...and not just that alone, as the common fan is being constantly bombarded with opinion on team needs, player ranking and how dumb the coaches and general managers are by media and fan alike for not throwing caution to the wind and selecting the players in free agency and the draft that the opined know will be a great fit.
That said, it seems that very little actual thought goes into what most journalists throw onto their websites or into the pages of their newspapers, rather, just an "averaging out" of the opinions of a handful of experts - not taking into account that most of these national experts haven't the slightest clue the nuances that go into an individual team's collective mindset.
And it's not really a fault on their part, as they are tasked with the deadlines and constant badgering of slave-driving editors - relying on the information that they collect and derive from the individual team's beat writers, who get their intelligence from sources who may or not be insane/imaginary.
Regardless of where the disconnect originates, the fan is left with generalizations, rumor and innuendo.
The key in making an informed guess in these matters is in knowing your team on a criterion level that doesn't have to be intimate, or even from a "source" - rather, information that is known to be factual, and building upon that solid and fundamental base.
So...what do we know to be true?
Well, when it comes to roster building, a good place to start is knowing who the players are on the team, what the current Salary Cap level is, the number of draft choices the suits have to work with, the on-field philosophies and the habits and trends of the people making the decisions on all levels...
...which is what screws everything up and makes trying to foretell which college players the team is going to select in May's draft an inexact science at the most, and pure guess work at the least - which is all any prognosticator is able to do.
The best thing that any of us can do is to make sure that which ever direction New England Patriots' defacto General Manager and resident prankster Bill Belichick decides to go in the draft, that we are educated in what the choices are and how they fit the team concept - silently cursing Belichick for being so cryptic and weird while at the same time lauding him for putting together a team with 53 strips of bacon...and for being so cryptic and weird.
And with that, we begin a ten-part positional preview of the college prospects leading up to May's draft - and what you will find is not necessarily the positional rankings found on traditional all-encompassing boards, rather, a top 100 listing of players that would best fit in the Patriots' offensive and defensive schemes with our projections for the actual selections in bold...
...and always with the mindset that Belichick is going to pull a rabbit out of his hoodie at some point.
1st round
 |
| Round 1: Ryan Shazier |
Aaron Donald, DT/DE, Pittsburgh
Zack Martin, OT/OG, Notre Dame
Eric Ebron, TE, North Carolina
Xavier Su'a-Filo, G, UCLA
Kelvin Benjamin, WR, Florida State
Ryan Shazier, OLB/SS, Ohio State
C. J. Mosely, ILB, Alabama
Louis Nix, NT, Notre Dame
Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri
Ra'Shede Hageman, DT, Minnesota
 |
| Round 2: DaQuan Jones (91) |
David Yankey, G, Stanford
Darqueze Dennard, CB, Michigan State
Stephon Truitt, DT, Notre Dame
Carl Bradford, OLB, Arizona
Jace Amaro, TE, Texas Tech
Carlos Hyde, RB, Ohio State
Cyrus Kouandjio, OT, Alabama
Jimmie Ward, SS, Northern Illinois
Demarcus Lawrence, DE, Boise State
Antone Exum, CB, Virginia Tech
Deone Bucannon, SS, Washington State
Dee Ford, DE, Auburn
Austin Seferian-Jenkins, TE, Washington
Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, Eastern Illinois
Lamarcus Joyner, CB/SS, Florida State
A. J. McCarron, QB, Alabama
Allen Robinson, WR, Penn State
Jason Verrett, CB, TCU
DaQuan Jones, DT, Penn State
Telvin Smith, ILB, Florida State
Kyle Van Noy, OLB, Brigham Young
Timmy Jernigan, DT, Florida State
Rashaad Reynolds, CB, Oregon State
Troy Niklas, TE, Notre Dame
 |
| Round 3: Clarke |
C. J. Fiedorowicz , TE, Iowa
Marcus Smith, DE, Louisville
Kareem Martin, DE, North Carolina
Will Clarke, DE, West Virginia
Christian Jones, ILB, Florida State
Bishop Sankey, RB, Washington
Ed Stinson, DE, Alabama
Max Bullough, ILB, Michigan State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
Keith McGill, CB, Utah
Jeremy Hill, RB, LSU
Chris Borland, ILB, Wisconsin
Weston Richburg, C, Colorado State
Gabe Jackson, OG, Mississippi State
 |
| Round 4: Dixon |
Shayne Skov, ILB, Stanford +
Bryan Stork, C, Florida State
Adrian Hubbard, OLB, Alabama*
4th round
Craig Loston, SS, LSU
Colt Lyerla, TE, Oregon
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, T/G, McGill College
Brandon Thomas, G, Clemson
 |
| Round 4: Gillmore |
Ahmad Dixon, SS, Baylor
Marcel Jensen, TE, Fresno State
John Urschel, G/C, Penn State
Khairi Fortt, ILB, California
Charles Sims, RB, West Virginia
Jordan Tripp, OLB, Montana
Stanley Jean-Baptiste, CB, Nebraska
Daniel McCullers, DT, Tennessee
Cyril Richardson, G, Baylor
Tyler Larsen, C, Utah State
Preston Brown, ILB, Louisville
Josh Mauro, DE, Stanford
Jordan Zumwalt, ILB, UCLA
Caraun Reid, DT, Princeton
5th round
Joe Don Duncan, TE, Dixie State
Tenny Palepoi, DT, Utah
Andre Williams, RB, Boston College
 |
| Round 6: Savage |
Pierre Desir, CB, Linwood College
Justin Ellis, DT, Louisiana Tech
Crockett Gillmore, TE, Colorado State
Prince Shembo, ILB, Notre Dame
Shaquil Barrett, OLB, Colorado State
Larry Webster, DE/TE, Bloomsburg College
Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas
 |
| Round 6: Long |
Brent Urban DE/DT
6th round
Kevin Pierre-Louis, OLB, Boston College
Walt Aikens, CB, Liberty College
David Fales, QB, San Jose State
James Wilder, Jr., RB, Florida State
Spencer Long, OG, Nebraska
Dion Bailey, SS/OLB, USC
Michael Sam, DE, Missouri
7th round
 |
| Round 7: Wilder |
Logan Thomas, QB, Virginia Tech
Aaron Lynch, DE, South Florida
Trey Burton, TE, Florida
Shaquille Richardson, CB, Arizona
Vinnie Sunseri, SS, Alabama
Rob Blanchflower, TE, Massachusetts
Dezmen Southward, SS, Wisconsin
Brock Vereen, FS, Minnesota
Reggie Jordan, TE, Missouri Western
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