Hump Day Pats Linkage

How's your Post-Draft Depression going? Mine isn't too good. Rookie Mini-Camp is like the methadone for draft addicts, only it doesn't really work that well. I'll admit I get fairly excited to see A) who gets what numbers, B) what kind of facemask each of them choose to start their pro careers with, and C) who Mike Felger will decide to piss off this year. Part of me almost thinks the Second Void (between draft and training camp) is worse than the First Void (End of Season to Draft) since there's so much information to research and ponder with the draft. Now that the Pats team is pretty much set there's nothing to analyze except which games I'll try to attend. Oh well, at least it's already May... almost...

One thing I've noticed in the past couple weeks is I think Belichick might be trying to make over his image somewhat. From the self-aware BB who opened his post-draft press conference commenting this was a very un-BB like draft without any lineman or tight ends to the BB who did an hour long sit down with reporters to discuss all things Spygate something seems different about the Hoodied One. I for one am enjoying it. Love him or hate him I think most would agree he's a football genius and getting some extra insight into that genius is pretty cool to me. These comments from his WEEI radio appearance stood out to me:

Belichick: As far as the draft goes, I think you look at a player, player X, and you say, 'OK, what is this player going to do for us? He's going to be, whatever, he's going to be our fourth linebacker, he's going to play in the kicking game, and he'll never become a starter. But he'll be a solid player on the team.' Well, that's a certain grade. Another grade would be a guy who's not ready to be a starter yet but we think in a year or two he'll develop into a starter. Well, that would give him a little higher grade than the last guy. Then there's a guy who's going to come in and he's going to be a legitimate starter – he has the qualities that we're looking for and we feel like once he learns the system, he'll start. Then you have another player who you say, 'Well, we'd love to have this guy compete. We're not sure if he's going to make our team or not. He might make it, he might not. At the worst, he'd be a practice squad player.' Well, that puts him into another category. So, when you start drafting for value…a certain player that wherever we think he fits – then, of course, we're not always right about that, we're just making the best estimate that we can – then that's where the value comes in. Obviously, as we get more experience with those players and put them on the field and start practicing with them and playing them in preseason and all that, those evaluations may change. But that's why they're drafted where they are. Nobody drafts a guy in the seventh round and expects they're getting a starter, but sometimes it works out that way. And sometimes you draft guys at the top of the draft and think they're going to start for you and in a year or two they're off your team. So it's certainly an inexact science. And we all know that.

Great stuff... if you're Pats-obsessed like me...

Here's the linkage from around the interwebs today, let's call it a Kinder, Gentler Hoodied Edition...

God Bless Cold Hard Football Facts! They've got a scorecard for all the "experts" and their mock drafts. I'd go into another diatribe about how pointless they are but just click the link and see for yourself.

As you might've seen in the link above Pete Prisco isn't much of a prognosticator so I'm glad to see he didn't try to put a 2009 Mock Draft together, he just listed the top prospects.

A.C. Slater is proud that his son is on the Pats.

Bo Ruud almost crapped himself when BB called him to let him know the Pats had drafted him. Well maybe that's exagerrating, but that's what I would do. Surprisingly the Hoodied One didn't quiz him on defensive calls right off the bat.

I'm already telling my wife her new favorite player to replace Asante Samuel will be Terrence Wheatley (she loves interceptions). Sounds like he was pretty pumped to get picked by the Pats too. Who wouldn't be? Imagine getting a call from the Cardinals, I don't know if I could fake excited on that one.

Speaking of the wife here's her draft day column again for guys out there trying to get their lady interested in football. It's been a long process with her but she's a good sport about humoring me and I'm starting to think she almost enjoys it when I force her to wear a jersey on game day.

The Pats are adding more Rookie Free Agents. I'm getting tired of keeping track of all them since most of them will end up getting cut. I'll be back later in the day if any of them actually seem interesting or have a shot to make it.

Obligatory Mike Reiss link (he is the Pats Blog Overlord)

See how I did with my Steaming Pile of Mock Draft