Tom Brady, QB, Michigan, 6'4" 225 LBS, 40 time: 5.40

Jordan: He has a strong arm. People overlook this, but he has zip, he can throw one of the best deep balls in the league, and he doesn't throw many bad balls. His pocket presence is excellent, and he'll take a beating (which is rare, but it has happened before) and keep going at you like it isn't happening. Obviously, he doesn't seem to get overly nervous on the field, so he's one of the best to have in clutch situations. But is he really as good as the hype? I don't think so. He benefits quite a bit from a fairly wide open offensive attack that allows him many high-percentage throws. But then again, that's the case with a lot of teams, so it's not really fair to hold it against him that much.
Set Up-6
Delivery-5
Read Coverages-7+
Throw Short-6+
Throw Deep-7
Mobility-3+
Leadership-7
Overall Rating: 7.0
Corey Dillon, RB, Washington, 6'1" 225 LBS, 40 time: 4.41

Jordan: I don’t care what shots you want to take at this guy, he’s sensational. He’s powerful, he has good breakaway and finishing speed once in the open field, he has vision, and he has, most importantly, desire. He wants to be the best, he strives to be in Canton one day, and with a change of scenery, I think he will. He has excellent hands and catches the ball well, he is a willing blocker, and he maximizes every hole he’s given with his power, speed, and moves. He’s a top five back REGARDLESS of what era you’re in. When all is said and done, he could be the greatest ever. Think about it—he’s a strong, powerful runner, he has exceptional speed and burst, he has the 4.4 finishing speed, he has excellent hands out of the backfield, he’s a good pass blocker, and he NEVER FUMBLES.
Instincts-8
Inside Running-7
Outside Running-7-
Hands/Receiving Skills-7
Block-5-
Overall Rating: 7.2 X (The off field problems)
Troy Brown, WR

Jordan: Overachiever who runs good patterns and gains consistent separation. Lacks speed, size, and overall athleticism, but he has very reliable hands and always steps up in the clutch. Tough guy who will make the touch catch in traffic. No longer Brady’s favorite wideout, probably #3 at this point (after Branch and Givens) but brings a lot to the table as a 3rd wideout and punt returner.
Hands-6+
Patterns-6
Receive Short-6
Receive Deep-5
Catch In Traffic-6+
Run After Catch-6
Block-5
Overall Rating: 5.9
Deion Branch, WR

Jordan: Has become Brady’s go-to guy. Has good speed, is very shifty and excellent coming out of his breaks. Will extend his body for the ball and, because he catches it away from his body, this allows him to make plays after the catch. A quietly dangerous receiver who might never put up breathtaking numbers simply because they love to distribute the ball.
Hands-6
Patterns-6
Receive Short-6+
Receive Deep-6
Catch In Traffic-6
Run After Catch-6
Block-5
Overall Rating: 6.2
Daniel Graham, TE, Colorado, 6'3" 257 LBS

Jordan: Top blocking tight end. Very strong, tenacious, tough, and when he locks on, he keeps his feet moving and works to finish his blocks. He was a good blocker coming out, but nobody could have foreseen this being his clear strength in the pros. He shows flashes every now and then of being a good receiving tight end, but his hands have just been too inconsistent. Of course, part of what’s held him back is the scheme they run—they dish the ball out to everybody. But he certainly can improve in this aspect.
Hands-5-
Patterns-5+
Receive Short-5+
Receive Deep-4
Catch In Traffic-5
Run After Catch-5
Block-6+
Overall Rating: 5.8^
Ben Watson, TE, Georgia

Jordan: Hilarious how they traded up to #20 just to get Graham and his receiving abilities, and ended up taking Watson a couple of years later to become their compliment to Graham, who is now their blocking specialist. This guy has sick athleticism, though. Although I don’t see him as 4.4 fast, he certainly is no worse than the low 4.5s. He has excellent overall athleticism and has improved his hands over the years to the point where he can come in and be a dominant receiving tight end. If they hit on this one, they’re going to be in the playoff hunt for at least another 4 years or so.
Dan Koppen, C, Boston College, 6'2" 296 LBS

Jordan: Really developed for them into such a reliable center that they moved Woodey to guard. Unlike Woodey, he can make all of the snaps. He shows good strength, he keeps a wide base, and he keeps people in front of him. He comes out and demonstrates good hand placement in combo blocks and he is able to transfer his momentum smoothly into his second block when he needs to make something happen at the second level. The line really took charge in the Super Bowl, and this was without Woodey, prompting them not to even make a run at re-signing him. Koppen and Andruzzi just totally gashed open holes using their smarts and technique and tenacity and Antoine Smith was able to do an adequate enough job of running through ‘em.
Run Block In Line-6-
Run Block On Move-5+
Pass Block-6
Ability to Adjust-6
Overall Rating: 6.1
Joe Andruzzi, G, Southern Connecticut State, 6'3" 312 LBS

