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Bad draft left teams in cold
Lack of clear-cut top pick similar to ’91
By John Tomase / NFL Notes
Sunday, April 20, 2008 - Added 11h ago
Bill Belichick looks at this year’s draft and its lack of a consensus No. 1 pick and is transported back to his very first draft as a head coach in 1991.
Patriots [team stats] fans may recall the Pats held the No. 1 pick that year, thanks to a 1-15 season in 1990 under Rod Rust. They needed multiple players more than they needed the top pick, so they sought a trade.
Eventually they shipped the selection to the Cowboys for a package of players and picks that never really panned out. Dallas used the top pick on defensive lineman Russell Maryland, one of the more shocking No. 1s of all time.
“I think this is a draft where there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut No. 1 player,” Belichick said last week. “I’m sure if you, or somebody in the media contacted teams anonymously about who their top players are, there would be some discrepancies as to who the No. 1 player is.”
For the Patriots’ sake, here’s hoping the 2007 draft is not a repeat of 1991, which has to go down as one of the weakest ever.
Joe Mendes would know. He was the Patriots’ vice president for player operations during that fateful offseason and had the misfortune of trying to rebuild a team in a draft that simply did not produce very many impact players.
Reached in California where he runs Cornerstone Sports Consulting, which helps college players prepare for the draft process, Mendes didn’t mince words when his thoughts drifted back to 1991. Outside of Brett Favre, who was selected in the second round by the Falcons, it’s hard to say even today who the top five picks should have been.
“It was a disaster,” Mendes said. “Terrible. Just terrible. I’m not making excuses, because we didn’t do a very good job, but history has shown that it was. When hindsight isn’t even 20-20, that’s when you know it’s bad. When you need glasses 15 years later, that tells you something was wrong.”
The Patriots were in an unenviable position. While previous drafts had yielded surefire No. 1 picks such as Troy Aikman (1989), Vinny Testaverde [stats] (1987), Bo Jackson (1986) and Bruce Smith (1985), the top talent in 1991 was Rocket Ismail, a diminutive receiver and return man out of Notre Dame.
Ismail didn’t seem to have much interest in playing for the Patriots, who tried desperately to negotiate a deal with him into early April. Ismail had leverage in the form of a two-year, $6 million offer from the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and the Patriots didn’t feel like committing that much money to anyone other than a quarterback.
“As soon as he went to Canada, there truly wasn’t a first pick,” Mendes said. “Even Russell Maryland was a real reach, looking back at the time. I can’t even remember who was second and third. Clearly there were no Troy Aikmans or that type of thing. We used to say it’s bad to have to pick first, but it’s even worse when there’s not even a good player looking at you. The real penalty then is having to make the pick.”
Press accounts at the time made it clear there was a struggle between Mendes and CEO Sam Jankovich regarding what to do with the first pick, but on this much they agreed - the Pats were better off trading it.
“We had maxed out as a team,” Mendes said. “Being 1-15 validated that we were an old team and not very good. We had to keep going to the well, keep moving down, keep picking up picks in the fourth round and accumulating picks for the next year. We had to get as many picks as we could for the franchise.
“That draft turned out to be not very enjoyable for the league. It’s funny, you get criticized when a pick doesn’t work out, but then you look at the picks around that particular player and not only did he not work out, neither did the six or seven picks around him.
“The night before the draft, Dick Steinberg used to look at our board and he’d always say, ‘Boy, I sure hope somebody beats us to our mistakes.’ ”
The Patriots could not be saved in ’91. Jankovich took the reins on the Cowboys deal thanks to his history at the University of Miami with coach Jimmy Johnson. Jankovich ended up trading the first pick to the Cowboys for the Nos. 11 and 41 picks, as well as three veterans who went on to make zero impact - linebacker Eugene Lockhart, linebacker David Howard and corner Ron Francis. Separately, the Pats swung a deal with Houston, trading second- and fourth-rounders to the Oilers for the 17th pick in the first round, which the Pats then swapped to the Cowboys with another fourth-rounder to move up to No. 14 overall.
When the dust settled, the Pats owned the 11th and 14th picks in the first round, which they used on USC tackle Pat Harlow and Arizona State running back Leonard Russell. Harlow seemingly was on his way to a solid career until back injuries intervened. Russell was named offensive rookie of the year after rushing for 959 yards.
“Clubs were calling us about moving up a couple of spots, and they all wanted Leonard Russell,” Mendes said. “They didn’t think we were interested. When we found out people were trying to climb up the board to get him, we knew how far up we had to go. It was an intriguing part of things.
“He actually was a good player. Harlow was never special, but he was solid, and then his back bothered him. He was a good honest player. He’d make a lot of money in this day.”
