I guess I'll get the ball rolling in this new forum region by asking which 2006 draft pick you feel will have the biggest impact for the Patriots this fall.

I am going to go out on a limb and say it will NOT be Maroney or Jackson. My guess is split between K Stephen Gostkowski and TE/FB Garrett Mills.

My thinking goes like this. If reports are true and Dillon is healthy, he will still carry the load while the Patriots take their time acclimating Maroney to the NFL game. Jackson WILL be great in time, but he is a homerun hitter and the Pats do not throw deep that often, nor do they typically trust rookie receivers to do very much.

Gostkowski has a shot to be THE MAN in the Pats kicking game if he beats out Grammatica, which would give him what the others will not have--a starting job. Mills is such a great pass catcher out of the backfield (something I know the Pats would love to do a lot more of) that he has a shot at making a bigger impact than Maroney or Jackson. PLUS, his routes will be shorter and easier. He seems to me like the kind of player that Brady will fall in love with....

I don't believe Chad Jackson was ever a home-run hitter at Florida he was mostly used as a possession receiver although he could definitely end up as a home-run threat with his blazing speed. Rookie WRs normally don't make much of an impact their first year so I wouldn't choose him. Kickers are the same way even Adam V. had to play in NFLE a season or two. So my pick would have to be LeKevin Smith, because he is a strong fast player for over 300 lbs and without much depth behind the line he will get rotated in alot and will look great at least in the eyes of the coaches.

Chad Jackson is a homerun hitter -- if he's used that way. His sophomore year he was a big-time deep threat and had a great YPC (this was under a different offense). When Urban Meyer came in, he changed Jackson's role to more of a possession receiver. Jackson didn't get to run as many deep routes and was limited more to curls and short slants and crossing patterns.

Jackson will battle Reche Caldwell (who is underrated, in my opinion) for balls behind Deion Branch this season, but Jackson will be a star before long.

Jackson along with every other Florida receiver will be a bust.

If anyone can make him look good, its Brady, but Im still not all that sold on him.

What criteria are you using to make this declaration? I know for years it was the whole Spurrier offense that was blamed for the overrating of the Gator wideouts. But Zook and now Meyer have been through Tallahassee and I'm not sure that the "Florida WR" bias is valid any more.

How many colleges can you name that currently have more WRs in the NFL than Florida?

Miami
Michigan
Ohio State

Im just basing my opinion on every offensive player that has ever come out of that university(save Emmit Smith). That program just dosent turn out quality offensive talent, and it will be even further demonstrated with Urban Meyers stat generous offense. Case and point being Alex Smith who should not have been the first pick in the draft 2 years ago.

Actually, I went to ESPN.com and looked up NFL players sorted by college and none of those schools are even close to Florida in numbers of WRs currently on NFL rosters.

Florida (9 receivers) - C. Jackson, D. Jackson, C. Doering, R. Caldwell, T. Jacobs, K. Kight, J. Gaffney, OJ Small, T. Taylor

Miami (5) - S. Moss, S. Moss, R. Wayne, A. Johnson, R. Parrish
Michigan (4) - J. Avant, B. Edwards, D. Terrell, A. Toomer
Ohio St. (7) - D. Boston, D. Carter, B. Childress, J. Galloway, T. Glenn, S. Holmes, M. Jenkins

Darrell Jackson is having a nice NFL career as a WR, and he's a Gator. 5500 receiving yards in 6 years as a pro...

Which ones would you rather have though?

Junior Seau is NOT retiring. He is now a New England Patriot.

You guys think he has anything left?

I love veteran leadership and so does Coach B, but this seems to tell me they are more worried about their LB corps than I think they thought they would have to heading into training camp.

Anyone who still wants to play football past the age of 35 shows you how much they love the game, whether or not he can still physically play it leaves an answer that is desired. If he does stick with the team it will probably be for only a year and then maybe Belicheck will finally come to his senses and draft a LB in the first.

Talk about a veteran linebacking core...he's gonna get booed when he returns to Miami.

