In the latest edition of the “It Is What It Is” podcast, WEEI.com’s Christopher Price and former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham discuss the state of the Patriots at the midpoint of the offseason, touching on what they’ve accomplished in the draft and free agency. The two also discuss the impact former teammates Willie McGinest and Matt Light had on both sides of the ball, as well as a look at why some players struggle with life after football. To listen, CLICK HERE.

In the latest edition of the “It Is What It Is” podcast, WEEI.com’s Christopher Price and DJ Bean take a look back at the NFL draft and break down each one of the Patriots’ seven picks — including first-rounders Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower — and ask how soon they’ll be able to contribute on a regular basis. Price and Bean also examine a few players the Patriots passed on and why. To listen, CLICK HERE.

Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson joined Dennis & Callahan Thursday to discuss the death of NFL great Junior Seau. The former Chargers, Dolphins and Patriots linebacker committed suicide Wednesday, which has brought about questions of whether Seau was suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative disease common with athletes who have dealt with multiple head injuries.

Johnson said he is “sick” over the passing of Seau, but that there’s no denying that head injuries extend well beyond the game.

“It’s hard to quantify all the hits and what they mean in your life and the decisions you make, but there’s obvious evidence out there that hits to the head can cause problems,” Johnson said. “… It affects your mood, it affects your decision-making. It’s really hard for a lot of guys, especially when they retire, to handle stress-related things. It’s a lot more difficulty to kind of sift through things in life that maybe earlier you could handle.

“People are making judgements as far as perhaps there’s a link to it, and there might be. They’ve done 36 autopsies of former athletes that have had concussions, and 35 of them come back with signs of CTE, which is particularly in guys that have had multiple concussions. You have to think that Junior, if hopefully they can do an autopsy on his brain, will show the same effect. It’s a serious issue.”

Johnson estimates that he himself suffered between 100-150 or more concussions during his 10 years in the NFL. Seau shot himself in the chest, suggesting he may have wanted to leave his brain to be studied. Given that, Johnson noted that “if there’s a tipping point for this issue, this puts it over the edge.”

“There’s this idea that we’re bigger than life, that we have no [weaknesses]. We are football players, we are gladiators, this is what we do. People don’t want to hear about the other stuff,” Johnson said. “I think people are going to find out that there was a lot more demons that Junior had to deal with.

“To link it back to concussion stuff, there’s no question that when your head takes that many hits, that physiologically there’s a shift in your brain. Something changes that you have to deal with and Junior was obviously at a point where he had no other options in his mind other than doing what he did.”

Johnson remembered Seau as a “pro’s pro,” but noted that the perhaps Seau had another side that he kept shielded from teammates and the public eye.

“Somebody who feels life that much who is just that passionate — and the highs, you see him so up and so pumped, and that’s how he was — the thing about it, conversely is the depths he must have gone to,” Johnson said. “He must have dealt with things and gone to levels emotionally on the lowest end that I think are going to come out, that he didn’t want anyone to know about. I wasn’t completely shocked, but at the same time, it makes you think about your own mortality, too.”

Johnson retired during training camp prior to the 2005 season. In the years that followed his retirement, he claimed that part of his concussion problems were the result of Patriots coach Bill Belichick making him practice after suffering a concussion. Johnson said that he has since lost touch with Belichick and owner Robert Kraft.

“It bums me out a little bit,” Johnson said. “When I came out with my story about what happened in ’02 to the [New York] Times and the [Boston] Globe in ’07, I just think, from what I was told, that put a bad taste in Mr. Kraft’s palate. I feel horrible, because it wasn’t about trying to get back at Belichick and Mr. Kraft.

“I owe so much to football. Football saved my life in a lot of ways, and the Krafts, and even coach Belichick and I were able to work things out, but this issue was so much bigger than that. Unfortunately, they took it more personally than I wish they would have. Honestly, I haven’t had any contact with them, and I don’t know. I just feel bad about it, but that’s just the way it is.”

Ever since the Spygate scandal of 2007, the Bill Belichick and the Patriots’ Super Bowl titles have been questioned by the media, fans and, often in the Steelers’ case, players.

On Tuesday, it was a coach — and a friend of Belichick’s — who had some interesting words regarding the New England coach. Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked about the urge to bend the rules while making an appearance on 98 Rock Radio in Baltimore. Here’s what he had to say:

“In the end everything is brought before the light of day when it’s all said and done. … So what happens is, even the thing in New England and the thing … No matter whether those things had any impact on whether they won their championships or not, they got asterisks now. It’s been stained. So to me it’s never worth it.

“You’ve got to figure out ways to use the rules to your advantage, you’ve got to figure out ways to make the most of everything, we’ve got new work rules here as far as what we can do and what we can’t do with our players, we’re going to make the most of it and what we’re finding is, man, in a way we can do things even better than we did before because these rules make us focus more on things we didn’t focus on before, and you’ve got to make them work for you. That’s what success is in the world – you’ve got to find a way to do things better than somebody else. But in the end, if you’re cheating, you’re going to get discredited. It’s just not worth it.”

The first round ended with a pair of running backs Thursday night.

The Broncos traded down for a second time, getting second and fourth-round picks from Tampa Bay as the Bucs moved up to get Boise St. running back Doug Martin, who rushed for 1,299 yards and 16 touchdowns as a senior.

The Giants then wrapped up the first round with Virginia Tech’s David Wilson, who became the third and final running back taken in the first round. The Browns selected Alabama’s Trent Richardson third overall.

The Vikings moved back into the first round, trading with the Ravens to get the 29th overall pick and select Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith.

Smith was the Viking’s second first-round selection, as they took Matt Kalil fourth overall.

The 49ers then turned some heads by drafting Illinois receiver A.J. Jenkins 30th overall. Jenkins can stretch the field, but there may have been better options on the board, such as Alshon Jeffery, Rueben Randle and, arguably, Stephen Hill.

The Texans helped to make up for the loss of Mario Williams by taking Whitney Mercilus 26th overall in the NFL draft Thursday night.

The 6-foot-3, 260-pound Mercilus had 16 sacks and nine forced fumbles as a junior before declaring for the draft. He’s been called a one-year wonder, but so too were Jason Pierre-Paul and Aldon Smith.

We took a closer look at Mercilus while at the scouting combine in February. Click here for that story.

The Bengals were next up on the clock and took Wisconsin’s Kevin Zeitler. Then came the Packers, who finally got a legitimate complement for Clay Matthews by selecting USC pass-rusher Nick Perry.