Jordan: Has been their best lineman for years. Physically, he’s a backup, but on the field, he’s a tough, tenacious player. He has strong hands, he plays with good leverage and has the ability to take power angles and maximize his effectiveness. He understands the angles of blocking scheme and lets the defender basically block himself. All he has to do is finish him off, although he generally has the strength to really push the process along. He isn’t athletic at all, and will struggle to adjust when someone drives their way into the backfield, but he is very tough when he locks on—he owns ‘em. Overall, he is very valuable to this team, definitely more valuable than the better talent and better lineman Damien Woody, as they didn’t make a run at keeping Woodey but most certainly would with this guy.
Run Block In Line-6
Run Block On Move-5-
Pass Block-5+
Ability to Adjust-4
Overall Rating: 5.6
Matt Light, OT, Purdue, 6'4" 305 LBS

Jordan: Athletic blindside tackle has been an obvious key component in Brady’s success. Shows quick feet and body control, adjusts to both the outside and inside rush well, and is a very intelligent football player. He’s not strong enough to be a dominant player, he isn’t going to devastate anyone in the running game, although he can seal out the weakside linebacker and is overall a terrific blocker on the move and down the field, but overall, he’s always going to be a finesse player who plays a little like Mike Kenn did for Atlanta all those years. Keeps bigger, stronger, faster people in front of him just through persistence and knowing how to control his body.
Run Block In Line-5-
Run Block On Move-6
Pass Block-6
Ability to Adjust-6
Overall Rating: 6.0
Richard Seymour, DT/DE, Georgia, 6’6” 300 LBS, 40 time: 4.95

Jordan: This guy is all-world. He is big, stong, tall, quick, has a non-stop motor, and plays with leverage at all times. He has a terrific arsenal of moves, including a swim and a club. He has strong hands and can throw linemen aside like rag dolls, or he can split the double team and end up in the backfield. His long arms work to his advantage as he is able to control and neutralize blockers and not let them get into him so that he can stack and shed and move down the line. He chases sideline to sideline and he gets after the quarterback. He’s probably the best DT in football, and yet he’s technically a defensive end in the 3-4 scheme. He’s incredibly strong at the point of attack and yet he’s so quick and has so many moves that you just have to marvel at him.
Recognition-7+
Pursuit-8
Run Defense (POA)-8-
Pass Rush-7+
Overall Rating: 7.5
Vince Wilfork, DT, Miami, 6’2” 323 LBS, 40 time: 4.75

Jordan: A monster who is as explosive as a nuclear missile. Has phenomenal size, strength, power, and explosiveness. His explosiveness is absolutely ridiculous, especially for a man his size. Can stack double team and destroy it. When he is focused, he’s unblockable. Certainly a guy who has to constantly be double teamed and double teamed all the way through because he’s so huge…that’s the thing…one of the DTs will almost always be double teamed, but for how long is it necessary? But he didn’t have the consistent impact scouts were expecting. Some feel he was playing not to get hurt. I tend to think that the team atmosphere around him was just really lousy. He’s still a can’t miss prospect in my book, but not if they’re going to put him at NOSE TACKLE. That’s a total waste of his immense talent—he refuses to simply stand in there and hold a double team every down—he can do that, and do that with the best of ‘em, but he is so enormously talented he has to do more than that. He has to be allowed to shoot the gaps and blow up plays in the backfield with his speed, quickness, and explosiveness. He has everything and is of high character and great work ethic. It’s just a matter of Bellichick not treating him like a moron and seeing what he’s really about.
Ty Warren, DE, Texas A&M, 6'5" 300 LBS

Jordan: Really impressed me in preseason last year. Very quick, explosive interior lineman who is expected to play defensive end for them most downs this year. He obviously has the talent, having been their 13th overall selection and being a top prospect coming out of college, and it seems he really has taken well to the NFL. His electric quickness and athleticism in combination with size and strength should make him a top notch 3-4 end to compliment Richard Seymour.
NOT RATED
Willie McGinest, OLB, USC, 6'5" 270 LBS

Jordan: He still has quite a bit left. He’s quick and explosive off the line, the quintessential edge pass rusher, and he works beautifully at the 3-4 DE/OLB flex position. It helps that he doesn’t have to go up against the left tackle down after down, they move him around so that offenses don’t know where he’s coming from. Bellichick has all of these different skilled players and he can move them around and blitz them from everywhere, and that makes them the dangerous unit that they are now. When he first arrived, they focused on keeping people out of the endzone. Now they focus on absolutely dominating, forcing turnovers, and making big plays.
Read and React-7-
Pursuit-6-
Blitz/Rush-7
Run Defense (POA)-5-
Pass Coverage-4
Tackle-6
Overall Rating: 6.4v
Mike Vrabel, OLB, Ohio State.

