A Slim Possibility is Still A Possibility.

The college interpersonal speech communication course teaches that people tend to deal in garentees and impossiblilities. The course trains people to open their mind. To look for other possibilities. And to understand that just because somethings improbable doesn't mean it's improbable. People win the lottery all the time with odds of like a million in 1 chance. That brings me to Bill Belichick.

Bill Belichick said he believed that Cole Strange would not be available at pick 54. And people are calling bullshit and saying that Patriots general Bill Belichick did what he wanted and took the guy he wanted. Belichick does have a history of making decisions that fans initially disagreed without a second thought and has a history of surrounding himself with yes men. So can we say with certainty that what happened when it came to their draft pick, or are there other possibilities?

Well first majority of the people that are upset with the selection are claiming that everyone had Strange as a 3rd or forth rounder. However, that is fraudulent. For proof, I turn to the USA Today.

Natilie Miller of USA Today projected Strange as "an early day 2 (2nd round) pick."

So much for the arguement that everyone had Strange as a 3rd round pick or later. I could share more but one quote is all I need.

Now Belichick said he believed that Strange would not be there at 54. We also know that teams put out feelers to get information. Can we guarantee that no other team was interested in Strange and that no one was willing to take him before pick 54? The answer no, we can not guarantee that. 

Is there any reason to think a team might view Strange as an early second round pick? USA Today and Pride of Detroit sports writer Erik Schlitt may have something to say on it.

Erik Schlitt wrote the following after the combine workout, "The only question surrounding him is: do teams think he is ready to start now? If they think he is, he could also go earlier than expected."

Again, I could go on but one is enough. So I have shown there were people who viewed Strange as a second round pick and people who thought he was worth taking earlier than projected. If people had him as a late second round pick, I moved it up just now to a possible early second. But was he that much better than the guards taken after him.

Uriel Klien of Belly up Sports wrote, "I think he deserves consideration even in the top half of the 1st round, even if he won’t be drafted until Day 2."

And Tyler Sullivan of CBS ranked Strange an 84.31 and said "He should be a long term starter," comparing him to Mark Glowinski.

So we have Klien being suggested as a possible first round consideration and being labeled a long term starter by Sullivan. That's all I need to show that he was better then the next guard.

Now one more thing we know is that Belichick views and treats later first round draft picks as a second round. Dean Blundell Network's Ray Rauth during his draft party on Thursday said the same exact thing. 

So now that I have shown that Strange was not only considered a second round draft pick but was also said that he should be considered to be taken in the first. And that he should be taken early if a team thinks he'll start immediately. I also have someone saying Bill treats that pick like a second round pick. What is the big deal for Bill Belichick to take the guy where he did, especially if he had first round consideration?

And to the question of did Bill Belichick take the guy he wanted regardless of what people thought, with everything I have laid out, in this case the only reason one would have an issue over which prospect with first round consideration was taken is because of personal bias. Furthermore, Bill passed on some of those prospects multiple times, meaning the Patriots didn't view those guys as high as everyone else.