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Patriots Draft - Prospects Workouts and visits

By Brent | March 24th, 2008

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As most readers know the New England Patriots coaching and scouting staff have been visiting many campuses across the country for college Pro Days or individual sessions to work out various draft prospects.

During the build up to the NFL Draft date each NFL team is allowed to have up to 30 prospect candidates in for a visit and workout. The player visits have multiple purposes. Similar to the weekly injury reports during the season, a team may use the visits as showing interest in players other teams may want to also (look out for the Jets picking at No. 6!), otherwise simply stated a team can do their own test on a players injuries or follow up on their personnel scouting reports.

The Patriots place a high importance of the coaches, scouts and personnel department working together to evaluate college prospects and making the right choices for which players will have all the football intelligence and athletic abilities to add value to the team. Mike Riess of the Boston Globe has an interview with Patriots Director of Player Personnel, Nick Caserio discussing the relationship between the Patriots front office and coaching staff.

Once the team recognizes potential draft andidates, the players are requested to visit with the team coaches and personnel staff. The visits are not part of the team workouts and are often used to close any questions or concerns the team may have before completing the final selection boards for the draft.

An example is in 2006, when wide receiver Chad Jackson arrived to Gillette Stadium and was tested on complex routes and patterns for Coach Belichick & Co. Jackson did well enough for the Patriots to move up in the 2nd round to grab Jackson as a ‘late’ first round pick.

Was this the right decision?

The jury is still out on Jackson who was limited in action with a hamstring and ACL injury for most of his rookie season in 2006 and Jackson began the 2007 on PuP and never breaking the line up with the likes of Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Donte’ Stallworth and Jabar Gaffeny ahead of him. The expectation from fans is that Jackson should be able to replace Stallworth (now with Cleveland Browns). However, if Jackson performs inconsistently in training camp and the preseason, he may be cut. So it is still early before we can write off Jackson, but this year could be his last with the team.

IN BILL WE TRUST!!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Dean Pees, Dom Capers, Scott Pioli, New England Sports, Josh McDaniels, Robert Kraft, Patriots Roster, New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, Patriots Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Patriots Draft - Prospects Workouts and visits”

Matt Soteroff says:

March 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

The Patriots need a good draft this year…contrary to what most people seem to believe they don’t draft THAT well, and only have one player making any kind of contribution from last year’s draft (meriweather). Let’s hope they improve…
Jamie says:

March 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

Matt,

I have to disagree with your assessment of the Pats’ draft when you compare it to other teams. Meriweather is the only one left from last season’s draft by design I believe, because the Pats did not like last year’s class at all. That is why they constantly traded away picks and tried to stock up for this year’s draft. While there are no sure-fire unquestionable top picks this year, there is a ton of depth and I feel we’ll see the mid-rounds produce consistent NFL starters.
tom says:

March 24th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

the pats and their drafts are very interesting,
if you notice they usually dont keep many daft picks at all over the years. that isnt a bad thing, i would be disapointed if we kept our draft picks, because that would mean that we dont aready have a the talent, its no wonder that we only keep a couple of pick each year because they just simple cant make the team over the vets. remember that vets not rockies win championships
Jamie says:

March 24th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Good point tom. The Pats haven’t HAD to fill holes through the draft due to the vets on the team and previous rookies emerging to step in for departing vets. Case in point, James Sanders has developed well and slid right into Eugene Wilson’s spot at FS. This year may be a little different with the secondary and LB situation being what it is, but you never know with the Patriots. I thought David Harris or Poz were sure Patriots when they were available late in the first last year and then the Pats traded their pick to the 49ers. Who knows.
Kevros says:

March 24th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

I don’t think Jackson needs to win the starting job opposite Moss to make the team (though that would be ideal). I think he just needs to be in the top 6 (or however many WRs are kept). I don’t think he’s being held to any higher standard than any other player except by, like you mentioned, the fans…
Matt Soteroff says:

March 24th, 2008 at 10:16 pm

The barometer for a solid draft is whether or not you end up with players that make a difference or have the potential to play a big role. The Pats ended up with one player that even saw the field. The argument that they didn’t like the players available is fine, but that tells me they didn’t do a very good job, because there are a lot of other teams that found late round picks that played important roles while the Pats settled for, and eventually parted ways with guys like Kareem Brown and Oscar Lua. When the Pats couldn’t even find project guys to keep on special teams or supplant any of the weaker rotation guys, that tells me they didn’t do a great job drafting.
Matt Soteroff says:

March 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

The argument that the Pats don’t need their draftees is pretty weak, considering they still have undrafted castoffs like Ray Ventrone making plays on special teams. If they had drafted good football players to put on the field, they would have found a spot for them. They just didn’t make the picks.
Billy says:

March 25th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

I dont agree with the suggestion that the Patriots dont draft well. Oscar Lua was a 7th ROUND PICK! He was a low risk high reward guy. He ended up getting injured and cut. The Patriots do what they always do. They look for good VALUE. They are still under the cap because they dont make bad decisions. There was more value out of trading their picks in the past as they had the players they needed. This year they will most likely try to bolster their defense.
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