NFL.com columnist Thomas George does some serious heavy lifting to come up with an angle for a draft-analysis article:

Tom Brady was drafted eight years ago at pick No. 199.

Andre Woodson went to the Giants on Sunday afternoon at pick No. 198.

Similarities exist in these sixth-round picks. Both are quarterbacks with big arms. Both possess superior football intelligence. Both found their college production relatively ignored.

And the major common element: Too many teams passed on these two snappy passers.

I am not saying that Woodson is Brady.

But I am saying George is a hack.

Brady does not have a big arm. Woodson does not “possess superior football intelligence.” And to suggest that “both found their college production relatively ignored” is to severely distort the issue: Brady competed for his starting job in college on a day-to-day, half-to-half basis. Woodson has been a celebrated starter since his sophomore year. The reason he was picked number 198 isn’t because he has been ignored but because he is well known. He’s a good college quarterback and that’s all he is, as Kentucky’s defensive coordinator Steve Brown seems to understand and probably tried to tell George:

“This is a very, very sharp, smart quarterback,” Brown said. “He has excellent touch. He reads coverages extremely well. He can get you into the right play. He is one of the better quarterbacks I’ve seen in the college game in the last couple of years. He compares in style to Jason Campbell of the Redskins. But Andre is going to make his own mark in that league.”

(Emphasis added)

It doesn’t strike me as unreasonable to believe that a college coach who goes on record about one of his school’s former players is going to lay it on thick. In other words, Woodson is not only not a Brady, he’s not even a Campbell.

The Patriots primary personnel needs entering the 2008 NFL draft were linebacker, cornerback, tight end, fullback, and backup quarterback (current back up Matt Cassel isn’t likely to be around for the 2008 season and I don’t think the Patriots are ready yet to bank on Matt Gutierrez as the number two, and even if they are they would still need a number three). Patriots drafted three linebackers, two cornerbacks, one quarterback and one kick returner.

New England Patriots had the following picks at their disposal in the 2008 draft (overall draft pick order in parenthesis):

Round 1, Pick 7 (7) Traded to Saints for overall picks 10 and 78.
Round 1, Pick 10 (10) Linebacker Jerod Mayo from Tennessee
Round 2, Pick 31 (62) Cornerback Terrence Wheatley from Colorado
Round 3, Pick 6 (69) Traded to Chargers for 160 in 08′ and 2nd round ‘09
Round 3, Pick 15 (78) Linebacker Shawn Crable from Michigan
Round 3, Pick 31 (94) Quarterback Kevin O’Connell from San Diego State
Round 4, Pick 30 (129) Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite from Auburn
Round 5, Pick 18 (153) Matt Slater from UCLA
Round 5, Pick 25 (160) Traded to Tampa Bay for 153
Round 5, Pick 29 (164) Traded to Saints
Round 6, Pick 31 (197) Linebacker Bo Ruud from Nebraska
Round 7, Pick 31 (238) Traded to Tampa Bay for 153

First Round: Linebacker Jerod Mayo

NFLDraftScout.com pegs Mayo as outside linebacker because of his lack of strength while other analysts see him as inside linebacker because of his lack of speed. I assume Patriots will try to play him inside first, since the team is a bit weaker there. Of course, the draft isn’t over yet. Patriots might get an inside linebacker later in the draft and bump Mayo outside.

I’ve watched a Mayo highlight reel and it looked like it could have been Volunteers defensive end Robert Ayers’. I hope Mayo paved the way for Ayers and not the other way around.

Having watched an extended highlight reel I’m having some doubts about Mayo’s ability to play inside linebacker for the Patriots. He really does seem to lack the kind of upper body strength you need to shed blocks inside and most of the plays he makes seems to be either when he’s in a swarm or at or from the edge. On the other hand, Tedy Bruschi was a pass rushing defensive end in college who became an inside run stuffing linebacker in NFL. Perhaps the Patriots plan on getting an inside linebacker later in the draft and shuffle Mayo outside, as I speculate above.

