The Patriots have selected punter Zoltan Mesko out of Michigan with the 150th overall pick (5th round) of the NFL Draft.  Mesko is a left football punter who really has no weaknesses.  He’s also used to punting in bad weather so that won’t be a issue for the Patriots.  He played in 50 games in his four years at Michigan and he punted the ball 252 times for 10,703 yards (42.5 avg).  He also placed the ball inside the opposing 20-yard line 78 times (31%) at Michigan.  He will be a starter from Day #1 for the Patriots.

The Patriots have selected TE Aaron Hernandez out of Florida with the 113th overall pick (4th round) of the NFL Draft.  Hernandez is a big guy at 6′2″, 250 pounds and he runs a 4.65 40 as he is a good athlete.  He played in 14 games (13 starts) for the Gators last season and he caught 68 passes for 850 yards (12.5 avg) with 5 TD grabs.  Hernandez played in 40 games (27 starts) in his three years at Florida in which he caught 111 passes for 1,382 yards (12.5 avg) with 12 TD grabs.  Despite having nice size Hernandez is not much help at run blocking.  But, he is a outstanding receiver who slipped a tad giving the Patriots great value in the 4th round.

The Patriots have picked WR Taylor Price out of Ohio with the 90th overall pick (3rd round) of the NFL Draft.  Price is a big receiver at 6′0″, 201 pounds and he is super fast as he runs a 4.33 40.  He played in 13 games (all starts) last season for Ohio and he caught 52 passes for 735 yards (14.1 avg) with 5 TD grabs.  Price played in 51 games (38 starts) in his four years with Ohio and he caught 145 passes for 1,970 yards (13.6 avg) with 14 TD grabs.  This was a solid pick for the Patriots as Price gives them rare speed at WR.

The Patriots have picked inside linebacker Brandon Spikes with the 62nd overall pick (2nd round) of the NFL Draft.  Spikes is a big guy at 6′3″, 250 pounds and he is the classic middle linebacker as he is a much better run defender than he is against the pass.  Spikes played in 12 games (all starts) for the Gators last season and he finished up with 68 tackles, 6.5 tackles for a loss, he had 3 sacks, broke up 3 passes and he intercepted 2 passes.  He played in 48 games (39 starts) in his four years with Florida and he finished up with 307 tackles, 31.5 tackles for a loss, he had 6.5 sacks, he broke up 14 passes and he had 6 interceptions.  Spikes is a playmaker and I love this pick for the Patriots.

The Patriots have picked DE Jermaine Cunningham from Florida with the 53rd pick (2nd round) in the NFL Draft.  Cunningham is 6′3″, 248 pounds so the Patriots probably are thinking about moving him to OLB.  The problem with that is Cunningham is not a good open field tackler.  That makes him a bit of a tweener.  Cunningham played in 12 games (all starts) for Florida last season and he finished up with 34 tackles, 12 tackles for a loss, 7 sacks, he had forced 2 fumbles and he had 1 fumble recovery.  Cunningham played in 45 games (38 starts) in his career at Florida and he finished up with 152 tackles, 34 tackles for a loss, 19.5 sacks, he batted down 7 passes, forced 5 fumbles and he recovered 1 fumble.  The Patriots coaching staff will likely have to coach Cunningham up as they likely picked him a round or two too early.