New England Patriots: Grading the 2009 Draft Class
By Luke O'Brien
As we continue our series of grading past drafts for the New England Patriots, we take a look back at the 2009 draft class.
With just under a month to the NFL draft, we will continue our series that reviews the New England Patriots drafts from the 1st to 7th round and will apportion a grade to each pick and then an overall grade. Each player will be judged on their value for the round they were picked in.
2009 showed an improvement over the previous two years with three starting caliber players being selected from the veritable bevy of picks they had for this year (12). Chung, Vollmer and Edelman were this years highlights, players that really bought into the “Patriot Way” and respected by their team mates and coaches alike.
2 Patrick Chung SS Oregon Grade: B+
Patrick Chung’s career has been the typecast “tale of two halves”. Initially selected high in the second round he failed to live up to his draft status in the first half of his Patriots career. Known primarily as a hard-hitting safety that struggled in coverage, Patriots fans must have thought that Chung was Brandon Meriweather 2.0. Staying healthy also proved difficult, and his contract was not renewed. A year away with the Eagles saw the same problems follow him to Philadelphia. He re-signed with the Pats in 2014 and suddenly everything appeared to click. Belichick and Patricia deployed Chung in a more favorable role and he was able to stay healthy for the first time in his career. Along with McCourty the Patriots’ safeties became one of the better tandems in the league. The last three seasons have seen Chung perform at a borderline Pro-Bowl level.