The New England Patriots own the third overall pick in the NFL Draft this week, but they may be on the verge of moving down.
According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Patriots are listening and taking calls from other teams for the No. 3 selection.
New England has been widely expected to take a quarterback with the third pick, with most assuming it would either be whoever is remaining between LSU’s Jayden Daniels and North Carolina’s Drake Maye.
But perhaps the Pats would be comfortable trading down for one of the other signal-callers in this draft class while adding some extra draft capital in the process.
So, who could the Patriots be eyeing?
There had been chatter that New England liked Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy, and Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Oregon’s Bo Nix are a couple of other names that could potentially fly off the board in the first round. Penix’s stock has risen recently, while Nix is considered a prospect who could end up falling all the way to the second round.
The thing with the Pats is that quarterback is far from their only need. The Patriots have holes up and down the roster, and they may feel that it would be more beneficial for them to add some more pick in order to better patch those areas.
For example, New England is in dire need of some weapons in its aerial attack. It lost out on Calvin Ridley in free agency and didn’t really have much of a backup plan, settling for re-signing Kendrick Bourne and adding K.J. Osborn. If the Pats are going to draft a quarterback, they are certainly going to want better pass-catchers for him heading into his rookie campaign.
We’ll see what the Patriots decide to do over the next couple of days.
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