“There’s not really many first rounders,” Brandt told Patriots.com Friday during the league’s annual Scouting Combine. “There’s a lot of guys that are in the category of 20 to 50. You don’t have 28 (true) first rounders, so the (teams) who do their homework are going to do pretty well, because all these (players) look the same.”
Source: Combine: Gil Brandt ‘This is a draft that’s a Patriot draft’ | New England Patriots
How often are there actually 32 players worthy of a first-round selection? I’d make the case that 2012 might be one of the only years when the Pats traded up and nabbed both Chandler Jones and Dont’a Hightower. Is it any coincidence that those two players (along with 2013 second-rounder Jamie Collins) were the big keys to taking the porous defense of 2010 & 2011 and making them into one of the better front sevens in the NFL?
Pats don’t often get much credit for the fact that they’ve pretty much always been drafting in the 20’s for the last 15 years. The only exceptions were Jerod Mayo and Nate Solder. Otherwise they’ve maintained their dominance without getting to pick where most of the dominant players are usually selected.
You’d still love to have that first round pick back, but I think they have enough ammo to move up a bit in the second round. Big question will be when the runs on offensive and defensive tackles start.