2011 NFL Draft Results: What Did We Learn from the New England Patriots' Picks?

As a whole, it's hard to criticize the New England Patriots' choices in the 2011 NFL draft.

They made a lot of smart picks, a lot of value picks and a lot of trades to pick up more picks for next year.

However, the question that rings loud throughout the northeast is, "Where is the pass rusher?" "Who's going to rush the passer?" "We needed a pass rusher." "Pass rusher, pass rusher, pass rusher!"

Belichick said himself that this is a draft that will be won or lost by people's evaluation of the prospects in the front seven.

Quite simply, when he was done evaluating this year's class, he didn't like it.

Time and time again, Bill Belichick had the opportunity to take an "elite" pass rushing prospect.

Time and time again, he passed.

I think most of New England went cross-eyed when the Patriots drafted a tight end in the fifth round, when they still hadn't drafted a defensive end or an outside linebacker of any shape or size.

The writing is on the wall. Bill Belichick is confident in the guys he already has on the team.

Jermaine Cunningham is a guy he believes in. The Patriots also picked up a lot of defensive linemen last year and signed Marcus Stroud this offseason.

Everyone spent so much time looking for the next Richard Seymour, they ignored the next Matt Light sitting on the board.

Nate Solder has that kind of upside, with the potential to be better against edge rushers than Light.

He played tight end before switching to tackle, has very light feet and doesn't get burned off the edge very easily.

Back-to-back selections of running backs may be a dubious decision, but the two are very different.

Shane Vereen is an agile back with great natural ability as a pass catcher and solid awareness in blitz protection. He will make the majority of his contributions in the passing game.

Stevan Ridley is much different. He's more of a plodder between the tackles. He has great vision, finds holes quickly and hits them hard.

With that, the Patriots now have four young backs on their roster. All of them run hard, all of them are talented guys and all of them have their place in the Patriots' offense. It may seem hard to believe that four backs could all see time, but Belichick loves having a lot of bodies in the backfield.

Marcus Cannon played tackle at TCU, but he would probably slide inside to cover up his weaknesses against edge pass rushers.

It has to be considered a pretty brave move for Bill Belichick to draft someone who was just diagnosed with cancer, but most of the reports say that the form of cancer Cannon has—Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma—is the most treatable form.

At 6'6" and 266 pounds, Lee Smith is a big, physical tight end that excels as an in-line blocker.

He's a veritable Rob Gronkowski, minus the five-second 40-yard dash. He could be the eventual replacement for Alge Crumpler, whose primary responsibility is as a big-bodied blocker.

Plus, the Patriots were exposed on the edge at times last season. Adding a big-time blocker will pay dividends when trying to find a way to stop a relentless pass rush.

Take a look at the class and ask yourself, "What does this mean for the future of the team?"

It's fairly obvious—this is going to be a run-heavy offense when Brady is done.

As teams are shifting towards a more pass-oriented style of offense, the defenses are also changing to counter that.

With that, the Patriots are staying ahead of the curve by adjusting their offense to beat those defenses. A fleet of fast, small defenders will be virtually powerless against the monster squad lineup of big bodies that's being assembled in New England.

Don't fret, Patriots fans. It's not as though Bill Belichick is going to take the ball out of Brady's hands. Think of it as like what the Denver Broncos did with John Elway towards the end of his career.

They knew they weren't going to have Elway forever, so they became a more balanced offense toward the end of his career, with the hope that by the end of his career, that run-heavy personnel would be hitting their prime.

That turned out pretty well for the Broncos. Let's see if that plan is successful in New England.

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