FanHouse BrandonTate

Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.

No team enjoys wheeling and dealing on draft weekend quite like the New England Patriots. The 2009 draft was no exception, as they made a series of moves resulting in 12 picks, and the stockpiling of even more selections in 2010.

As a result, the moves left the Patriots with no first-round selection for the first time since 2000, which is also the same year they selected some guy named Tom Brady.

Under Bill Belichick, the Patriots have a history of trading up and down (mostly down) the draft board, accumulating future picks along the way. It's unorthodox but effective.

The 2009 NFL Draft has been no different. In fact, Belichick announced hours before the proceedings that the chances the Pats would trade into the top 10 were "less than zero." And he kept his word. New England worked the board, and didn't make their first selection until the second round. But UNC wide receiver Brandon Tate, taken in Round 3, could be the most memorable Patriots pick in this draft.

This isn't about your stance on the legality of marijuana, or how many football players or college students smoke the stuff on a regular basis. Those arguments only cloud the issue. This is about people doing stupid things and getting punished for it. In the cases of Percy Harvin and Brandon Tate, the two receivers who reportedly tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting combine, the issue couldn't be more simple.

These two guys will not be drafted as high as their abilities and resumes say they should. In the case of Harvin, he's gone from a first-half-of-the-first-round pick to a guy who might slip all the way into the second round and beyond. Tate could have been a second- or third-round pick but is now likely to slip further.

And that is 100 percent fair. For a couple of reasons.

According to recent reports, Percy Harvin and Brandon Tate have tested positive for marijuana use at the NFL Combine. According to sources, Harvin and Tate were the only two "high-profile" players who decided that getting high was more important than being clean enough to make millions of dollars.

Harvin (a wideout from Florida) was a likely first-rounder, and Tate (wideout from North Carolina) was probably going to come off the board in the 2nd or 3rd round. Now, you have to question just how much a report like this hurts their stock. There are teams like the Colts -- who could use one of the wide receivers -- who place a lot of importance in personal history when drafting.