I don't get it. Seau has nothing left. If he did, Miami would've made sure he stuck around. And it's not like the Pats need some leadership on defense with Bruschi and Harrison, among others.

Seau looked like he had plenty left Saturday night, Jeff. The Patriots offense did very nicely, but the defense was amazing, holding the Skins to 8 first downs and 151 total yards. Seau was very active with a sack and a couple of other highlight hits. I can't wait to see how good this team defense will be when Bruschi gets back! It looks like they are going to use Seau exactly as they used to use Willie McGinest, and in that limited role he should fill those shoes to a "t".

I also already knew that Patrick Cobbs (RB-North Texas) was good, but this good?? Wow....

And Ben Watson? I wouldn't trade him for any TE in the game right now.

What do you think of the Deion Branch situation right now?

If he was watching Saturday night, I think he may be thinking that he better get back into camp.

I think giving Branch permission to seek a trade was a brilliant move by BB. He was basically saying, "You want Reggie Wayne money? Go find someone who'll give it to you. If not, take our more than generous offer and get back with the team".

I agree with Steve's sentiments on Ben Watson, although I might take that Gates guy first. Watson is an amazing athlete and would be putting up huge numbers for a team that used him more as a receiver.

I'll eat crow on Seau if necessary, but it is just one pre-season game. Let's see how he holds up.

Does anybody know whether this receiver from Oakland will be able to adequately fill Branch's shoes? What are your opinions of him?

His name is Doug Gabriel and last year he had 37 rec. 554yrds 3tds.
I was very disappointed that the Raiders traded him away. Doug was the best younger receiver they had. He's an inch or two over six foot and doesn't have blazing speed but he gets open. Doug will not fill the shoes of Branch but he's a great #2.

Thanks wb83. Welcome back, btw...

I look forward to our teams playing each other week 5. it should be a good game and it should be a good race for the divison title this year.

Patriots 19, Bills 17

Talk about winning ugly! But still, a "W" is a "W".

Don't tell me these guys don't miss Branch. Brady looked discombobulated the whole game to me.

That having been said, they don't miss Branch nearly as much as Bruschi. I can't wait to see how formidable these guys lwill ook with him back in there next week again.

Was Gabriel ever even on the field? I had to watch in black and white with rabbit ears because it wasn't on satellite up here, so I missed a lot of the finer details...

how do you feel about the Pats trading Branch for a 1st rounder earlier today? it was only a matter of time before he was gone

I dont think he is worth a first round pick. Albeit a later first, but I think the Pats lucked out on this and got just what they wanted. Seattle gets a sure handed playmaker who is experienced in big games. I give the edge to NE, but SEA did the right thing, just paid too much.

the Pats won't have a good passing game because of a lack of WRs but than again when you have Tom Brady at QB you'll always be able to pass but this will cost them a few games

I know I'll probably draw some heat for this, but...

TEAM NEEDS:

CB, WR, ILB, QB, RB depth

I have a very scary idea (it's scary because I'm a Dolphins fan)

how about T.O. in NE? the winning atmosphere would keep Owens happy, plus he would have a good QB throwing him the ball. Belichek also runs a very discplined team so he could keep Owens at check. the Pats need a WR and I suspect he will be kicked out of Dallas soon (next year)

I read this article in ESPN mag about players like T.O. and they suggested that you give a T.O. very little guarenteed money. with a high pay day to work towards, that way if he causes any disruptions you could cut him with little cap hit. it's a good idea when dealing with such a player

Good lord no They'll be fine at WR after they draft Samardjiza with the Seahawks 1st rounder.

Yea. It would never, ever happen. They only take guys who everyone says are headcases (like Corey Dillon) but really aren't. Not true headcases.

I know that, NE will be much better next year. not that their bad this year but with a S.Rice or T.Ginn plus a B.Davis they will be dominate

Did you see the defensive DOMINATION last night of a decent Vikings team in their own building??

They had three straight sacks in a row on one Vikings series in the 4th quarter.

This team is a stud corner and a Buster Davis or HB Blades away from being the best defense since the '85 Bears.