Second Round: Cornerback Terrence Wheatley

Patriots selected Colorado cornerback Terrence Wheatley with their second round pick. NFLDraftScout.com calls him a “shutdown cornerback.” A highlight reel on YouTube suggests that he has good on-field speed (he ran a blazing 4.37 40 at the Combine) and that he can handle himself on the proverbial island against wide receivers. The boys at Patriots Football Weekly thought the Patriots would pick Reggie Smith from Oklahoma. Smith’s highlight tape is certainly more impressive than Wheatley’s, but I’m guessing the Patriots think Wheatley has more athletic ability and thus a better chance of sustained success in the league.

Third Round: Linebacker Shawn Crable

Shawn Crable’s highlight reel is pretty unspectacular but he has the size to play outside linebacker in the Patriots 3-4 scheme and he’ll have a couple of seasons as back-up before having to become starting-grade material. Seems like a good, need-based pick.

Third Round: Quarterback Kevin O’Connell

Quarterback Kevin O’Connell from San Diego State has nice size, arm strength, accuracy, speed and zip on the passes. The offense he directed at SDSU was a bit more complex and varied than the typical college scheme and he took snaps both in the shotgun and under the center. It will be fun to see how he does in training camp. Having watched some Aztecs highlight I have to say that O’Connell plays a bit like Cassel. A lot of running around. He needs to curtail that and develop a strong pocket presence.

Fourth Round: Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite

Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite from Auburn was one of the strongest cornerback at the Combine. Seems like a pretty marginal pick but adds to the competition and depth at cornerback.

Fifth Round: Kick returner Matt Slater

Matt Slater from UCLA is a strange pick. He’s a raw athlete with a reported 4.4 40. He was recruited as a wide receiver but switched to defensive back but is listed as wide receiver in the draft. Was reportedly mostly a special team’s gunner for the Bruins. And a good kick returner. And they traded up seven spots to get him. Odd. I’m speculating that the Patriots want to reduce or eliminate the kick-off return workload for Maroney and Willis. If Slater can handle kick-off returns he’ll probably get a shot at playing wide receiver, but that’s really looking way beyond the corner, I think.

Sixth Round: Linebacker Bo Ruud

Patriots picked Bo Ruud, an outside linebacker from Nebraska in the sixth round. I’m guessing his best chance to earn a roster spot is through special teams play. Ruud is tall (6′4″) but not particularly big (234 lbs).

The First Round: Countdown to trade down

Miami Dolphins used their first overall pick to snag offensive tackle from Michigan while Saint Louis Rams picked defensive lineman Chris Long from Virginia. Patriots is playing AFC Division East opponent Miami twice and the Rams once in the 2008 season, so it seems like a positive for the Patriots that neither team picked a runningback, wide receiver or other high-impact player. Long term, Jake Long could become an anchor for a steadily improving offensive line for Miami.

Who do you think will win the battle in the trenches between Long and Patriots’ left defensive end Ty Warren? My vote’s on Tiny. Anyway, Long v. Warren could be a heck of match-up over the next five years. I hope they develop a strong personal dislike for each other. I have it on no authority whatsoever that Warren refers to Long as Mandy, after spectacular draft bust Tony Mandarich. Spread the word.

Atlanta Falcons picked Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan with the third pick. Good move by the Falcons to get a franchise quarterback. Not that I think he is one.

Three white players were selected with the three first picks. That can’t have happened too many times over the past three decades.

Patriots also play Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets, who draft fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, in the first round.

Raiders chose Darren McFadden, a runningback from Arkansas. Patriots play the Raiders in week 15 and by that time the Raiders will have quit on the season and McFadden will be busy fathering babies out of wedlock.

Kansas City selected Glenn Dorsey from LSU. Very good pick by the Chiefs, but he shouldn’t be much of factor in the opening regular-season game against the Patriots.

