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January 31, 2008

Bad draft?

Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli were both asked yesterday about New England's draft class this year, which initially saw just three players make the active roster: Brandon Meriweather, Kareem Brown and undrafted quarterback Matt Gutierrez. Oscar Lua and Mike Richardson were placed on injured reserve.

Belichick fairly bristled at the notion that the Pats had a bad draft.

"Our second round pick was Wes Welker and our fourth round pick was Randy Moss, so even though they weren’t draft choices, they’ve been significant players on our team," he said in a gross understatement.

When Pioli was asked about only one draftee being on the current roster (Brown was cut and picked up by the Jets), he answered in much the same way as Belichick.

"The way I look at it, our second-round draft pick was Wes Welker and our fourth-round draft picj was Randy Moss," he said.

New England traded its second round and a seventh-round pick to Miami for the rights to Welker, who went on to set a franchise record with 112 receptions, and the team sent a fourth-round choice to Oakland for Moss, who set a new league record with 23 touchdown receptions this season.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 6:42 PM | Permalink