The first round was littered with busts. One of the better picks ended up being one of the most risky. The Cardinals took defensive lineman Eric Swann out of a semi-pro league in Lynn. Swann hadn’t played college football, but he went on to make two Pro Bowls. Belichick took safety Eric Turner No. 2 and he made two Pro Bowls himself.
Then came a series of terrible picks, led by corner Bruce Pickens (3), tackle Charles McCrae (7), wide receiver Mike Pritchard (13), linebacker Huey Richardson (15), quarterback Dan McGwire (16) and defensive tackle Bobby Wilson (17), to name half a dozen.
Belichick noted Wednesday that the second round ended up producing better players than the first, between Favre, linebacker Roman Phifer and defensive lineman Phil Hansen, not to mention running back Ricky Watters. The third round may have been even better, with corner Aeneas Williams, defensive lineman Keith Traylor, linebacker Mo Lewis, wide receiver Jake Reed, tackle Erik Williams and wide receiver Ed McCaffrey.
The Patriots [team stats] would have done well with any of the above, but their only impact pick ended up coming in the fifth round when they selected Ben Coates out of Livingstone College.
“I was working in Washington when Ben Coates really broke out and I used to get all these calls from reporters asking, ‘Boy, what did you see in Ben Coates?’ ” Mendes said. “Listen, let’s just call it like it is. We didn’t go into that draft saying we know where we can get a Pro Bowl tight end in the fifth round. I’m not going to tell you we mystically knew he was going to be that good. He was a fifth-round choice, period.
“I’ll tell you what we did like. We liked his physical qualities. I sent Dante Scarnecchia down there and told him, don’t even work him out. Just spend all kinds of time with him and make sure you can coach him, that he’s a smart enough kid and a good enough kid. Dante came back and said he liked him, so we took him in the fifth round.
“You can’t stick your chest out for that kind of pick, because we weren’t smarter than anyone else.”
Within two years, the Patriots were 2-14 and once again in possession of the first pick, which they used on Drew Bledsoe.
Fifteen years later, the franchise is in a much better place. And Mendes suspects when all is said and done, there won’t be a repeat of 1991.
“I think there’s better quality in this draft than the one we’re talking about,” he said. “That being said, history shows that about 28 percent of the first-rounders are going to fail. It doesn’t matter if they’re selected in the first third, the middle third or the bottom third of the round. They’re going to fail.
“Everyone thinks they’re right on the day of the draft. Time will tell which ones work out.”
Lack of clear-cut top pick similar to ’91
Sunday, April 20, 2008 - Added 11h ago
Bill Belichick looks at this year’s draft and its lack of a consensus No. 1 pick and is transported back to his very first draft as a head coach in 1991.
Patriots [team stats] fans may recall the Pats held the No. 1 pick that year, thanks to a 1-15 season in 1990 under Rod Rust. They needed multiple players more than they needed the top pick, so they sought a trade.
Eventually they shipped the selection to the Cowboys for a package of players and picks that never really panned out. Dallas used the top pick on defensive lineman Russell Maryland, one of the more shocking No. 1s of all time.
“I think this is a draft where there doesn’t appear to be a clear-cut No. 1 player,” Belichick said last week. “I’m sure if you, or somebody in the media contacted teams anonymously about who their top players are, there would be some discrepancies as to who the No. 1 player is.”
For the Patriots’ sake, here’s hoping the 2007 draft is not a repeat of 1991, which has to go down as one of the weakest ever.
Joe Mendes would know. He was the Patriots’ vice president for player operations during that fateful offseason and had the misfortune of trying to rebuild a team in a draft that simply did not produce very many impact players.
Reached in California where he runs Cornerstone Sports Consulting, which helps college players prepare for the draft process, Mendes didn’t mince words when his thoughts drifted back to 1991. Outside of Brett Favre, who was selected in the second round by the Falcons, it’s hard to say even today who the top five picks should have been.
“It was a disaster,” Mendes said. “Terrible. Just terrible. I’m not making excuses, because we didn’t do a very good job, but history has shown that it was. When hindsight isn’t even 20-20, that’s when you know it’s bad. When you need glasses 15 years later, that tells you something was wrong.”
The Patriots were in an unenviable position. While previous drafts had yielded surefire No. 1 picks such as Troy Aikman (1989), Vinny Testaverde [stats] (1987), Bo Jackson (1986) and Bruce Smith (1985), the top talent in 1991 was Rocket Ismail, a diminutive receiver and return man out of Notre Dame.
Ismail didn’t seem to have much interest in playing for the Patriots, who tried desperately to negotiate a deal with him into early April. Ismail had leverage in the form of a two-year, $6 million offer from the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL and the Patriots didn’t feel like committing that much money to anyone other than a quarterback.
