2012 NFL Draft - Patriots Edition

I am first and foremost a Patriots fan. Yes, I’m a big Sox & Celtics guy but I’ve been watching the Patriots since I was born. I watched Super Bowl XX when the Pats got crushed by the Shufflin' Chicago Bears. I was 6 months old at the time and my mom put band-aids on my teddy bears because we were going to Bury the Bears*. I had a Super Bowl party every year from elementary school through high school including the Greatest Moment of My Life – Super Bowl XXXVI (aka the Silence of the Rams). I still get choked up when I watch the championship DVD of that season.

Anyway, you could say I know this team pretty well. Especially the Belichick/Brady version because it began during my formative (read: teenage) years**. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember a single time that Bill Belichick had done anything but trade down in the first round of the draft. Obviously, I’m sure he stayed put sometimes and just picked in our slot but I have way too many memories of him "disappointing" fans by trading down and missing a chance at selecting an "impact" player***. (I did a little research and it turns out he has actually traded up twice: in 2002 for Daniel Graham and in 2003 for Ty Warren).

So you would understand my surprise last night when I heard, "The New England Patriots have traded up to the #21 pick to select Syracuse DE, Chandler Jones." What!? Awesome! Finally, the pass rusher we’ve been looking for ever since Richard Seymour left!

And then, not 10 minutes later, "The New England Patriots have traded up to #25 to select Alabama LB, Dont'a Hightower." I literally thought ESPN was lying to me. Why would you do that ESPN? Then one of my friends tweeted me that it was real and I think I passed out.

Hell, I don’t know many college players but if Belichick likes them, and more importantly likes them enough to trade UP for the first time in 9 YEARS, and trades up TWICE for BOTH of them, then that deserves caps lock and a run-on sentence.

I’ll end with a post-draft quote from Belichick during a Q&A session with the media:

On how important versatility was in drafting Jones & Hightower: "Every player has his own individual package, whatever it is. Some guys do one thing very well, other guys have some versatility, other guys can do a lot of different things. Whatever their deal is, it is and that’s what they come with."

No matter if he shocked the world by trading up, it’s good to know some things about him will never change… like his ability to not answer questions.

*In the AFC Championship Game that year we Squished the Fish and then later on in Super Bowl XXXI we tried to Squeeze the Cheese (some say Sack the Pack but that wasn’t as big). Marketing at its best.

**My favorite number is 11 because of Drew Bledsoe. I have no doubt if I was born 10 years later my favorite number would be 12.

***Everything in that sentence deserves quotation marks because the Pats have the best record in the NFL since 2000 so fans certainly haven’t been disappointed AND there are no sure-things in the draft. Wes Welker went completely undrafted, for example.