Outside of the first overall pick, which the Las Vegas Raiders will use on quarterback Fernando Mendoza, there is plenty of uncertainty entering the first round of this year’s NFL Draft. From the second selection on, anything seems possible.
The New England Patriots, who as Super Bowl runner-ups will be the second-to-last team on the clock on Thursday night, might be as unpredictable as any team in football. Their de facto general manager, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf, knows
this as well: appearing on Patriots All Access ahead of the draft, he hinted at some surprises potentially being in store in Round 1.
“Maybe the second half of this year’s first round is going to be a little bit more surprises, I would say, than some of the previous years,” Wolf explained.
For him, the reason for that is a combination of several teams holding more than one first-round pick and the board itself.
“I don’t know what the other teams are thinking. You just hear different stuff,” Wolf said. “I just think this draft is maybe pretty heavy up at the top and then from call it 25 to 50 it’s sort of the same level of player.”
This relative lack of diversity might lead to some movement come draft day. Teams might either try to jump ahead to get a different-tiered prospect, or accumulate more capital in that range.
The Patriots, as Wolf pointed out, are also among the candidates to manipulate the board to their liking if a chance were to present itself.
“I’ve heard there are a lot of teams trying to trade up, trying to trade down, trying to move around,” he said. “We’ll see what happens. I feel like that gets said a lot. There are always trades and and for us specifically, we’re open to anything. If it helps the team out, we’ll move up, we’ll move down, we’ll try to acquire picks next year, whatever the case may be. …
“It heats up certainly even during the draft as your pick gets closer. There are some teams that I know I’ve heard are calling around just to try to say, ‘Hey, you know, we might be interested in this, we might be interested in that.’ Until it actually happens, it’s nice to have those calls, but it doesn’t really do anything.”
The Patriots are entering the draft with 11 total picks, tied for second most in the NFL. Their draft portfolio as a whole, however, is valued in the bottom third.