“As soon as he went to Canada, there truly wasn’t a first pick,” Mendes said. “Even Russell Maryland was a real reach, looking back at the time. I can’t even remember who was second and third. Clearly there were no Troy Aikmans or that type of thing. We used to say it’s bad to have to pick first, but it’s even worse when there’s not even a good player looking at you. The real penalty then is having to make the pick.”
Press accounts at the time made it clear there was a struggle between Mendes and CEO Sam Jankovich regarding what to do with the first pick, but on this much they agreed - the Pats were better off trading it.
“We had maxed out as a team,” Mendes said. “Being 1-15 validated that we were an old team and not very good. We had to keep going to the well, keep moving down, keep picking up picks in the fourth round and accumulating picks for the next year. We had to get as many picks as we could for the franchise.
“That draft turned out to be not very enjoyable for the league. It’s funny, you get criticized when a pick doesn’t work out, but then you look at the picks around that particular player and not only did he not work out, neither did the six or seven picks around him.
“The night before the draft, Dick Steinberg used to look at our board and he’d always say, ‘Boy, I sure hope somebody beats us to our mistakes.’ ”
The Patriots could not be saved in ’91. Jankovich took the reins on the Cowboys deal thanks to his history at the University of Miami with coach Jimmy Johnson. Jankovich ended up trading the first pick to the Cowboys for the Nos. 11 and 41 picks, as well as three veterans who went on to make zero impact - linebacker Eugene Lockhart, linebacker David Howard and corner Ron Francis. Separately, the Pats swung a deal with Houston, trading second- and fourth-rounders to the Oilers for the 17th pick in the first round, which the Pats then swapped to the Cowboys with another fourth-rounder to move up to No. 14 overall.
When the dust settled, the Pats owned the 11th and 14th picks in the first round, which they used on USC tackle Pat Harlow and Arizona State running back Leonard Russell. Harlow seemingly was on his way to a solid career until back injuries intervened. Russell was named offensive rookie of the year after rushing for 959 yards.
“Clubs were calling us about moving up a couple of spots, and they all wanted Leonard Russell,” Mendes said. “They didn’t think we were interested. When we found out people were trying to climb up the board to get him, we knew how far up we had to go. It was an intriguing part of things.
“He actually was a good player. Harlow was never special, but he was solid, and then his back bothered him. He was a good honest player. He’d make a lot of money in this day.”
The first round was littered with busts. One of the better picks ended up being one of the most risky. The Cardinals took defensive lineman Eric Swann out of a semi-pro league in Lynn. Swann hadn’t played college football, but he went on to make two Pro Bowls. Belichick took safety Eric Turner No. 2 and he made two Pro Bowls himself.
Then came a series of terrible picks, led by corner Bruce Pickens (3), tackle Charles McCrae (7), wide receiver Mike Pritchard (13), linebacker Huey Richardson (15), quarterback Dan McGwire (16) and defensive tackle Bobby Wilson (17), to name half a dozen.
Belichick noted Wednesday that the second round ended up producing better players than the first, between Favre, linebacker Roman Phifer and defensive lineman Phil Hansen, not to mention running back Ricky Watters. The third round may have been even better, with corner Aeneas Williams, defensive lineman Keith Traylor, linebacker Mo Lewis, wide receiver Jake Reed, tackle Erik Williams and wide receiver Ed McCaffrey.
The Patriots [team stats] would have done well with any of the above, but their only impact pick ended up coming in the fifth round when they selected Ben Coates out of Livingstone College.
“I was working in Washington when Ben Coates really broke out and I used to get all these calls from reporters asking, ‘Boy, what did you see in Ben Coates?’ ” Mendes said. “Listen, let’s just call it like it is. We didn’t go into that draft saying we know where we can get a Pro Bowl tight end in the fifth round. I’m not going to tell you we mystically knew he was going to be that good. He was a fifth-round choice, period.
“I’ll tell you what we did like. We liked his physical qualities. I sent Dante Scarnecchia down there and told him, don’t even work him out. Just spend all kinds of time with him and make sure you can coach him, that he’s a smart enough kid and a good enough kid. Dante came back and said he liked him, so we took him in the fifth round.
“You can’t stick your chest out for that kind of pick, because we weren’t smarter than anyone else.”
Within two years, the Patriots were 2-14 and once again in possession of the first pick, which they used on Drew Bledsoe.
Fifteen years later, the franchise is in a much better place. And Mendes suspects when all is said and done, there won’t be a repeat of 1991.
“I think there’s better quality in this draft than the one we’re talking about,” he said. “That being said, history shows that about 28 percent of the first-rounders are going to fail. It doesn’t matter if they’re selected in the first third, the middle third or the bottom third of the round. They’re going to fail.
“Everyone thinks they’re right on the day of the draft. Time will tell which ones work out.”
