NFL Draft 2015: Day 2 Winners and Losers
By Will Osgood
New England Patriots
Okay so the Patriots did something the Patriots often do by taking some guy none of us have ever heard of, or at least didn’t have a high grade on in the second-round, when they took Stanford safety Jordan Richards. NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said it was “maybe two rounds early.”
It’s hard to argue, but Bill Belichick clearly knows what he’s doing, even if he has had a strange propensity to make some not so great Day 2 picks, especially in the defensive secondary.
This grade is more about the fact that he did what he always does, and the fact teams still allow him to do this, by trading down to acquire more picks. He traded out of a third round pick with the Cleveland Browns to acquire two more picks in this draft.
Make no mistake, it’s not like Belichick knows something someone else does. It’s not as if he’s sitting there saying, “there’s a bunch of guys I project to be there in the fifth I really like and would rather save my picks for then.”
No, what Belichick says to himself, and it’s made clearer by the Richards pick in the second-round, “I have this value (whatever it is) on this player, and I’ll take him then. But I don’t have any value on a player at this particular pick so let me trade this pick instead of straddle my team with a player who doesn’t fit.”
In other words, Belichick doesn’t draft someone because it’s his turn to pick. He only draft when he feels like there’s a player who fits what he wants. If he doesn’t, he doesn’t pick.
He did like Geneo Grissom—an “EDGE” defender who is extremely versatile—at pick No. 97. A versatile defender, hey we’ve never heard that one before, especially for the Patriots!
Next: Detroit