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Patriots taking run at USC’s White?
NFL DRAFT
By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rgarven@telegram.com
FOXBORO— Eric Mangini, David Givens, Willie McGinest and Adam Vinatieri. Gone, gone, gone and gone.
Richard Seymour will be here for quite some time. Tebucky Jones has returned for another go-round.
While the comings and goings this offseason have been fairly typical from a numbers standpoint, there have been some rather noteworthy names involved as far as the Patriots — or at least their fans — are concerned.
Coach Bill Belichick, meeting with the media yesterday in advance of the NFL Draft on April 29-30, was in a mood to talk. The ground rules were laid out early in the 40-minute session.
“Anything on the draft, that type of thing, I’d be happy to talk about,” a very relaxed Belichick said at the end of his introductory statement.
“From a team-building standpoint, what’s happened has happened, and we’re just going to try to take advantage of every opportunity we have to put the best team we can on the field this year. That’s the same thing we do every year.”
One media wag — tsk, tsk! — stepped out of line and asked if Belichick could provide any insight into the departure of Vinatieri, a New England folk hero if there ever was one.
“Not really,” Belichick said. “There is going to be transition on every team. Every team in the league has that. We’ve had players come. We’ve had players go. That’s the way it is.
“In terms of individual negotiations and all of that, no. I think it’s a lot longer story. Is it worth telling? It doesn’t make any difference. He’s not here.”
The focus, then, is on who will be coming here after the NFL holds its annual draft next weekend. The Patriots are loaded with 11 picks, including the 21st overall. It would have been a dozen, but they burned a fifth-rounder in a trade with Cleveland for wide receiver Andre Davis.
Davis caught nine passes last season and has since taken up residence in Buffalo. Oops.
This draft, like every one engineered by Belichick and player personnel guru Scott Pioli, is not about needs — other than the Patriots need help everywhere. Rather, the Patriots will follow form and take the best player available regardless of position each time it’s their turn to go off the clock.
So, just because safety Rodney Harrison, center Dan Koppen and tackle Matt Light are rehabbing doesn’t mean New England is looking to fill possible holes at safety, center and tackle. (That said, drafting a center is very likely because of the lack of depth there.)
Linebackers, running backs, wide receivers, kickers and defensive backs were all topics of discussion yesterday.
Belichick noted there weren’t a lot of the big-receiver types for which other teams have developed a fondness in recent years. Drafting a kicker isn’t out of the question. In fact, it happened before when the Pats took BYU’s Owen Pochman in 2001.
The only person Belichick was specifically asked about was USC running back LenDale White. A junior with a bruising, north-south running style, White was once projected as a top 10 lock. A poor combine showing and torn hamstring have him sliding downhill like Bode Miller at the Olympics.
It’s all but certain the 6-foot-2, 240-pound White will be available when the Patriots make their first selection. Running backs Corey Dillon, Kevin Faulk and Patrick Pass aren’t getting any younger and each was banged-up last season.
And Belichick apparently isn’t holding White’s injury against him.
“I don’t think it necessarily would (matter), no,” Belichick said. “We’ve had players every year that weren’t ready for their first day of training camp, that didn’t mean they weren’t good players and that didn’t mean that they didn’t contribute a lot to the team that year. I don’t think that’s the final evaluation.”
One thing that has hindered the evaluation process is the limited body of work being submitted by a large number of NFL hopefuls.
“It seems like there are more of them this year — one-year starters, half-year starters, guys coming out early, guys who were hurt, stuff like that,” Belichick said. “That’s the way it goes. We’re all looking at the same players.”
So who will the Patriots draft first next Saturday? The chic picks are a linebacker or a cornerback. They’ll draft at least one of each, just not with that first pick.
Think outside the box here and start evaluating defensive line prospects. Can you say North Carolina State’s Manny Lawson, or perhaps (fingers crossed) Oregon’s Haloti Ngata?
NFL DRAFT
By Rich Garven TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
rgarven@telegram.com
FOXBORO— Eric Mangini, David Givens, Willie McGinest and Adam Vinatieri. Gone, gone, gone and gone.
Richard Seymour will be here for quite some time. Tebucky Jones has returned for another go-round.
While the comings and goings this offseason have been fairly typical from a numbers standpoint, there have been some rather noteworthy names involved as far as the Patriots — or at least their fans — are concerned.
Coach Bill Belichick, meeting with the media yesterday in advance of the NFL Draft on April 29-30, was in a mood to talk. The ground rules were laid out early in the 40-minute session.
“Anything on the draft, that type of thing, I’d be happy to talk about,” a very relaxed Belichick said at the end of his introductory statement.
“From a team-building standpoint, what’s happened has happened, and we’re just going to try to take advantage of every opportunity we have to put the best team we can on the field this year. That’s the same thing we do every year.”
One media wag — tsk, tsk! — stepped out of line and asked if Belichick could provide any insight into the departure of Vinatieri, a New England folk hero if there ever was one.
“Not really,” Belichick said. “There is going to be transition on every team. Every team in the league has that. We’ve had players come. We’ve had players go. That’s the way it is.
“In terms of individual negotiations and all of that, no. I think it’s a lot longer story. Is it worth telling? It doesn’t make any difference. He’s not here.”
The focus, then, is on who will be coming here after the NFL holds its annual draft next weekend. The Patriots are loaded with 11 picks, including the 21st overall. It would have been a dozen, but they burned a fifth-rounder in a trade with Cleveland for wide receiver Andre Davis.
Davis caught nine passes last season and has since taken up residence in Buffalo. Oops.
This draft, like every one engineered by Belichick and player personnel guru Scott Pioli, is not about needs — other than the Patriots need help everywhere. Rather, the Patriots will follow form and take the best player available regardless of position each time it’s their turn to go off the clock.
So, just because safety Rodney Harrison, center Dan Koppen and tackle Matt Light are rehabbing doesn’t mean New England is looking to fill possible holes at safety, center and tackle. (That said, drafting a center is very likely because of the lack of depth there.)
Linebackers, running backs, wide receivers, kickers and defensive backs were all topics of discussion yesterday.
Belichick noted there weren’t a lot of the big-receiver types for which other teams have developed a fondness in recent years. Drafting a kicker isn’t out of the question. In fact, it happened before when the Pats took BYU’s Owen Pochman in 2001.
The only person Belichick was specifically asked about was USC running back LenDale White. A junior with a bruising, north-south running style, White was once projected as a top 10 lock. A poor combine showing and torn hamstring have him sliding downhill like Bode Miller at the Olympics.
It’s all but certain the 6-foot-2, 240-pound White will be available when the Patriots make their first selection. Running backs Corey Dillon, Kevin Faulk and Patrick Pass aren’t getting any younger and each was banged-up last season.
And Belichick apparently isn’t holding White’s injury against him.
“I don’t think it necessarily would (matter), no,” Belichick said. “We’ve had players every year that weren’t ready for their first day of training camp, that didn’t mean they weren’t good players and that didn’t mean that they didn’t contribute a lot to the team that year. I don’t think that’s the final evaluation.”
One thing that has hindered the evaluation process is the limited body of work being submitted by a large number of NFL hopefuls.
“It seems like there are more of them this year — one-year starters, half-year starters, guys coming out early, guys who were hurt, stuff like that,” Belichick said. “That’s the way it goes. We’re all looking at the same players.”
So who will the Patriots draft first next Saturday? The chic picks are a linebacker or a cornerback. They’ll draft at least one of each, just not with that first pick.
Think outside the box here and start evaluating defensive line prospects. Can you say North Carolina State’s Manny Lawson, or perhaps (fingers crossed) Oregon’s Haloti Ngata?