NFL Draft Countdown: New England Patriots

Welcome to the NFL Draft Countdown, where each day until the draft on April 25-26, I will look at an NFL franchise to see what its transactions have been and what its needs are. Today, the focus is on the New England Patriots.

New England Patriots

• Draft Position: 23
• 2008 Season Result: 11-5 (2nd in AFC East; Missed Playoffs)
• 2008 Head Coach: Bill Belichick
• 2009 Head Coach: Bill Belichick (138-86; 15-4)

2009 Player Transactions

Players Lost:

• Darrell Robertson (KC)
• Junior Seau
• Jabar Gaffney (DEN)
• Heath Evans (NO)
• Kenny Smith
• LaMont Jordan (DEN)
• Lonie Paxton (DEN)
• Barry Stokes
• Lewis Sanders
• Deltha O’Neal
• Rosevelt Colvin
• Larry Izzo (NYJ)
• Rodney Harrison
• Kelley Washington
• Matt Cassel (KC)
• Mike Vrabel (KC)

Players Re-signed/Acquired:

• Chris Hanson
• Shawn Springs
• Eric Alexander
• Russ Hochstein
• James Sanders
• Brad Listorti
• Chris Baker
• Fred Taylor
• Damane Duckett
• Tank Williams
• Raymond Ventrone
• Al Johnson
• Wesley Britt
• Mike Wright
• Joey Galloway
• Leigh Bodden
• Nathan Hodel
• Greg Lewis
• Billy Yates
• Tully Banta-Cain

2009 Draft Picks

• 1-23
• 2-4
• 2-15
• 2-26
• 3-25
• 3-33
• 4-24
• 5-23
• 5-34
• 6-26
• 6-34
• 7-25

Analysis and Outlook

The New England Patriots had a heartbreaking season. First, they lost superstar QB Tom Brady, but Matt Cassel managed to help them to an 11-5 finish, but unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough for a playoff berth. Nevertheless, this is still a very good team on both sides of the ball. Defensively, the Patriots need to work harder on improving the pass rush and that will also help decrease the number of big plays the secondary suffered. At LB, the Patriots will look for a player who can offer them versatility. They are reported to work on a deal that will send Julius Peppers their way, but that might take some more time. In the meanwhile, they’re also rumored to be interested in free agent Jason Taylor. Both veterans offer great pass rushing experience as DEs who could also play OLB in the 3-4 scheme. Still, it can’t hurt to add youth to an aging LB corps. In the secondary, the Patriots added two good CBs in Leigh Bodden and Shawn Springs. Especially with Terrell Owens joining the Buffalo Bills, Springs’ experience will be of great value. In the middle, they’ll need more stopping power though. Rodney Harrison might return, but his best years are behind him and the last couple of years, he’s been plagued by injuries. James Sanders can temporarily fill the gap at SS, but they’ll need a player with more upside to groom into the starting SS.

On offense, the Patriots will focus on adding depth to the O-Line and the WR corps. They acquired Greg Lewis and dinosaur Joey Galloway who are good short-term solutions, but the Patriots will need to develop a starting WR of the future. I actually can’t remember the last time the Patriots drafted a decent WR. Was it Troy Brown in 1996? Anyway, the QB situation is less stable now as well with Cassel’s departure. Kevin O’Connell isn’t ready to fill in for Brady if the worst should happen again and I don’t know what his upside is. Perhaps they’ll draft a QB, but it’s likely they’ll look at a veteran after the draft. Jeff Garcia and Byron Leftwich are decent players with starting experience.

There’s been a lot of speculation on Alphonso Smith being the Patriots’ first round pick. While I agree that Smith is a very good player, a DE/OLB might be better value. Players that could be available are Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews, Larry English and Robert Ayers. James Laurinaitis might be on the draft board as well as an eventual replacement of Bruschi and the prospect of having both Mayo and Laurinaitis playing together (for a long time) should excite many fans. Either way, in a 3-4 scheme, you can’t have enough good LBs and this should be the focus. In the second round, the Patriots have three picks (provided they don’t deal one pick to Carolina in exchange for Peppers). Players I see the Patriots focus on are: CB Darius Butler, DE/OLB Connor Barwin, S Louis Delmas, WR Kenny Britt and RB Donald Brown.

In the later phases of the draft, they’ll look at WRs like Johnny Knox, RBs like Rashad Jennings, more DBs and O-Linemen. The Patriots also seemed interested in QB/WR Pat White as they had him work out in receiver drills for them. He’s an interesting option but I just don’t think the fit is there.

With a healthy Brady returning, the Patriots are a very dangerous force once again. With more consistency, the defense can become a top 10 unit again. Offensively, we’ll need to see how the RBBC with Fred Taylor, Laurence Maroney, Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk and BenJarvus “Law Firm” Green-Ellis pans out or whether the Patriots opt to pick and groom a feature back (with Donald Brown and Rahshad Jennings as potential candidates). This has been a good team for almost 10 years now and under the leadership of HC Bill Belichick and the team captains looks poised to return to the playoffs. That wraps up my look at the New England Patriots, feel free to leave a comment!