The NFL Draft is all about collecting data. In order to finalize boards and make decisions on picks and trades, teams rely on a vast amount of information that has been gathered not just over the last few weeks and months but oftentimes going back several years.
One big piece of the puzzle, and one that may hint toward a club’s eventual plans, is pre-draft meetings.
Between college all-star events, pro days, visits and workouts, the draft cycle offers several opportunities for teams and prospects to
connect. Only a fraction of those contact points actually become public knowledge before the actual draft; teams try to play their cards close to the vest, which makes it impossible to paint a fully accurate picture.
However, based on the facts that we have available, we can still see who teams have shown the most interest in so far for whichever reason. In the New England Patriots’ case, 22 players stand out among the more than 140 who have had confirmed meetings with the club: according to our up-to-date tracker they all had more than one reported interaction with the organization before the draft.
- RB Mike Washington Jr. (Arkansas): Combine + Pro Day
- WR Lewis Bond (Boston College): Senior Bowl + Local visit
- TE Eli Raridon (Notre Dame): Shrine Bowl + Senior Bowl
- TE Dan Villari (Syracuse): Hula Bowl + Senior Bowl
- OT Jude Bowry (Boston College): Pro Day + Local visit
- OT Travis Burke (Memphis): Pro Day + 30 visit
- OT Max Iheanachor (Arizona State): Combine + 30 visit
- OT Ryan Mosesso (UMass): Pro Day + Local Pro Day
- OL Greg Crippen (Michigan): Pro Day + Local Pro Day
- OL Delby Lemieux (Dartmouth): Senior Bowl + Local Pro Day
- OL Logan Taylor (Boston College): Pro Day + Local Pro Day
- OL Jeremiah Wright (Auburn): Pro Day + 30 visit
- DT Tyler Onyedim (Texas A&M): Combine + Pro Day
- DT Landon Robinson (Navy): East-West Shrine Bowl + Pro Day
- ED Keyron Crawford (Auburn): Combine + 30 visit
- ED Quintayvious Hutchins (Boston College): Combine + Local Pro Day
- ED Zion Young (Missouri): Combine + 30 visit
- LB Khalil Jacobs (Missouri): Pro Day + Virtual meeting + 30 visit
- CB Andre Fuller (Toledo): East-West Shrine Bowl + Pro Day
- CB Devon Marshall (N.C. State): Virtual meeting + Local Pro Day
- CB Karon Prunty (Wake Forest): Pro Day + 30 visit
- CB Avery Smith (Toledo): Combine + Pro Day
The list of double or triple meetings is deeper at some positions than others. Offensive tackle and the interior offensive line, for example, saw four players with multiple confirmed meetings each. Among them is projected first-round selection Max Iheanachor.
When it comes to the frequency of meetings, nobody beats Khalil Jacobs. The Missouri linebacker met Patriots representatives at his pro day, later had a virtual meeting with the club, and also visited Gillette Stadium.
Jacobs was among several players to be brought in for such visits. The belief is that the Patriots used all 30 available slots for out-of-town visits, while also inviting three players for what is an unlimited number of local visits.
The full list of confirmed attendees is 27 players deep and includes 24 so-called 30 visits.
- QB Jalon Daniels (Kansas): 30 visit
- QB Joe Fagnano (UConn): Local visit
- QB Behren Morton (Texas Tech): 30 visit
- RB Adam Randall (Clemson): 30 visit
- RB Kaelon Black (Indiana): 30 visit
- WR Cyrus Allen (Cincinnati): 30 visit
- WR Lewis Bond (Boston College): Local visit
- WR KC Concepcion (Texas A&M): 30 visit
- WR De’Zhaun Stribling (Ole Miss): 30 visit
- TE Oscar Delp (Georgia): 30 visit
- OT Jude Bowry (Boston College: Local visit
- OT Travis Burke (Memphis): 30 visit
- OT Max Iheanachor (Arizona State): 30 visit
- OL Emmanuel Pregnon (Oregon): 30 visit
- OL Jeremiah Wright (Auburn): 30 visit
- DT Kayden McDonald (Ohio State): 30 visit
- ED Keyron Crawford (Auburn): 30 visit
- ED Romello Height (Texas Tech): 30 visit
- ED Gabe Jacas (Illinois): 30 visit
- ED Malachi Lawrence (UCF): 30 visit
- ED R Mason Thomas (Oklahoma): 30 visit
- ED Zion Young (Missouri): 30 visit
- LB Khalil Jacobs (Missouri): 30 visit
- CB Karon Prunty (Wake Forest): 30 visit
- S Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo): 30 visit
- S Malik Spencer (Michigan State): 30 visit
- S Zakee Wheatley (Penn State): 30 visit
In addition to those 27 players, the Patriots had also planned to bring guard Chase Bisontis (Texas A&M) and edge George Gumbs Jr. (Florida) in for visits. The first fell victim to a scheduling conflict while the second was canceled by the team.
As for those meetings themselves, Mike Vrabel recently explained what purpose they serve for the team.
“You try to create a day that would look just like a regular season day,” he said. “We’ve tried to take it from the approach that’s like, ‘Hey, this is everybody that you’re going to meet with so that you’ve seen this face in two hours when you walk into their office, and you guys have a meeting, or you do an install with your position coach.’ We just want to try to gage their authentic self, want them to be genuine and try to picture them in our building a couple weeks from now.”
Obviously, 30 visits or any other form of meeting are not necessarily exact tools when it comes to gauging actual interest. That said, if we look back at last year, we can see that the Patriots had pre-reported pre-draft contact — i.e. contact that was public knowledge before the draft — with seven of their 11 eventual selections, including three who visited the club in Foxborough (with the actual number even higher).
The chance that some of the players listed above will end up as Patriots this weekend therefore appears to be fairly quite high.