Jordan: An achiever, former Ohio State star defensive end made the successful conversion to OLB in Bellichick’s scheme. His intelligence and work ethic and willingness to do the little things are what led to this. He won’t get too high, won’t get too low, and he just goes about his business like it’s his job. Despite below average speed, he is an excellent blitzer. He times it perfectly, he plays strong, and he is able to beat most offensive tackles around the corner to the QB simply because, well, he’s an OLB and would still be considered pretty fast for a DE. With the scheme he’s in, however, he can just shoot through an open gap and charge at the QB, and that’s where he’s special—not in beating people to the QB, but once he’s in position to get the QB. He takes good angles of pursuit, he gets his hands up, and he drags him down. He just has this knack as a pass rusher. As far as the other points in his game—nothing to write home about. He just maintains his responsibilities and every once in a while comes up with a big play.
Read and React-6+
Pursuit-5+
Blitz/Rush-6
Run Defense (POA)-5+
Pass Coverage-4
Tackle-5+
Overall Rating: 5.5
Rosevelt Colvin, OLB, Purdue

Jordan: Returning off the injury, you have to wonder if he’ll be able to produce like he did before. He was a converted collegiate defensive end who really found his niche as an edge rusher at OLB in the Bears’ scheme, and subsequently the Patriots felt he would really add something to their defense. Of course, it’s hard to imagine what he could add with the overachievers they already have doing the things he was expected to be doing, such as Mike Vrabel, but it can’t hurt to have him back healthy. In preseason he looked really good, and the thing is, it was against the run. He blew up a play in the backfield and just looked like a really good all-around 3-4 OLB. If he’s all the way back they have so much depth it’s disgusting, and the thing is, they always appear to have depth anyway simply because of Bellichick’s scheming. This guy is probably the most talented OLB pass rusher they have, assuming that Willie McGinnest has actually lost something from several years ago.
Read and React-6
Pursuit-6-
Blitz/Rush-7+
Run Defense (POA)-6-
Pass Coverage-4
Tackle-6
Overall Rating: 6.5
Tedy Bruschi, ILB, Arizona

Jordan: The quarterback of the defense, he gets everybody lined up in the scheme. He has the football intelligence and savvy to make way more plays than someone of his athletic talent should make. He’s aggressive in coverage and has absolutely mastered the style that Bellichick plays him in. He is almost never asked to cover by himself, he’s either the underneath guy or the guy over the top, and he just comes in and makes a play when the ball is thrown. He has soft hands and adjusts well to the ball. However, he DOES show outstanding timing on all of this and he has always done that, including pre-Bellichick. He’s not particularly fast, but he gets a good jump on sweeps going to the outside, and with their defensive line, he is able to scrape and flow and make most of the plays that he should. He’s a very, very solid tackler. Not a big hitter, but an excellent wrap-up tackler. He’s not and will never be a truly elite linebacker, but he does an awful lot for them, even if it doesn’t matter and someone else could do an equal or better job.
Read and React-7
Pursuit-6-
Blitz/Rush-5
Run Defense (POA)-5
Pass Coverage-6+
Tackle-6+
Overall Rating: 6.0
Ted Johnson, ILB, Colorado, 6'4" 253 LBS, 40 time: 4.95

Jordan: There once was a MLB who was up there with Levon Kirkland and arguably the best in the game with incredible strength and power inside and face-up, bone crushing tackling. That man, Ted Johnson, is ancient history, and what we have now is the injury-returnee-who-was-never-the-same Ted Johnson, and he just brings down the average team speed. He’s still smart, he still studies film well and tackles reasonably well in a short area. And…that’s it. I’m out of good things to say about him. He’s slow, he’s stiff, he can’t cover, he can’t blitz, never really could, he might have the least amount of range of any linebacker in the game, and you know what? It doesn’t matter…but I’m sure Bellichick is aware of all of this and lining up a replacement, although perhaps he looks at him as a “leader.” I dunno…but this guy’s their biggest defensive liability by a landslide, although it appears Keith Traylor/whoever plays NT might become that guy.
Read and React-5+
Pursuit-3
Blitz/Rush-3
Run Defense (POA)-5+
Pass Coverage-3
Tackle-5
Overall Rating: 4.2v
Tyrone Poole, CB, Fort Valley State, 5'8" 188 LBS