New York Jets snagged Vernon Gholston, a speedy defensive end pass rusher who could very well create problems for Patriots’ tackles Matt Light and Nick Kaczur. However, he will have to have more than just outside speed because if he doesn’t have inside moves they’ll just ride him out. Interesting match-ups ahead. Also: Gholston v. Long when Jets meet Dolphins. Good stuff.

Patriots traded down to ten. Saints used the seventh pick to take defensive tackle Sedrick Ellis. Good move by both teams. Pats got 10 and 78. That leaves New England with three picks in the third round in a pretty deep draft.

Jacksonville Jaguars traded up to pick defensive end Derrick Harvey at eight and Cincinnati Bengals took USC linebacker Keith Rivers at nine.

Finally, the New England Patriots picked inside linebacker Jerod Mayo from Tennessee. I know just about nothing about Mayo, but the team is in dire need of fresh blood at inside linebacker, so the pick addresses that need.

Draft Punditry

ESPN pencil neck John Clayton rates the Patriots as first day losers because they ended up with a linebacker whom they could have had at 21. Clayton says the Patriots “hated” their original seventh spot since they are big on team, not on stars (you’d think ESPN analysts would know better than speaking of Patriots and hate, but apparently they don’t), yet rumors had it that the Patriots tried to trade up, presumably to get Gholston or Dorsey at five.

I heard Scott Zolak lament on a show on WEEI that the Patriots didn’t draft an offensive lineman in the fist four rounds. I really don’t understand what that would have done for the Patriots. His reasoning was the offensive line’s breakdown in Super Bowl against the New York Giants, but since it was a collective failure for the line the rational response would have been to get five new linemen, if one were to follow Zolak’s thought process. The offensive line is simply not an area the Patriots need to worry about this year.

Besides, Patriots drafted three offensive linemen last year, all three were let go and all three were picked up by other teams, which tells me that they were pretty promising players but not better than any of linemen already on the roster. In hindsight, perhaps they should have kept Clint Oldenburg of the three, but there is no way he would have done better against the Giants pass rush than guards Logan Mankins, Stephen Neal, Russ Hochstein did.

Seattle Seahawks picked Notre Dame tight end John Carlson with the 7th pick in the second round (38). I had hoped the Patriots would pick him but there are other tight ends on the board. No worries. Jets taking Jordy Nelson with the 36th overall pick seems like a serious reach. Picking tight end Fred Davis from USC at 48 strikes me as a good move by Washington Redskins. Very odd draft by the Chicago Bears. They could have snagged runningback Rashard Mendenhall (Illinois) and either of quarterbacks Chad Henne (Michigan) or Brian Brohm (Louisville) (I think the latter is vastly better), but they went with offensive tackle Chris Williams and runningback Matt Forte instead.

The 2008 NFL draft is this weekend.

New England Patriots needs are, in order: Linebacker, cornerback, tight end, fullback, and quarterback (backup quarterback, to be specific).

Ideally, the Patriots would send their first-round pick (the seventh overall) and a 2009 second-round pick to Cincinnati Bengals for malcontent wide receiver Chad Johnson. Then they would use their second round pick this year to draft tight end John Carlson from Notre Dame. You might ask how getting a wide receiver and a tight end addresses the need at linebacker and cornerback? It doesn’t, but it would make the offense even more potent than it was last year and it hopefully add punch to the run blocking (and to avoid breakdowns like this one against Indianapolis Colts last year).

Since that isn’t likely to happen, I hope the Patriots draft USC linebacker Keith Rivers at seventh. If LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey is available at that spot, which is highly unlikely, they should get him. If Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan is available they should take him. Since neither of those three players likely to be available, the Patriots should pick the highest rated linebacker available. Some people have more or less fallen in love with Vernon Gholston, but he strikes me as a one-note player, a poor man’s Dwight Freeney, if you will (here’s a Gholston highlight reel). It is true that the Patriots could use a speed-rusher to complement the plodding Adalius Thomas and Mike Vrabel, but I think the defense overall would gain more from getting a versatile linebacker, preferably a versatile inside linebacker.

