How do you rate this draft?

For now it looks decent. I was surprised they picked a couple guys that Mike Reiss had said he liked. It's usually impossible to guess who the Pats will take. The film I've seen on the internet from Malcolm Mitchell is impressive and from the story they ran this morning on the NFL network about him(Before the Pats selected him) he's an even better person. I try not to judge drafts for a couple years but I'd say with the NFL stealing our first round pick we made out well. Also swung a couple deals to get a 4th rounder back for next year.That's important as we're actually light on picks and probably won't be getting any compensatory picks next year.

We selected a Nickle CB that was actually needed and a couple of Guards for competition. Both Line backers where picked for Special teams / depth options and may not even make the team.
A developmental QB -WR -DT all will be on the 53 man roster or PUP . If they get 3 starters it's a A+ draft

I like a bunch of the picks:

1. Jones is a guy who I think will actually get a fair number of snaps this year. For a second rounder, that's good value.
2. Thuney—not quite sold on this guy, but I can also see him being a Mankins-like surprise. I'm okay with this.
3. Brissett—I really like this guy as a back-up for Garoppolo. He looks like someone who can protect the ball, which is probably what we want if Brady is suspended and Garoppolo gets hurt. He may be an interesting developmental player who takes the offense in a bit of a different direction.
4. Valentine—I have a feeling this guy's a bust. Don't know why. Just think he's not what we need. Hope I'm wrong and very well could be because I've never seen the kid play. It's purely a hunch.
5. Mitchell—think this guy could be the outside WR we've struggled to find. Of course, he's a fourth rounder and you can't ever expect much in that round, but this guy just sounds like good karma to me.
6. Grungier-Hill—this is the guy I expect to surprise. He's exactly the kind of player we need — sort of in-between a Collins and a Chung
7. Roberts—Patriots kind of guy from what I read. Does he have the talent, though, to make it?
8. Karras—Don't really see him making the team, but may make practice squad. This seems like a flier to me.
9. Lucian—a project, but a good project.

Finally, trade into next year: I always like moving up a round by delaying the pick a year. Good move there.

If anybody goes wrong it's going to be Cyrus. I dislike puny backfielders because they always get injured early, and because of that they never develop into solid defensive backs.

The trading really made sense to me. Remember that the Patriots have by far the best scouting organization in the NFL, plus BB knows exactly what he wants and it's often quite different from what the other teams want. Trading down for an extra fourth rounder always makes sense when you know that you're generally picking the good fruit and they're sometimes picking the wormy fruit because they're blind.

Remember that Nick Caserio was complaining yesterday that the Pats had too many guys in camp. A monstrous volume of players were injured last year and they're all coming back. Then BB went out and signed a wall of fair-to-good players. Then the Pats still had 12 picks, or 88 players already in camp and no room to grab anything else the day after the draft. So, trading away two sixths and a seventh for one quality pick made sense in this case. However, trading that pick manufactured a nearly free fourth rounder to boot. In total, the Patriots got down to 85 players in camp and now they can pick better among hundreds of priority UDFAs, many of whom will target the Patriots as their best ticket to stardom and money. Let's say you have some NFL talent but it's rather limited, like Tully Banta-Cain for example. You come to New England, work here for a while and get hired away for way too much money simply because you have a Super Bowl ring and a resume.

I like the QB so far, tall and highly intelligent, hits medium range passes, also a bit hard to tackle because he's heavy and somewhat elusive.

I like the defensive tackle, fat, strong, handles double teams, gorilla arms.

I like the guard/tackle/center because he plays all positions and he's quite intelligent, in the Belichick mold.

The sixth rounders are probably picked because they'll drop through to the practice squad. We'll mainly see them in 2017. Meh.

This draft had far more to do with 2017 than 2016. I suspect some of these guys after a full year of supervised strength training and conditioning, as well as a year getting reps here and there and being exposed to/learning the playbook, will become starters in 2017 when they will be better players and we let some guys go because of contracts. Think of this as a depth and long term thinking draft, and considering the amount of players we currently have on the roster, as well as close to 20 players returning from injury, it was the wise choice on BB's part. Drafting immediate impact players starting from the back of the second round was never really a serious expectation, and also an unnecessary one.

Can I see them play before I vote? Or am I being uncooperative?

We got Mongo's great nephew! 

How could it be a bad draft?

This is often said about nearly every draft by BB.  I've said it once or twice myself.  However, we need to remember that the Pats aren't drafting anyone they think will still be there later in the draft.  Well, I suppose they do sometimes if they don't want to accept the risk of losing someone.  Moral to the story is that if they take a guy in the 2nd round it's because they have a 2nd round or above grade on him.  If they take a player in the 3rd round it's because they have a 3rd round or above grade on him.  If the Pats have these grades do we know other teams do not?  How do we really know what grade a player has by all teams?  All us fans can go by are the so-called draft experts.  Don't know how accurate that is.  History suggests that sometimes they do indeed draft a guy too high.  History also tells us sometimes the Pats are right and the draft experts are wrong (hello Vollmer).

A quick recap of how it all unfolded per Jeff Howe: www.bostonherald.com/sports/patriots/the_blitz/2016/04/recapping_the_patriots_nine_picks_and_three_trades_in_the_draft

I think the Pats were trying to get a few guys with some nastiness on the OL with Thuney and Karass. Also love the signing of UDFA DJ Foster, I think he makes the team.

I was hoping for more exciting prospects for pass rush and running back. 2 areas of need that I don't think are fully addressed with the current roster. A lot of things can still happen... free agents, scheme change, development, and return to health. Other than that, I think we have material to sculpt on special teams and depth.