This is a tough one. Coates was a premier TE, but Grogan played a position where finding a good starter that late is/was uncommon. On top of that Grogan brought a lot of leadership qualities, tenacity and toughness that don’t show up on a stat sheet. Koppen and Marion were/have been very good values for this late of a pick, but not quite in the same tier as Grogan and Coates.

I ended up voting for Coates; compare Grogan to other NFL QB’s of his era and Coates to other TE’s of his era, and Coates ranks higher.

An interesting group that did NOT make the final nomination for best fifth-round pick in Patriots history:

Fran Tarkenton
Onree Jackson
Danny Villa
Jon Vaughn
Scott Sisson
Christian Peter
Hakim Akbar
P.K. Sam
Ryan Claridge
Clint Oldenburg
George Bussey
Zoltan Mesko

This is a good one, gotta go with Steve Grogan even though Ben Coates was a prolific receiver out of the TE slot.

Grogan was one of the toughest guys ever to play for the Pats. I always thought he was a LB trapped in a skinny QBs body.

He didn’t have the greatest of numbers….who cares, LBs don’t care about numbers, they want to win and stick someone, that was Grogan

Steve Grogan hands down. Coates was great but shorter period of time. Grogan was the face of the Pats for a while. Heck if he had started instead of eason 85 sb might have been different.

Steve Grogan without a doubt. He is the reason I started watching, not only the Patriots but the NFL….tough as nails.

The RB tandem of Leonard Russell and Jon Vaughn would have been the best in the 90′s if Vaughn displayed patience, listened to Parcells and waited for the line to open holes for him to run through. He has the speed and moves just nothing on his shoulders

Loved Grogan at K-State and loved him with the Pats. K-state also gave the Pats Don Calhoun and Mack Herron.

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Interesting article. Were did you got all the information from…

I keep listening to the news speak about getting free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the best site to get one.:)