The one pick that would be somewhat disappointing would be drafting a cornerback with the first round pick.

The other day I watched a rerun of Baltimore Colts at Buffalo Bills from last season on the NFL Network. The sight of two mediocre teams trying to find a way a to win served as a harsh reminder of the fact that the New England Patriots one day will return to mediocrity. It’s unavoidable. Here’s how it could happen:

1) Quarterback Tom Brady retires after the end of the 2010 season, his right shoulder shot, tired of chasing that elusive fourth Super Bowl victory.

2) Head Coach Bill Belichick decides to follow suit when he realizes his personnel cupboard is empty, his roster stocked with aging veterans and young players with little promise, and his budgets ever stingier because of unexpectedly weak profits generated by the Patriots Place shopping center. “Belicheat Beliquits!” blares NY Post’s front page.

3) The Krafts realize the gravity of the situation but fail to re-staff the football and personnel operations with adequately competent leaders. Instead of coveting a chance to play for the Patriots, veteran free agents shun the franchise for being cheap and in disarray. In 2013, the Patriots go 5-11. The Revolution’s 2014 home opener draws a bigger crowd than the Patriots’ 2013 season finale.

Well, such a development would still be better than those dreadful pre-Kraft years, that’s for sure, but I really hope the franchise finds a way to rejuvenate once the Belichick/Brady era comes to an end.

Last night I watched some of the Texas Longhorns’ spring game on the Fox College Sports channel. It wasn’t uplifting. Longhorns run a variation of that awful West Virginia offense which is basically little more than pickup basketball with a little bit of blocking and tackling thrown in for the heck of it. Almost every play the Longhorns ran looked the same: Three wide receivers, one tight end, shotgun and a runningback, with the quarterback showing a handoff - fake or actual - to the runningback before running in the other direction.

I saw two different reverses. On one the quarterback lateraled the ball to a slot receiver who took it around the corner and almost scored a touchdown thanks to great blocking downfield by a wide receiver. The other was a hilariously stupid play where the quarterback handed off to the runningback before rolling right, the runningback then lateraled it to the slot receiver who was promptly slammed to the ground by the left defensive end who had - as one could have foreseen - been led to the point of attack by the quarterback rolling out (since the fake hand-off rollout is standard fare in the West Virginia offense defensive ends tend to guard against the quarterback roll).

I assume the execution will get a lot better as the season rolls around and progresses, but fundamentally the Longhorns’ offense strikes me as laziness that will be camouflaged by athletic superiority ten times. Ten times. Not eleven, not twelve, not thirteen and sure as heck not fourteen times. Ten.

The player who impressed me the most was a kid named Kirkendoll, a sophomore wide receiver who caught an ill-advised pass on a third down and long situation. The right guard on first-string quarterback Colt McCoy’s squad showed good mobility, power and balance on one of the running plays (I don’t remember whether McCoy played for “Pride” or “Tradition”, as the Longhorns spring-game squads are known).

To me organized sports should be about practice and preparation augmenting talent, but the West Virginia offense and its off shoots are more or less just displays of talent. Read one guy and run. That’s pretty much it. Not terribly impressive, but perhaps all that can be handled in today’s Division-1 football with its draconian restrictions on scholarships and practice time.

Fred Kirsch mentioned today on PFW In Progress that the official website of the New England Patriots, Patriots.com, suffered a slight decline in traffic from March 2007 to March 2008, the first time ever traffic to the site declined year-over-year. I suppose there’s perhaps a bit of fatigue on the margin among Patriots fans after two heartbreaking season-ending losses.

Today’s show also includes snippets from last Thursday’s outstanding argument between Tom Casale and Paul Perillo which was an off-shoot from an argument between Perillo and Kirsch about, hold on to your hats, the force-out rule. PFW In Progress is great entertainment. The Golden Age of Podcasts, really.

