As always, many “mock” drafts are predicting the Patriots to select Nevada OT, Joel Bitonio, with the 29[SUP]th[/SUP] overall pick in the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] round and Stanford DE, Trent Murphy, with the 64[SUP]th[/SUP] overall pick in the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] round. I’ve also seen the team linked to C Weston Richburg, LB Chris Borland, or TE Troy Niklas as their 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] round pick. Year in, year out, the experts who create these mock drafts believe that the NFL’s most white-friendly franchise will draft more whites, and it rarely comes to fruition.
New England has drafted/developed white starters in the past, but the vast majority have been offensive lineman. Guys like Matt Light in 2001, Dan Koppen in 2003, Nick Kaczur in 2005, Sebastian Vollmer in 2009 and Nate Solder in 2011. The only non-OL white players drafted in the Belichick era that have developed into starters have been Julian Edelman in 2009, Rob Gronkowski in 2010, and Tom Brady in 2000.
All white defensive starters in the Belichick era have been veterans signed during free agency (Monty Beisel, Mike Vrabel, Matt Stevens, Rob Ninkovich, Steve Gregory, Trevor Scott), undrafted rookies (Mike Wright, Dane Fletcher, Joe Vellano), or were drafted before the Belichick regime (Ted Johnson, Tedy Bruschi). Not a single one was drafted, even with a low pick, and developed into a defensive starter.
If I had my choice, I’d like to see them draft Troy Niklas to pair with Gronk, Chris Borland to replace the god-awful Donta Hightower, and BYU safety, Daniel Sorenson, to replace the loss of Steve Gregory.