Jordan: A veteran who benefited from the New England coverage schemes. But the thing is, he was a first round pick by Carolina and I always liked him. He was usually their nickelback but a damn good one. He has adequate physical tools and is just a good, solid cover corner. Not a shutdown corner, but flashes that look. I really don’t know that Bellichick didn’t just see the same thing I did and snatch him up. You have to think these other teams that passed on him knew something, and that he’s just a product of Bellichick’s scheme, but I just can’t go with that. I’ll go with my gut instinct that this guy is not only solid, but VERY solid and at one point was in the class of perhaps the best #2 corner and a legitimate #1.
Key and Diagnose-7-
Man Coverage-7-
Zone Coverage-6
Hands-6-
Run Support-5
Tackle-5
Overall Rating: 6.4
Rodney Harrison, SS

Jordan: As hard a hitter as you'll ever see. He has unbelievable snap into contact and flies into people with the intent to do harm. He's also a dirty player, but the bottom line is he has the talent to back it up. He's not bad in pass coverage and shows excellent instincts and anticipation, making him a threat to come away with the interception, but he's not quite the kind of guy you want covering slot receivers. But he's one of the hardest hitters to have ever played the game, and really is a Hall of Fame caliber player. This just goes to show how meaningless Pro Bowls are (he's only been to 3).
Key and Diagnose-8
Man Coverage-5+
Zone Coverage-7-
Hands-7
Run Support-7+
Tackle-8
Overall Rating: 7.2
Eugene Wilson, FS, Illinois

Jordan: MAN did he look good, and the sad thing is, we’ll never know exactly how good he really is. He was a HUGE hitter, knocking the shit out of people, and he is fast and athletic and might have the best range of any free safety in football, at least he did last year (considering Brian Dawkins wasn’t healthy and Sean Taylor wasn’t in the league yet). He covers the field from sideline to sideline, he’s outstanding on blitzes, he can come up into the box and play like a guided missile. Being a former corner, and a shutdown one at that at Illinois, he can man up with slot receivers or any receiver for that matter and blanket them, and he has the hands and hand-eye coordination to either swat it away or come down with the interception. You could make a case he was better than Rodney Harrison last season, although Harrison’s impact in the box versus the run and on blitzes makes that case very difficult.
Key and Diagnose-6
Man Coverage-6+
Zone Coverage-7
Hands-7
Run Support-6
Tackle-7
Overall Rating: 6.9^
Chad Scott, CB, Maryland

Jordan: Excellent size and decent athletic ability. His problem is he’s a CB/S ‘tweener with decent long speed but he really struggles to play the ball over his head. He doesn’t show the ability to turn and run and is very stiff-footed and sluggish in all of his movements. He has to keep everything in front of him and use his size and intelligence to be an effective corner. He excels in zone coverage.
Key and Diagnose-6-
Man Coverage-4
Zone Coverage-6
Hands-5
Run Support-6-
Tackle-6-
Overall Rating: 5.2
Duane Starks, 40 time: 4.41

Jordan: When healthy, he WAS one of the five best pure cover corners in the NFL. He had fluid hips, he played the ball beautifully in front of him AND over his head, and he had blazing 4.3 recovery speed. He was awesome even in his Arizona days when he was on the field. But for whatever reason, he doesn't have it anymore. His size seems to be playing more of a disadvantage, and his cover skills aren't near what they were. He's had a very strange career.
Key and Diagnose-5+
Man Coverage-5
Zone Coverage-5+
Hands-7-
Run Support-4+
Tackle-4
Overall Rating: 5.1v
Adam Vinatieri, K

Jordan: He was Mr. Clutch before he made the Super Bowl game winning kick (s). He always made them when they mattered, so despite a tendency to disappoint with his percentages over all, when it came clutch time, he was the thorn in the opponents’ side. Believe me, even the 49ers know about this from their encounter in 1998. Following that Super Bowl championship season, he was on such a high that he went on to have an incredible regular season the next year and made the Pro Bowl. But then he came back down to earth, and ironically, the year he came back down to earth, the Patriots went back to the playoffs, then the Super Bowl, and then he made another Super Bowl winning kick. He was hanging on as just an adequate kicker four or five years ago. Now he’s a team icon.
Josh Miller, P

Jordan: Pats fans couldn’t WAIT to get rid of Ken Walter, who is a pooch punt specialist but just wasn’t cutting it for them last year. This guy, however, has always been a very solid all-around punter with a quick get off.