Even for the New England Patriots, they too have fallen into a trap of drafting some players that have turned out to be busts in their NFL careers. And with the news of Tom Brady signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Rob Gronkowski being traded to follow Brady to the state of Florida, what better time than now to pile onto the case of the Patriots.
For New England, as has been the case with every single team in the NFL, their draft history has been littered with early draft busts that can easily turn a successful draft class into one of the franchise’s worst. And due to their frequent postseason success, they have been commonly picking at the end of most rounds, making it even more imperative to hit on the selections that they have.
Going back a few years to look at how bad some of their drafts have been, here are the five biggest NFL draft busts of all time for the Patriots.
Terrence Wheatley, CB
Year Drafted: 2008
Pick Number & Round: 62nd, 2nd round
Becoming a part of the Patriots just as incumbent cornerback Asante Samuel was heading out the door, corner Terrence Wheatley was selected towards the end of the second round in 2008 with hopes that he could become a solid piece of the team’s secondary and help with Samuel’s departure.
Instead, Wheatley lasted only 2.5 seasons with the Patriots, facing constant injury battles that he brought with him from his days at Colorado, and his NFL career was a very uneventful one.
Wheatley was a bit undersized to help compete with the tall, physical bodies of wide receivers at the time, but his physicality and body type matched what the Patriots looked for in cornerbacks in the mid-to-late 2000’s, so Wheatley fit into their mold of defensive backs.
By using the second-to-last pick in the second round on Wheatley, the Pats missed out on players like running back Jamaal Charles or tight end Jermichael Finley.
Ras-I Dowling, CB
Year Drafted: 2011
Pick Number & Round: 33rd, 2nd round
Three years after the Wheatley draft disaster, the Patriots tried their hand again at selecting a second-round cornerback, and while things commonly end up repeating themselves, but no one could have prepared themselves for the disappointment that came with drafting corner Ras-I Dowling.
The first pick of the second round in 2011, a pick that the Patriots seriously considered moving out of, went to addressing the team’s defensive backfield with Dowling, who had put together an injury-riddled collegiate career at the University of Virginia. His physicality, however, was one of his stronger traits and one that the Patriots sought to harness in the NFL.
The Pats opted for Dowling instead of a few other players on the board there, giving them two injury-filled seasons before being cut at the end of training camp in 2013.
Dowling’s rookie season ended prematurely, as he suffered a hip injury in Week 2 and was placed on injured reserve, after having started the opener the week prior against the Miami Dolphins. His sophomore season ended in a very similar way, as a Week 7 quad tear put him on the shelf for good the rest of that season, essentially ending his Patriots career at the same time.
Bob Cryder, G
Year Drafted: 1978
Pick Number & Round: 18th, 1st round
Going back to before 1980, the Patriots used their first-round selection in 1978 on Alabama guard Bob Cryder, who was picked five selections before his teammate and tight end Ozzie Newsome. While Newsome may be more well-known now because of how he has helped turn the Baltimore Ravens into an AFC powerhouse in their front office, Newsome’s NFL career easily overshadowed that of his Crimson Tide colleague who went five picks before him.
The Patriots, in drafting Cryder, only had him until 1983, when he left for Seattle. However, that loss was not a big loss at all, specifically due to the fact that Cryder had started more than three games in only two seasons in New England.
A first-round interior offensive lineman is expected to become a plug-and-play starter soon after he is drafted, and yet Cryder’s NFL career, especially when he was in New England, fell far short of that expectation.
On the other side of that coin, Newsome put together seven All-Pro nods and a Hall of Fame induction for the Cleveland Browns, helping lead them to the top of the AFC for a good part of the 1980's.
Chad Jackson, WR
Year Drafted: 2006
Pick Number & Round: 36th, 2nd round
In the offseason that preceded the Patriots bringing in Donte Stallworth, Wes Welker, and Randy Moss, the Patriots drafted receiver Chad Jackson out of Florida with the 36th pick, right after they selected running back Laurence Maroney from Minnesota in the first round.
While neither player turned out to be the high-powered offensive talent they were drafted to be, Jackson’s NFL career was one that was much more disappointing than Maroney’s.
For Jackson, coming into his rookie campaign he had a high offensive ceiling, powered by his speed and size in the collegiate game. However, as is a common issue players face, those elements were never able to translate into the pro level.
Jackson caught only 13 passes for 152 yards and three touchdowns across 12 games, and his rookie year came to a screeching halt in the AFC Championship Game when he tore his ACL. With the rest of his 2006 season done and practically all of 2007 also out the window, the Pats decided to bring in outside resources, making Jackson’s role on the team and in the offense nonexistent, as he never caught another pass for the Pats again.
Daniel Graham, TE
Year Drafted: 2002
Pick Number & Round: 21st, 1st round
The final entry on this list is actually one of the worst instances of New England blowing their draft picks on one player, while a much better one was still on the board.
The Mackey Award winner for the Best Collegiate Tight End, Daniel Graham was seen more as a block-first tight end that was going to grow into his pass-catching responsibilities on the offense. However, he lasted five seasons in New England, left for the Denver Broncos after his Pats tenure, and his uneventful career as a member of the Patriots was over seemingly before it even began.
The worst part about this? The Patriots could have had Ed Reed.
Reed, who went three selections later to the Ravens, ended up becoming one of the league’s best safeties it has ever seen, became the NFL Defensive Player of the Year two years later, and he could have teamed up with safety Lawyer Milloy to form one of the better safety tandems in the league.
While this misstep did not necessarily push the Patriots back on their championship timeframe, this represents one of the largest “what-ifs” for Patriots fans everywhere, as they could have added the legend that is Reed to a team that would have risen to the next level of being unstoppable on both sides of the football.
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