From 2008-11, the Patriots tried to find a productive cornerback through the draft and failed. And the jury is out on whether they’ve been able to turn around that run in recent years. But if the Pats try to replace Darrelle Revis through the draft this week, they know they’ve got to do a far better job than they did after moving on from Asante Samuel.
Obviously, there isn’t a team in history that hasn’t made plenty of mistakes in the draft or endured a positional cold spell, but how much were the Patriots hurt by a series of picks that included Terrence Wheatley (second round, 62nd pick) and Jonathan Wilhite (fourth round, 129th) in 2008, Darius Butler (second round, 41st) in 2009 and Ras-I Dowling (second round, 33rd) in 2011?