Patriots Typical Draft Day-As Always Anything But Typical

Making this the first draft ever in which two Rutgers players go in the first round, Bill Belichick (surprise, surprise) shocks everyone by trading back in the first round twice, and then selecting a fringe first round prospect in Devin McCourty, a cornerback from Rutgers heralded for his abilities on special teams, specifically in the return game.

McCourty is a versatile player, something Belichick is well known for valuing in a player, and he should be able to shuffle him around a secondary that struggled at times last season-while still ranking 12th in the league against the pass.  The defense in New England is already very young, and in need of pass rushers much more than secondary help, but with guys like Sapp and Kindle still on the board as the first round draws to an end, and the Patriots in possession of 3 second round picks I'll have to wait to see what they do tomorrow night before getting too critical about the pick tonight.

At the end of the day, with guys like Leigh Bodden, Shawne Springs, Darius Butler, and Jonathan Wilhite at the cornerback position, adding a guy like McCourty should be pretty much the last addition at that spot, and allow Belichick and the Patriots to focus on attacking the opposing QB with the front 7 in the second round, particularly with the hole left by Jarvis Green's signing with the Denver Broncos still needing to be filled.  Right now though, I do have to say that if the Patriots don't use a second rounder on a pass rusher, and another on a running back, and if they don't take a wide receiver at some point in the draft-one worthy of some minutes-I'm going to begin to at least start to wonder a little bit whether the secret to our success wasn't more about McDaniels than Belichick as I think the Broncos team building strategy over the past 14 months or so has been nothing short of brilliant, while the Patriots continue to confuse everyone that's paying attention, and struggle to return to the dominance they knew just a few short years ago.