a highly rated punter.

Rohrwasser is another “out-of-left-field” pick by New England. Espn.com notes in their overview of the player, that there is, “No available information.”. Not a great sign.

Rohrwasser’s stats are noted by boston.com this way,

"Rohrwasser made 15 of his 20 field goal attempts (75 percent) and 39 of his 41 extra-point attempts (98 percent). In two seasons at Marshall, he made 33 of his 42 field goal attempts (78.6 percent) and 79 of his 82 extra-point attempts (96.3 percent)."

Now, I’m no specialist in placekicker statistics, but those are not top-shelf. Other kickers, like Rodrigo Blankenship of Georgia, Dominick Eberle of Utah State, and Tyler Bass of Georgia Southern were the cream of the crop this year.

Once again, as in so many instances in the past, it’s the arrogant, “we’re smarter than you are” attitude that seems to be driving a pick like this. Now maybe Rohrwasser will work out fine. That’s not the point.

The point is they used a still valuable pick on a relatively unknown kicker. It’s a poor pick when a kicker can be obtained in the 6th or 7th round or as an undrafted free agent after the draft. It’s worse when they select one who’s little known and waste a 5th round pick on a kicker when they have huge needs elsewhere.

This is a further sign that the Patriots are reeling on personnel issues. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the draft seems like a big game to the New England Patriots. That they really aren’t serious about drafting. Their draft strategies and picks at times are unfathomable and head-scratching. Read, many of them don’t really make a lot of sense. Some make very little sense.

For years, as was noted previously, the New England Patriots have been able to get away with this ineptitude for one reason and one reason only, the presence of Tom Brady. He was the great equalizer. Draft poorly. Brady will bail you out. Pick up terrible free agents? Tom Brady to the rescue.

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Now with Brady’s departure, this poor drafting and other questionable personnel decisions will crush this team’s 2020 season. And beyond. Brady will certainly have the last laugh with a Tampa Bay team that “gets it”. They drafted a great offensive tackle in the first round. Make sense?

That’s my view. We’ll see what happens. But I for one, have no expectations for this team in 2020. None. The race toward the bottom has officially begun. Trevor Lawrence, here we come.

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