Geneo couldn't have gone to a better team.

[Plainosooner]

Geneo Grissom was among the last players taken on night two of the NFL draft. He was drafted by the Super Bowl champion NE Patriots. We know several things about New England. As good a franchise as there is in sports in terms of structure of the franchise. The guys who ought to be making the decisions about anything are the ones that make those decisions.

And say what you want to about Belichick, and I don't much like the guy, but name any better head coach in football.

I heard an interesting piece of information about Coach Bill a few years ago. Don't know the accuracy, but it makes some sense. He likes to draft guys with their degrees, and will sacrifice a tiny amount of talent in preference for smart players.

Whether that is true or not, it is an honor to be drafted by the best talent evaluators in football and as a third rounder, Geneo will have a chance to go prove himself. I am really happy for him. Took them a while to find a place for him. Some teams have a hard time finding a way for people who are tweeners to be contributors. Belichick seems to be able to make them into stars.

 

[BillyRay]

It's the benefit of NOT being a high draft pick, is you get the chance to play for a better team or organization. Teams have high draft picks for a reason...it's cuz they are awful. Going to NE later has the disadvantage of not getting big money from the beginning, but it sets up better in the long run for a career. Geneo has a great team around him. But also, he has alot of great talent ahead of him and he will have to work his ass off to earn playing time and a spot on the roster. But Belichick doesn't turn every draft pick into gold. He took Ryan Mallet in the 3rd round a few years ago as well.

 

[Plainosooner]

The thing about going to a Super Bowl champion, is that they will always have some of their best guys cherry picked as their contracts expired and now as stars of a Super Bowl champ, they can earn more than the champ can pay them. A third rounder almost has to be a screw up to not make a team if they stay healthy.

I read Belichick's post day two press conference and he was very complimentary of Geneo. Called him a guy with great football insticts who shows up making difference making plays every game he played. Writers asked if the Alabama game stood out, and Bill told them not any more than other games. Something like, "you didn't have to watch four games to see him making plays." Said that he played some four technique, both on pass rushing downs and regular base defense downs. "When they (OU) had injuries, he moved across the line, from inside all the way to the edge."

Belichick said they had no plans to play him at tight end, but that he went through a tight end workout at OU's pro day. "I didn't see a better tight end workout this year. If you didn't know he wasn't a tight end, you'd say, wow, that was a pretty good tight end workout."

We were a pretty good team last season before Geneo got hurt. He was a huge loss.

It's interesting to me that very few players from the Big XII were drafted in the first three rounds. But the Patriots took two of the three guys they've drafted so far. Malcolm Brown, the Longhorn DT was the other.

 

[WhyNotaSooner]

It's the benefit of NOT being a high draft pick, is you get the chance to play for a better team or organization. Teams have high draft picks for a reason...it's cuz they are awful. Going to NE later has the disadvantage of not getting big money from the beginning, but it sets up better in the long run for a career. Geneo has a great team around him. But also, he has alot of great talent ahead of him and he will have to work his ass off to earn playing time and a spot on the roster. But Belichick doesn't turn every draft pick into gold. He took Ryan Mallet in the 3rd round a few years ago as well.

One thing about Belichek that many overlook, he'll cut star players in a heartbeat to stay on course with the salary cap. There are quite a few players that play, a max of up to 2 yrs w/ the Pats. That's a good and bad thing. Grissom for example, will have to accept a contract of being the last player selected in the 3rd round. He won't be eligble for another contract for 3 seasons. If he's good and makes it, NE will offer him a low ball contract to say with an 'elite' program or they'll send him packing. If he's let go, many other GMs & HCs then will look at him as a discarded player from Belichek. It's a catch 22. I hope he does very well and makes a ton in the NFL.

 

[Plainosooner]

I disagree. He will have a contract before cutting decisions are made.

Being the last player of the second day will be a much better contract, than for players who are drafted today. He will likely make less than a million a year, but he'll get a four year deal according to the CBA. And it will be for an average of about two thirds a million dollars for each season, plus a guaranteed signing bonus, which in the NFL is everything. That's his money and no matter what happens down the road, he'll have a half million signing bonus.

In addition, if he plays 35% over the teams offensive or defensive plays over the first three years, then his fourth year contract becomes a league mandated restricted free agent contract. It's on him. If he's a productive player, he will get rewarded financially, and have a great chance to achieve what most players most seek: a ring.

It's a business, no doubt. But if you think Belichick has won four Super Bowls by screwing with productive players, then you don't get it. Or him.

I get the idea from what I've seen of Robert Kraft, is that he has a great relationship with his players. From what we saw of Geneo against Bama -- and btw, I thought that overall, he played better than Striker did -- that if he is with an organization that makes it to the SB, he'll play great with the opportunity.

