FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – The Patriots enter the 2018 NFL Draft tonight armed with considerable early-round capital and an excellent opportunity to put their future in place.
While many teams are still adding pieces for 2018, the Patriots don’t have a particular, glaring need for September. Could they do better than LaAdrian Waddle at left tackle? Yes. Would an off-the-ball linebacker improve the front seven? Yes. There are other areas for potential improvement that you could point to, but the Patriots have at least a reasonable projected starter at every position and a coaching staff that excels at deploying reasonable solutions.
Therefore, while many will point to left tackle and quarterback as likely Patriots draft targets, the Patriots themselves don’t have to think that way. It would certainly make sense to replace the departed Nate Solder (Kolton Miller of UCLA, Connor Williams of Texas and Mike McGlinchey from Notre Dame rank among the notable tackles). It would also make sense to grab the next franchise quarterback (Lamar Jackson out of Louisville is a first-round candidate, while Mason Rudolph from Oklahoma State and Kyle Lauletta from Richmond loom as potential picks after the first), but the current makeup of the roster allows New England to be as patient or aggressive as they’d like and to target players any at position who could fill a long-term role.
This strategy aligns with the thinking of head coach and de facto general manager Bill Belichick, who recently explained that positional need is not at the forefront of his thoughts when it comes to the draft.
“The whole draft need thing is – I don’t really understand that,” Belichick said in a press conference earlier this month. “If you take a player at a position that you might so-called ‘need’ but he’s not good enough to fill that need, then it’s a wasted pick. So, I don’t understand the whole need thing. I understand player value, and that’s what we try to go by.”
With five of the first 95 picks, including two first-round selections (No. 23 and 31), the Patriots are loaded in the first three rounds. In the past, New England has been quite successful leveraging early draft capital to set themselves up for the future.
In 2007, the Pats entered the draft with two first-round picks (No. 24 and 28). They took Brandon Meriweather (a safety who had good and bad seasons for them) at 24, and then traded No. 28 to San Francisco. The 49ers sent back their 2008 first-rounder and a fourth-round pick. New England dealt the fourth-rounder to Oakland for Randy Moss. The 2008 pick became the No. 7 choice overall, and the Pats traded down to 10 where they took linebacker Jerod Mayo, who gave them nine seasons.
In 2011, New England went into the first round with picks No. 17 and 28, and made moves that went a long way in setting up their 2014 and 2016 Super Bowl runs. They took Solder at 17 and dealt No. 28 to New Orleans for a 2011 second-rounder and a 2012 first-rounder (which became No. 28). They took running back Shane Vereen with the second-round pick. A year later, they used the first-rounder to trade up seven spots and take future Pro Bowl defensive end Chandler Jones with the 21st pick. They also traded up in 2012 to land linebacker Dont’a Hightower.
The lessons of the past are obvious, but not every team has the discipline to follow those lessons. New England’s first- and second-round picks present great opportunities to land either cornerstone players or to trade for additional draft capital. If the Patriots monitor the draft board with an eye toward talent first, this draft could set them up for some time to come.
(Dave Brown is a freelance correspondent who covers the Patriots for the Monitor. You can follow him on Twitter @ThatDaveBrown.)