Quote:
Originally Posted by 'Hamas' Jenkins
Tully Banta-Cain, the 29 year old OLB, almost doubled his career sack total this year and still didn't get to 10.
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As I said... depends on how you look at the words. However, Belichick's first draft with the team was in 2001. Here are all the LB's drafted and the round taken, regardless of ILB or OLB projection:
2000: Casey Tisdale: round 7
2001: T.J. Turner: compensatory round 7
2003: Tully Banta-Cain: round 7
2005: Ryan Claridge: Round 5
2006: Jeremy Mincey: Round 6
2007: Justin Rogers: Round 6
2007: Oscar Lua: Round 7
2008: Jerod Mayo: Round 1
2008: Shawn Crable: Round 3
2008: Bo Ruud: Round 6
2009: Tyrone Mckenzie: Round 3
That's every linebacker drafted under Belichick. Only 3 were drafted in the 'first day', and 2 of them (Crable, McKenzie) have been held back by injury. Mayo, an ILB, was DPOY. McKenzie, projected to be an inside LB, got hurt even before getting to his first training camp. Crable was injured as a rookie, never really saw the field, and then got hurt again and ended up on IR. This year, he suffered another season ending injury, even before getting a chance to get into any game situation.
So, sure you can say that the team hasn't really drafted pass rushing OLBs if you ignore or minimize what Banta-Cain did this season, but it's not as if they've been repeatedly trying with top picks and completely failing.