New England Patriots: Expect The Unexpected

One great thing about covering the Patriots is how much they seem to confuse everybody with their draft day approach. Every year we all think we know what they are going to do, and they then go in a completely different direction. For instance, who thought the receiver needy Pats would go with a cornerback a linebacker and two tight ends in that 2010 draft. They do things in very weird ways in New England, but that is also what makes them so successful.

The way I see it, the Patriots biggest needs going into tonight are receiver and cornerback. So don’t be surprised if they draft an offensive tackle in the first round. That is just how Bill Belichick operates. To us fans that pick may seem incredibly dumb and useless, but Bill is one of the brightest football minds of all time and I’m sure he would have a great reason behind that pick. Nate Solder is a perfect example of this. Going into 2011 the secondary was easily the biggest need for New England, but Belichick selected Solder in that first round and look where he is now. He is the starting left tackle for the Pats and one of the best in the league as well. Everything Bill does is for a reason and more often than not, that reason turns out to be a very good reason.

Something came to me the other day while watching an NFL Live segment on ESPN, what teams have won the Super Bowl by doing things the way all the “experts” say they should ? This past year it was the Ravens, the previous year the Giants, before that the Packers and obviously this whole decade the Pats are  always at or near the top. For the most part, none of these teams do it the”conventional” way, especially the Patriots. The Packers rarely do anything in free agency, and that is the opposite of what everybody says they should do. The experts on all of the various networks are always saying to go get a number of highly touted free agents, but the Packers seem to do just fine every year. The same thing goes with the Ravens and the Giants, while they do things much more normal than the Pats and Packers, they still are a bit “weird”. A common theme between all of these squads besides the fact that they do things differently, is success. So for any Pats fans that start complaining after the Pats do their typical weird thing on draft weekend, just remember that is what got them three Super Bowl titles and five appearances on the last 11 years.