New England Patriots: Draft duds have shaped post-Tom Brady
The New England Patriots allowed the greatest quarterback of all time to leave the team after the 2019 season. It was a disaster from the get-go.
The team has been a mediocre team with a losing record of below .500 including their lone playoff appearance, a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Patriots defenders or so-called “Friends of Bill” scramble to defend the team’s awful personnel record both then (and frankly prior to Brady’s leaving) and now.
The most recent damage to the team’s reputation in the draft, was the long-overdue release of former 2019 third-round tackle, Yodny Cajuste.
But there is much more to chagrin than just that errant pick.
New England Patriots 2019 draft was a complete bust
Cajuste’s release left no players from that horrendous draft left on the New England Patriots whatsoever. Of the 10 players selected all have departed or been canned. Cajuste isn’t the worst of them.
First-rounder, N’Keal Harry did nothing. Second-rounder Joejuan Williams did the same. Third-rounder Chase Winovich started out fine then flamed out. Another third-rounder Damian Harris was actually solid, yet, predictably, not re-signed.
The rest other than punter Jake Bailey, were eminently forgettable. To not have one draftee of 10 left after four years takes some doing. But not for the New England Patriots.
The team’s drafting and personnel recruitment generally have been poor both while Brady was here and after. Even Robert Kraft prior to this year’s draft put the kibosh on the team’s drafting in previous years before his giddy review of this season’s draft.
The 2023 draft is also riddled with reaches and questionable picks all over the lot after the first two picks.
Why did the New England Patriots draft so poorly
If one were to hazard an educated guess as to why the team drafts so poorly and also is deficient generally in personnel, it can be traced to a couple of factors.
First, the team’s strategy is flawed to the core as Mike Reiss pointed out. They’ve basically thrown away picks because their limited draft board had too few players. That’s quite a trick when there are 400 or so available players in every draft.
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In addition, the New England Patriots’, “We know better than anyone else” attitude is totally ludicrous. However, when you have Tom Brady on hand for 20+ years, his brilliance can and did make up for all kinds of dubious personnel decisions, including the draft.
Next. Patriots 2019 NFL Draft class proof of Belichick’s failures. dark
None were as worse during his tenure than not proving the greatest ever with the top weapons he deserved each and every year as Priority No. One. They didn’t and left multiple Super Bowl titles on the table.
So it should be not much of a surprise that the 2019 draft was a total debacle. Other drafts have been terrible, as well. It is a solid draft that is the outlier under Bill Belichick.