No one disagrees with me that corner is the #1 priority? I am surprised actually....

Id go with receiver. You can accomodate weak corners with a good pass rush.

Brady is a human being. The CDC in Atlanta ran blood samples through rigorous testing over the weekend, and it is confirmed. Tom Brady is a member of the species homo sapien.

4 picks?!?!? At least two of those were tipped....but still.

OUCH!

It's easy to play with the Colts this year, but beating them is dam near impossible.

the Pats got away from the run in this game, I'm not sure why they felt they had to trick the Colt defense but it didn't work. they were thinking too much, you just have to run all game long on them

All I can say is how did Maroney fall to 20th. I had him at 4th overall when he first declared, and that's about where he probably should've gone based on his play so far. KR, catching, power. The guy's got no weakness. I never understood why so many people had DeAngelo Williams pegged above Maroney and I never understood why Maroney was considered a 20-30 pick...

I've been impressed with O-Line whenever the Patriots are on TV... O'Callaghan at RT seems to doing a good job...

Sorry though, I think the days of owning Peyton Manning are over... He's a Manning on a mission as far as I'm concerned, and I don't see why he won't beat them in the playoffs (Of course, I'm underestimating the preparation and scheming of the best coach of this era... so we'll see...)

Well Maroney didnt workout all that well and some scouts were worried he was a product of the system. In his first 3 years at MINN he really didnt get utilized out of the backfield. Williams was a guy that did everything right from 4 years of play, good character, good workouts, etc. So going into the draft, it was logical that he would go before Maroney.

The "days of owning Peyton" are indeed over UNLESS...and this is why I said it before... we get a good-sized shutdown corner (like Daymeion Hughes or Darelle Revis or somebody to take Hobb's spot. He is a nickel back, and a ST stud, but that's it...)

Really? I was under the impression they loved Hobbs?

They do. But this the era of the 6'0, 190+ pound corner, until/unles 6'3", 210 pound WRs stop coming into the league.

Nice to see Brady bounce back like we all hoped he would at GB today.

Yes, nice to see Maroney and Watson contribute to my team in fantasy for the first time in a while.

S, more TD's for Watson as the season moves along? He's really a fantastic complete TE (blocking, catching), why can't he score more!!!!!

And Maroney is just so hard to play every week. I had a feeling to start him against GB for some reason, and it worked out well, but Dillion gets all the TDs even though they clearly like Maroney better and want him to get more touches than CD.

FRUSTRATING! What do you recommend S? Play Maroney every week? (he's pretty much guaranteed 12-20 touches a game, no?)

Man, that is a tough call. You never know what Bilichik is going to do from week to week, and neither does anybody else. They like it that way, obviously.

With two great backs on a team it is a factor to consider when drafting fantasy guys as neither will get huge numbers. The Pats are not into numbers anyway, as you well know, except for that number under the W column.

Well, it wasn't exactly pretty, but we'll take it.

8-3 with 5 very winnable games left. Sounds pretty darned good to me.

watch out in Miami, we need to win more than you do. we still have a legit playoff shot. we win out and at 10-6 could make the playoffs. the key is the Jets, we have a tie breaker with KC and KC has a tie breaker over Denver so we beat out both of them if we all end up 10-6. should be interesting the rest of the season

IF WR Mario Urrutia at Louisville does indeed come out as rumored that pushes guys like Sidney Rice, Steve Smith, Robert Meachem well within reach of the Pats second first round pick--even if they win the SB and are picking #32. Getting a topflight corner like Hughes or Revis with the first pick (or maybe Aqib Talib if he comes out) with the first pick, and then another young stud receiver to team with Jackson would be a WONDERFUL first round. Then turn to LB in rounds 2 and 3...

What do you think?

I think you guys are going to be great next year, the AFC East is going to be scary good next year

Yea...it really is almost unfair that we have two first rounders again...lol

Wow, now that was an embarassment yesterday. The Lions up 21-13 over the Pats at one point? What the heck?

A win is a win...