The New England Patriots have re-signed unrestricted free agent wide receiver Randy Moss to three-year, $27 million contract after a couple of days of increasing nervousness among fans. Moss caught 98 passes for 1,493 yards and an NFL-record 23 touchdowns last year, and then he snagged another 16 receptions for 229 yards and four touchdowns in three ply-off games.

The deal ensures that New England’s offense will be at least as talented in 2007 as it was in 2008. The runningback position is solid with Sammy Morris, Laurence Maroney and Kevin Faulk. The offensive line is set. The only spot that potentially could be weaker than what it was last season is tight end, a part of the offense that has been under performing ever since Ben Coates left after the 1998 season. But that weakness was barely noticeable last year and it probably won’t be this year, either.

Having Moss on the field in 2008 doesn’t just mean quarterback Tom Brady will have his favorite weapon back, it will also give super-productive slot receiver Wes Welker - 112 receptions for 1,175 yards and eight touchdowns in 2007 - the kind of underneath space to work with that he did last season. Hopefully, the Patriots will sign a new number-two receiver to either replace Donte Stallworth, who has signed with the Cleveland Browns, or serve as back up for Chad Jackson, if the latter is finally ready to shoulder an expanded role in the passing game (or, more to the point, any role in the passing game).

Re-signing Moss could also help the Patriots during the latter stages of this free agency period as prospective free agent won’t have to wonder about whether the Patriots will remain competitive. They will, and any aging veteran’s best chance to win a Super Bowl is signing with New England.

In other Patriots free agency news, cornerback Randall Gay has signed with the worthless New Orleans Saints, where crappy players with crappy attitudes congregate to play crappy football, meaning we’ll only hear from him again if he gets himself arrested.

We’re in the offest of off-season for football players but it’s already preseason for NFL cheerleaders. The New England Patriots Cheerleading Squad hold their 2008 auditions on Saturday, March 8. The final round will be held on March 22, when the 75 finalists try to make the 24 slots on the squad. More info at Patriots.com.

I don’t actually know anything about cheerleading, but I’ll hazard some high-level advice anyway (IMPORTANT: Consult your physician before changing your diet or exercise).

I would say there are three key areas where a cheerleader has to stand out to make the cut: Attitude, physique, and technique.

1) Attitude. NFL teams seem to look for cheerleaders who are confident, quick learners, able to handle themselves during public performances and have the ability to smile at all times. The last thing is something you can practice, just stand in front of a mirror and smile. For hours if necessary. And I’m not kidding. And make sure your smile is an all out teeth-baring bright-eyes smile. As for ability to handle pressure, don’t ever tell the judges you did something wrong because you’re nervous. If the they make you nervous, imagine what 68,000 roaring fans at Gillette Stadium will do to you.

2) Physique. “We need you to look your best” appears to be the euphemism in NFL cheerleader circles for “lose some weight.” So look your best. Tone up. On top of that, you need to have the stamina to do high kicks, dance moves and general cheers for three hours plus during games.

3) Technique. NFL cheerleaders seem to be more dancers than what high school and college cheerleaders are, so if your background is cheering but not dancing you probably need to work like crazy on the dancing. That said, it’s still cheerleading so if you have a background in dancing but not cheerleading you should probably work on your cheer moves prior to the auditions. The high kick in particular seems to be crucial since it says something about your balance, agility, strength and grace (and don’t forget to smile while high kicking).

One way to prepare yourself is to study up on the Patriots cheerleaders. They have plenty of pictures and video clips you can watch at the cheerleader section of Patriots.com, including from previous tryouts.

Here’s how the Patriots describe the auditions:

Participants will be asked to perform the first combination in small groups for a panel of judges. Scores will be based on dance ability, showmanship, overall appearance and level of physical fitness. After the first dance combination is taught and then performed by all auditioners, the first tabulation process will take place. During tabulation, a second combination will be taught. Participants advancing to the next round will be announced and those ladies will then be required to give a self-introduction, perform a series of high kicks, and perform the second routine.

