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- Dec 4, 2006
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2005 was a poor draft? If Mankins, Kaczur, Sanders, Hobbs, and Wright (UDFA) is a poor haul, then every team in the NFL sucks at drafting. There are a lot of teams that would kill to get one all-pro and four starters/borderline starters out of a draft.
2005 and 2008 were fine, it's 2006-2007 that was kinda weak, and I won't really fault the Pats for 2007 either since they did get Welker and Moss out of it. The poor drafting angle is severely overplayed.
And in case anyone's forgotten, the SB teams relied heavily on first and second year guys to win titles. Players like Seymour, Brady, Light, Wilson, Samuel, Warren, Wilfork, Branch, and Givens all contributed a lot from very early on in their careers.
I think what some of us are saying is that those GLORY years had a nucleus of great veterans and leadership quality guys who helped nurture and lead thier new teamates into becoming a quality pro easier than most teams had on thier roster and those key guys were mentors I am sure to the young guys to learn the game as if they were in the league for years,not to forget of how much Romeo meant as a great coach to the young defenders.
There is little to no leadership on this years defense and the rookies are going to have to do it differently then when those core group of guys surrounded them with the right mix of youth and veteran knowledge in those SB years,Pretty much the rookies will rely on thier own field of presence and knowledge of this system and either prosper or not off of it,I really dont see any guy on defense whose shoulders a rookie can lay his head on - Wilfork is probably the closest to that type of player.
Like just about all of us,we see some great veteran teammates on offense helping each other acclimate to the pros and it shows with our young TEs and OTs who are working pretty well together...the defense isn't so fortunate at this time and are missing something the offense seems to not have.
These rookies on defense will need to grow up fast.