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Rating the New England Patriots Draft: Summary

Summary of Selections

Rd 1, Pick 27 (27) McCourty, Devin CB 
Rd 2, Pick 10 (42) Gronkowski, Rob TE 
Rd 2, Pick 21 (53) Cunningham, Jermaine DE 
Rd 2, Pick 30 (62) Spikes, Brandon LB 
Rd 3, Pick 26 (90) Price, Taylor WR 
Rd 4, Pick 15 (113) Hernandez, Aaron TE 
Rd 5, Pick 19 (150) Mesko, Zoltan P 
Rd 6, Pick 36 (205) Larsen, Ted OL 
Rd 7, Pick 1 (208) Welch, Thomas OL 
Rd 7, Pick 40 (247) Deaderick, Brandon DE 
Rd 7, Pick 41 (248) Weston, Kade DT 
Rd 7, Pick 43 (250) Robinson, Zac QB

 

Summary Grades

As a grader, it's not fair to rank 7th round picks equally to 1st round picks. Therefore, I've come up with a grading system. First round picks will be 7x more valuable than seventh round picks. Second round picks will be 6x more valuable than seventh round picks and etc, etc.

Final Overall Player Grade:

B+

The questionable pick-up of Cunningham in the second round really hurt the overall score. The Patriots managed to select players who should fit into the following categories:

Starters (4): McCourty, Gronkowski, Spikes, Mesko

Instant Contributors (3): Cunningham, Price, Hernandez

Project Players (3): Larsen, Welch, Robinson

On the Bubble Players (2): Deaderick, Weston

My thought is that maybe the Patriots could have sacrificed a little of the quantity of players drafted and perhaps increased the quality. The Patriots were extremely mobile with their non-compensatory picks and it worked them well. However, the Patriots could have moved upwards to grab some potential game changing players. That said, their first 7 picks should all see considerable amounts of time this upcoming season. However, we went into this draft needing to grab a stud pass rusher. I'm not sure if we found one.

Final Overall Draft Pick Grade:

A-

The Patriots got fantastic value for their picks. They grabbed a 2nd round talent in the 4th round. They transformed a 1st round pick into the player they wanted and the best punter in the draft. They grabbed, in my opinion, a top 3 cornerback, tight end (x2), punter and inside linebacker. Some of their late round selections seemed to be purely for training camp bodies instead of best players available, so I can't give a full A.

Additional Information

Oh, by the way, the Patriots managed to pick up a 2011 second round pick. WHAT?!

Combining the player grades, the overall draft pick grades and the above information, I come to my final draft grade.

Overall Final Grade

A-