I love Geneo as a player. Hard nosed. Smart. Sacrificial. And incredibly talented. If he stays healthy, he'll be a great pro.

 

[CTOkie]

With all due respect, the same can be said of every player drafted by New England. The Patriot brain trust has a pretty good success rate over the past few years. Their second round selection from Stanford, SS Jordan Richards, was not rated as high as other defensive backs, but the Patriots have a habit of finding and developing very good players despite their less-than-stellar ratings.

 

[Plainosooner]

Bill Belichick's second day presser comments about Geneo:



Q: Grissom versatility-wise almost didn't have a home or a position because they were moving him around.

BB: No, I wouldn't say that.

Q: End-of-the-line?

BB: In 2013, they played 3-4 defense. He's played under two different coordinators. But when Mike Stoops came back, his 3-4 defense and they didn't have enough depth there at defensive end, so he played four-technique, actually four-high technique in 2013 at 260 pounds. So he was way undersized, but he competed well. They didn't knock him off the line of scrimmage. He didn't look like a linebacker.

You wouldn't probably think he was that light, if you didn't know it, not by the way he played. He has good playing strength. He runs well. Then this year, it looked like they had more depth on the defensive line, they moved him to outside linebacker. So both last year and this year on third down he played end and then also bumped inside to an inside rusher position. They had pretty good edge guys, you know [Eric] Striker and the other kid, the underclassman. He was kind of the guy that would move down inside at times. He was productive there; the Alabama game for example. He's rushed inside, he's rushed outside. He's played anywhere from the end of the line, five-technique, defensive end in a 4-3, outside linebacker in a 3-4.

Q: How much did that Alabama game stick out to you?

BB: I'd say he's pretty disruptive in every game. He has plays in every game. It's not like you have to watch four games to find him making a play. He's been a hard guy to block in that league. There are a lot of teams that throw the ball. You watch Texas Tech, TCU, games like that, there are 50 passes in the first half.

Q: He also seemed to have some ability to anticipate the passing lanes in terms of getting up and batting balls.

BB: Yeah, I'd say he's very instinctive as a pass rusher. He's in coverage a decent amount of the time as a walked-off linebacker. So you see a guy play out in space, out over the slot. He does a lot of that. So, for a guy to play from three-technique to end-of-the-line to a walked-out linebacker…at the Senior Bowl, they actually played him off the line, like in the tackle bubble. He's a pretty athletic, versatile guy.

Q: Are there any similarities between Rob Ninkovich and Grissom's skill sets?

BB: I think there are some similarities. I would say that Grissom has just done more than Rob. Similar to Rob, but he's played a lot of three-technique. Which, I don't think, Rob just hasn't done a lot of that. Rob's been on the end of the line, he's been a linebacker. Rob's played more linebacker than Grissom has. Grissom's played in the inside part of the defensive line. Not just on passing downs, he's played there on their base defense in '13. He's an interesting player.

Q: Did I read that he actually worked out at tight end at his pro day?

BB: He played tight end. He came to them as a defensive end. Then he went back to tight end, then they had some injuries, then he went back to defense. Then he played defense the last two-plus years. I think he had a whole spring at tight end. He did work out as a tight end.

Q: Is that any kind of consideration?

BB: No, we're not trying to make him a tight end, but I'd say that his workout as a tight end is probably as good of a tight end workout as we saw all year. This guy can run, he can catch. If you didn't know he didn't play tight end, you would look at the workout and say, ‘That's a pretty good looking tight end.'

=================

I think Belichick really likes him.

 

[BillyRay]

Well of course he is gonna say good things about a kid they just drafted. He is gonna come out appearing to like every person they draft, whether it was his decision to pull the trigger, or the bosses above him that made the call.

 

[Plainosooner]

He said a lot more good things about Geneo, drafted at the end of the third, than about their second guy, a Stanford safety taken in the 2nd.

 

[BillyRay]

Then why didn't he draft Geneo in the 2nd instead of the Stanford guy? Where a player is drafted usually says more about a player than comments at a press conference.
Besides...I see comments in press conferences like this as nothing but coach speak. Like when Bob Stoops is handing out praise to recruits on NSD. He makes sure he sounds excited and likes each and every one of them.

 

[Plainosooner]

I think he was questioned a lot more about Geneo. And he was a bigger surprise, both locally and in NE.

There was a thread about Grissom's being drafted on the premium board where shock was expressed he'd gone so early. I don't understand that. He finished 2013 so well and started 2014 very well and then he got dinged and then he got his season ended with injury. But he's an elite talent. I believe he'll be a great pro if he's healthy.