Patriots

Could Last Year's Draft Class Produce a Patriots Pro Bowler?

Could the 2020 Draft produce a Pats Pro Bowler? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Pro Bowl is probably the one live sporting event you really haven’t missed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Selections are subjective, the game doesn’t include players participating in that year’s Super Bowl – or many other stars for myriad reasons – and those that do play are giving something considerably less than 100% effort.

That doesn’t mean the game, or at least the idea of it, is completely meaningless. Getting selected to the Pro Bowl is still a big deal for many players, no matter how unscientific the process is of getting there, and seeing which teams rack up the most Pro Bowl selections in a given season tends to provide a good barometer of who the haves and have nots in the NFL are.

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Even in 2020, uninspiring a year as it was for the Patriots, they still mustered three players who were voted into the hypothetical Pro Bowl that was never played: Stephon Gilmore, Matthew Slater and Jake Bailey. Two special teamers and a cornerback who only played 11 games.

The berth was the ninth for Slater, tying him with John Hannah for second in team history, and the third straight for Gilmore, which regardless of how deserving it was, continued to solidify his status as one of the great free-agent signings in franchise history.

Bailey’s selection may have been the most noteworthy, however. Bailey, whom New England traded up for in the fifth round in 2019, snapped a six-year stretch for New England without having drafted and developed a Pro Bowl player.

Jamie Collins, drafted in the second round, 52nd overall in 2013, had been the most recent Patriots draft pick to play in a Pro Bowl, doing so in his third season. Put another way: New England made 57 draft picks between the remainder of 2013 and beginning of 2019 without selecting a player who has (yet) made a Pro Bowl.

To be sure, there are plenty of quality players the Patriots have drafted in the interim, guys like James White, Shaq Mason, Joe Thuney, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon, not to mention the usual undrafted gems such as David Andrews, Jonathan Jones, J.C. Jackson and Malcolm Butler – the last of whom even made a Pro Bowl in 2015. Theoretically, others like Isaiah Wynn, Chase Winovich or N’Keal Harry still could, too.

While Bailey is truly a weapon of a punter, the kind that Bill Belichick has been known to wax poetic about in the past, his Pro Bowl nod was hardly a vindication of what’s become a systemic crisis in New England. Bailey’s berth leaves the Cincinnati Bengals as the team with the longest drought of having not drafted and developed a Pro Bowler, not the kind of company you want to keep.

Could any non-specialist from the 2020 draft class truly get the Patriots’ development system back on track?

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Entering the NFL in 2020 with no offseason programs or preseason games amid the pandemic put rookies behind the 8-ball right off the bat. That’s not to say there weren’t at least some flashes of promise from a slew of first-year players in New England.

Safety Kyle Dugger (second round, 37th overall), linebackers Josh Uche (second round, No. 60) and Anfernee Jennings (third round, No. 87) and offensive lineman Michael Onwenu (sixth round, No. 182) all had their moments in 2020, most notably Dugger and Onwenu.

Dugger, the highest-drafted player out of an NCAA Division II school (Lenoir-Rhyne) since 2006, helped offer a dose of optimism in the secondary for life without Patrick Chung. Appearing in 14 games and starting seven of the team’s final eight contests, Dugger finished tied for 10th among rookies in solo tackles with 43.

“He was involved in quite a few plays, but I thought he pursued well, tackled well and gave us some perimeter run force, which was a big part of the game,” Belichick said after Dugger’s first start against the Ravens, in which he had a season-best 12 combined tackles.

Dugger is older than the majority of players from his draft class, having already turned 25, which may have given him an edge in adapting to a variety of roles such as playing deep safety or lining up in the box as an extra linebacker.

“The guy is a special athlete,” Devin McCourty told WEEI of Dugger last season. “He does some things at practice so far at different times and we’re all like, ‘Damn, did you see that?’ It’s pretty cool to see and I know he’ll keep getting better. I can’t wait to watch his development the next couple of years.”

Uche and Onwenu, a pair of Michigan alums, both seem to be firmly in New England’s plans for the upcoming season based on comments Belichick made at the end of 2020.

Onwenu in particular was a revelation as a rookie, starting all 16 games on the offensive line at both guard and tackle for the Patriots. Onwenu graded out as the sixth-best rookie in the NFL per Pro Football Focus and gives the team all sorts of options along the line in 2021. He could compensate for the loss of Joe Thuney via free agency at left guard, his primary position in college, or become the long-term answer at right tackle following the departure of Marcus Cannon.

“He’s opened a lot of doors and opportunities for himself,” Belichick said of Onwenu prior to New England’s final game last season.

If nothing else, Onwenu is certainly the team’s best sixth-round pick out of Michigan since Tom Brady.

Uche, meanwhile, started only one game as a rookie, but Belichick had a bright outlook for him as well entering 2021.

“We’ll be able to define his role much better next year, so I’m looking forward to that,” Belichick said. “He’s definitely going to be an asset for us.”

Jennings, who played for noted Belichick disciple Nick Saban at Alabama, appeared in 14 games, making four starts as a rookie.

There were still plenty of players trending as misses from the team’s most recent draft class as well, though, most notably the disastrous pick of kicker Justin Rohrwasser (fifth round, No. 159). The first kicker off the board in 2020, Rohrwasser’s career in Foxboro is already over without him ever stepping on the field.

Things don’t look great for Devin Asiasi or Dalton Keene, either, the pair of tight ends drafted by the Patriots in the third round last year. After combining for five catches for 55 yards as rookies, New England splurged in free agency and signed the top two tight ends available in Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith.

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Even if the draft class doesn’t produce any actual Pro Bowlers, Dugger and Onwenu look like surefire keepers. Remember, Deion Branch, Ty Warren and Julian Edelman never made a Pro Bowl, but Brandon Merriweather made two.

Given how paltry the contributions remain from the 2016-19 draft classes, however, it’s hard not to feel at least somewhat hopeful that 2020 marked a return to form for the Patriots.

“If they do a good job of approaching it the right way, have the right work ethic, take advantage of the opportunity that they have to boost their career, then good things will happen for them,” Belichick said of the team’s young players after New England’s final game of the season against the Jets. “If they don’t, then there will probably be other players that pass them by.”

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