[Note to regular readers: I get quite a few searches for how to become a Patriots cheerleader, so think of this as a public service announcement. Exciting posts about census data and similar stuff will return tomorrow.]

[Update 3/8/2008: Pictures of Patriots cheerleaders from 2007]

[Update 3/9/2008: Photos from the audition at Boston.com]

[Update3/14/2008: Patriots.com has a report and photos from the audition as well as a podcast where the auditioning process is discussed.]

New England Patriots stunning loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl 42 has caused some fans to unleash their fury at head coach Bill Belichick who, in their minds, came up with a weak game plan, coached the game poorly and didn’t make the right adjustments (by some fans I mean the ones I heard call and write in to the Dennis & Callahan show on WEEI yesterday morning - I’m not totally weasly).

I largely disagree with those fans. Now, one can certainly question the wisdom of going for it on fourth and thirteen from the 31-yard line instead of kicking a field goal. But otherwise Belichick handled the game more or less the same way he’s handled almost all other games this season. Other than going no-huddle against Indianapolis Colts in the second half Belichick mostly let his players execute the same schemes until they worked. Now, the schemes changed a bit as the season wore on. For example, the formation with two tight ends off-set from the line of scrimmage went out of fashion after the tight-end position was thrown into flux by injuries to both Ben Watson and Kyle Brady. Kevin Faulk’s role increased after Sammy Morris was placed on injury reserve. While the Patriots used a lot of different formations they mostly used one running back, one tight end (often in a wide or tight slot) and three wide receivers. In some of the close games in the final stretch of the season I wished for more four-wide formations, but Belichick generally stuck with Watson and that always worked until Super Bowl. In games where the offensive line struggled with pass protection they always figured it out in time to set up the winning score.

And it came very close to working in that game, too. Patriots defense had four opportunities to end the game on the final drive and also missed a golden opportunity to put the Giants in a fourth and long situation when they failed to sack Eli Manning.

There’s no coach I’d prefer over Belichick. In Bill I Still Trust.

We’re moving on. 2008.

New England Patriots have joined an exclusive club. They are the only team to go 18-1 in a season without winning the Super Bowl. The New York Giants made the most of their defensive strength, their powerful defensive line, in order to slow down and at times flat stop the Patriots high-flying offense.

New England Patriots didn’t choke and you should consider people who claim they choked ignoramuses. The Giants beat them in the trenches, they beat them in field position and they beat them in clutch plays. The biggest factor was that they controlled the line of scrimmage on both side of the ball mot of the game. The Patriots were clearly anticipating New York’s aggressive pass rush but couldn’t counter it.

On the Giants final drive the defense had three opportunities to intercept Eli Manning, and missed all three of them. They also failed to sack Manning on a critical play that set up the final score of the game. They also failed to stop New York on a fourth-down play. Four chances to make game winning plays and one chance to set up a game winning play and Patriots defense blew all five opportunities on that last drive.

Give the Giants their due. The Patriots have shown this season that they aren’t just bunch of pretty-boy touchdown-makers but also tough guys who can grind it out in close games. But the Giants beat them anyway.

The key to the loss was the pitiful performance by the offensive line which has been anywhere from solid to spectacular this season, with maybe a couple of pinches of shaky thrown in in a couple of games. Yet throughout this season I hesitated to upgrade them from 2006 assessment of them (”above average but nothing special”) and I pointed out during the pre-season that left guard Logan Mankins isn’t the superstar offensive lineman he is often made out to be. Giants defensive tackle Justin Tuck got far too much penetration against Mankins, which made it almost impossible for quarterback Tom Brady to move up to escape outside pressure. The line collectively, as well as runningback Kevin Faulk, failed to handle New Yorks various and often excellent blitz packages. It seems as if defenses were able to decode the Patriots pass-protection schemes during the last few games of the season and that caught up with the Patriots today.