The Enigma that is Laurence Maroney

He was a top 10 pick most of the year who had no business being available at 21.

Maroney, like many skill players taken in the first round is a much greater risk then a lineman, and I’m not going to argue his value as a 21st selection, though I don’t think that is as relevant as the value he provided the pats.

I suppose we will never know. You would think BB would have known that when he drafted him.

Antowain Smith always ran better behind a fullback as well

I really wish we had a true one, gotta love the mentality of that position.

and it’s the first time I’ve heard anything like this about Maroney, but I wonder if this played into the trade:

Personally, I’m amazed that Bill Belichick had as much patience with Maroney as he did. There are a few media members who are probably crying in their Maypo this morning over the departure of the first-round pick from Minnesota because they had access to him and he made them laugh with his cutesy comments, but I prefer to believe what a fellow like Troy Brown said during his appearance on a Sunday pre-game show … that Maroney was immature and uncommitted. Brown tried to be as diplomatic as possible, but it was clear that as someone who had to overachieve for every bit of his NFL career, he had no respect whatsoever for a player who basically squandered his opportunity.

How Maroney’s stat line reads and how Maroney actually impacted this team’s overall offensive effectiveness are two very different things.

…and not “Bust.” He contributed to the offense and helped out- I think a bust would have been shipped away after two seasons of zero production.

I still struggle to say he’s an outright bust. Chad Jackson was a bust, no doubt – the guy played 14 games for 13 receptions and a dozen returns.

Ben Watson probably wasn’t a bust (although you could argue his production was disappointing) – he did play 71 regular season games and a dozen post-season games. But when he left, the Pats got nothing in return.

Laurence Maroney is somewhere in the middle. He played 45 regular season games, and produced at a fair clip when he was active. He also showed up in post-season games, and had some superb post-season efforts. He didn’t play as many games as Watson, but when he left New England he did help the team out by bringing in a 4th rounder in exchange for a 6th rounder and the last 15 games of his career (assuming he was healthy enough to play them all). That’s not great, but it’s not Chad Jackson, either.