Way to miss the entire point.
1. We don't trade down when we have premium picks. That's proven. You can't argue it. The record is there.
2. We trade up for great players who have fallen. We have numerous examples.
3. The drop downs for people like Strange are certainly made in drafts when the talent level around these guys is 2nd round level. Just go back and look at the draft from 3 years ago. Most of those guys after 20 are doing next to nothing. The guys we wanted like Kaiir Elam and Devin Lloyd are not producing. Elam hardly ever sees game time even when all the Bills D-backfield is banged up.
4. MOST IMPORTANTLY: I never said we can't find good players in that 25-40 area. In fact, WE HAVE FOUND THEM: McCourty, Hightower, Chung, Dugger, Mankins, Watson, Barmore, Eugene Wilson we've found 8 guys over the years to go along with all the busts like Easley, Harry, Dowling, Chad Jackson etc.
All I'm saying you're in bust territory when you're picking so late. If you compare the hits (like the 8 I listed above) to the busts, you're likely at the league average. You may even be doing better. Which is why it makes so much sense to trade down and collect extra picks that may turn into someone. So instead of Kaiir Elam, you end up with Strange, Jack Jones and one of our 4th rounders this year.
Way to miss the point.
McCourty: drafted in 2010
Hightower: drafted in 2012
Chung: drafted in 2009
Mankins: drafted in 2005
Watson: drafted in 2004
Wilson: drafted in 2003
6 of the 8 guys that you listed were all drafted over a decade ago. From 2014 to present there are two guys that have been worth a damn out of our top draft picks. That's how you have a team go into decline, when you are flopping on your early picks that often. And Dugger was someone we traded out for because we sat on our asses and watched a WR run happen right before us and rather than make a trade up and grab Jefferson we just sit on thumbs and said "oh well" and didn't bother with the 9 picks of the round. You can't tell me it was impossible for the Pats to jump 1 or 2 spots to grab a WR which was a huge position of need and would have been more impactful than any player we could add to the defense. And it's not even like Dugger and Barmore are some world class picks either. They are solid and have shown bright spots, but they aren't lighting the world on fire. They aren't Hightower/McCourty/Mankins level.
It's a big problem when your most valuable picks for almost a decade have amounted to only two solid role players.
Let's just go through some hits our division rivals got with their first two round picks in the draft in the last 10 years
Jets: Sheldon Richardson, Leonard Williams, Jamal Adams, Marcus Maye, Quinnen Willaims, Sauce Gardner, Breece Hall.
Bills. Robert Woods, Marquis Lawson, Shaq Lawson, TreDavious White, Tremaine Edmunds, Josh Allen, James Cook.
Dolphins: Devante Parker (lol), Xavien Howard, Jordan Phillips, Waddle, Robert Hunt, Jevon Holland.
And before you say it, quite a few of these guys were in range of the Patriots and I didn'y even bother to list all of them. Getting SOMETHING out of the first two rounds is important to maintaining a competitve team.
Screw it, let's look at the current top team in the NFL that appeared in 3 of the last 4 Super Bowls. The Chiefs. Let's see how they did in the last 10 years with just the first two picks they took.
2013: They got Travis Kelce in the third round. Patriots easily could have got him.
2014: Dee Ford with the 23rd pick.
2015: Marcus Peters, Mitch Morse
2016: Chris Jones
2017: Patrick Mahomes.
2019: Mecole Hardman
2020: Clyde Edward Helaire, Willie Gay Jr
2021: Nick Bolton
No wonder they ended up being competitive when the were consistently getting value out of their best picks. You don't need a mega star each time. But when you are geting Easely who never plays, Jimmy G who sat on the bench for years, Malcolm Brown who was a flop, Jordan Richards who was a non factor most of the time, Cyrus Jones who had more value as a special teams guy, Derek Rivers who was a complete dud, Isiaiah Wynn who immediately fell apart with injuries and already was a bit undersized anyways, Sony Michel who had one decent season and we didn't value enough to keep (especially when we could have drafted Chubb at the same position who is a super elite RB that could have been a cornerstone for years), N'Keal Harry when you could have fallen ass backwards into anyone else at the position and been set for a few years in that draft, Joejuan Williams who was mid and then fell off with injuries after two years, Cole Strange who is complete garbage.... no **** the team is going to fall apart.
It's just crap to pretend the Patriots haven't had a drafting issue for a long time. Yeah other teams have issues to... the bad ones. The ones that are passing us and the consistently good ones, are actually getting far more value out of their top picks and finding more gems in later rounds.