Year of the second round pick

Published April 28, 2010 at 4:27 a.m.

The last few days I have seen lots of reports on the draft and various team philosophies and one that's always striking to me is the strategies of the Patriots.  The belief is that typically a team can get players with talent similar to the first round, but at a cheaper price.  Not a bad idea over all; I don't know if I agree, but it's an interesting theory.  

This got me thinking about the guys that TT has gotten in the second round since arriving in Green Bay.  This led me to an interesting thought, this is really going to be a make or break year for most of our second round draft picks.

Generally the second round picks that TT has made have either been boom or bust, there has been no in between.  The first two drafts show this so well, starting with Nick Collins and Terrence Murphy.  Murphy's bust may have just been bad luck, but his pick really didn't add much to our team.  This was followed up with Darren Colledge and Greg Jennings.  Do I need to say more?  One is a superstar and the other is going to have a hard time making the team this year.  The second round picks are finished up with Brandon Jackson in '07 (a decent third down back but not what we really wanted out of a 2nd round pick), and the class of '08.  These guys are Nelson, Brohm, and Lee.  Nelson is decent, Brohm washed out of two but I guess Buffalo is planning on him being the starter this year, and the jury is totally out on Lee since he's yet to have a season where he's healthy all year.  

Looking at each of these stories, how they've affected the team, and this year's draft it can be seen that this is a critical year for all of these players.  If guys like Colledge, Jackson, or Lee don't step and start playing like a second round pick then they are probably going to be gone next year.  Also, with the exception of Lee, most of them have their replacement already on the roster.

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