FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- When the New England Patriots selected offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer in the second round of the 2009 draft, it was labeled as a reach by draft analysts. Vollmer, of the University of Houston, hadn't even been invited to the combine.
In Michael Holley's book "War Room", Bill Belichick also acknowledged, "There was no way he was really a second-round pick. He should have been a fourth- or fifth-round pick, by the film, by his performance. But you saw him as an ascending player and he had rare size, and there were a lot of things that you had to fix and all that."
But Belichick sensed others around the league were also high on Vollmer, so they used the fourth of their four second-round picks (58th overall) to select him.
The 6-foot-8, 320-pound Vollmer went on to play 98 games (including playoffs), with 90 starts, and his time with the franchise came to an end Friday with his official release. Vollmer was scheduled for unrestricted free agency, but after spending 2016 on the physically-unable-to-perform list with a hip injury, his contract tolled. His release was expected (it came with a "failed physical" designation), and he could be considering retirement.
Nicknamed "Sea Bass", the German-born Vollmer was one of the most well-liked players in the team's locker room, as evidenced by his 2016 web-based series in which he taught teammates how to speak German. On the field, his versatility to play both tackle spots increased his value, but he was at his best at right tackle as a force in the running game (he was a 2010 second-team All-Pro). He broke his leg in the middle of the 2013 season, but he came back from that to start 18 of 19 games in the team's Super Bowl championship 2014 season.
The 2016 season represented a passing of the torch at right tackle, with Marcus Cannon stepping in and seizing the job. The Patriots extended his contract through 2021 in the middle of the season, which foreshadowed Vollmer's time with the franchise coming to an end.
It was a solid run.
Along with receiver Julian Edelman, who was a seventh-round draft choice that year, Vollmer was the Patriots' best draft pick of '09.
