The draft is here! Tonight! Probably. If not, tomorrow because you know the Pats are probably going to ditch 32 for a high second rounder.
I can’t let today pass without a brief lament for the old days when the entire draft was on s weekend and I’d just sit around eating and drinking all day enjoying it. I can still remember trying to figure out how to get Wifi hooked up in my old apartment so I could actually post things to the internet DURING the draft.
Oh, how times have changed. Now I get to watch large chunks of the first two rounds from work, with a drive home sprinkled in in the middle. I might try to recreate the old weekend magic on Saturday but there just isn’t the same excitement for rounds 4-7.
Perhaps you’re like me and you’ve got draft fatigue by this point. The constant speculation of who could go where and whether or not the team might trade up or down, it just gets tiresome.
Because in three days the Pats will have drafted a handful of guys, be in the process of signing a bunch of other rookie free agents and then we can cease the speculation and dive in on how these new players fit into the puzzle.
Until then we’ll just tough it out and try to enjoy it all.
What will the Patriots do tonight? Of course, it’s impossible to predict, unless we’re talking about last year when there were quite a few of us who had a bead on Easley.
This year it seems Eddie Goldman has a lot of Pats pundit support and I am on that train as well. I don’t think they can go wrong with a front seven defender pick tonight, whether it’s a big tackle like Goldman, or even an athletic DE/OLB.
The runner-up in a lot of mocks from guys I trust is Laken Tomlinson. He’s a good fit at an area of need but the question will be if they could get him 5-10 picks later.
All things being equal, it’s hard not to think there’s at least a 50 percent chance the Pats are trading out of today.
The value between 32 and 35-45 is not all that different, and if they can add another pick, maybe for next year, it would fit their past methodology of maximizing value.
Still, I can make a pretty good argument for trading up into the mid-20s. The Pats have nine picks and not a lot of front line holes on their roster. Outside of a guard is there really another position where they wouldn’t be at least solid to open training camp?
Sure you want to maximize competition and there could easily be rookie starters at running back, cornerback and perhaps linebacker if the right players fall to the right spot.
But it shouldn’t be surprising that the most impactful draft moves of the past few years were the two trade ups to get Chandler and Hightower in 2012. Those two picks were key in this year’s Super Bowl win, and with okay depth almost everywhere on the roster, a trade up for an immediate impact player like those two guys would make a lot of sense.
The thing about the Patriots is they are completely unpredictable, unless you include Easley last year. That’s what makes them so much fun to follow, other than the winning. They’re could be trade ups, trade downs, trades for players, or a surprise pick that could go completely outside the schematic specifications we’ve come to understand.
I fully expect to have at least one shock moment in the next three days, with “who the hell is that guy they just drafted” being the most likely case.
Regardless of draft fatigue it will be a fun three days. Let’s hope the Pats fill some holes and bring in some players we can all be excited about.
