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New England Patriots 2020 Draft: Grading another disappointing draft

By Michael DeVito

MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Safety Kyle Dugger #23 from Lenoir Rhyne of the South Team during the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
MOBILE, AL - JANUARY 25: Safety Kyle Dugger #23 from Lenoir Rhyne of the South Team during the 2020 Resse's Senior Bowl at Ladd-Peebles Stadium on January 25, 2020 in Mobile, Alabama. The North Team defeated the South Team 34 to 17. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images) /
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New England Patriots Kyle Dugger (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
New England Patriots Kyle Dugger (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Summary of Day 2 of the New England Patriots 2020 Draft

So that’s the essential story of the 2020 New England Patriots draft. They passed on the best quarterback to begin a new era of success in Patriots football. They used their three top picks on defense. Big mistakes right there.

They then finally turned to the offense in the third round and chose two tight ends. Definitely a position of need. But they passed on better options both earlier in the draft like Cole Kmet of Notre Dame, the best tight end in the entire draft and later Harrison Bryant of Florida Atlantic who was still on the board.

Coincidentally, they have also failed to add top players in the other offensive skill positions to provide some help to their only good offensive players who are really good, Julian Edelman and James White. But they can’t carry this offense alone, especially now that Tom Brady has left the building.

In addition, their running backs are mediocre. None of them stand out (except James White as a receiver) and none of them can get a yard or two on their own in short-yardage situations. They need a big back and passed on several who could have added that key dimension in short-yardage that they needed last season and will again in 2020.

And they have not addressed at all the most important part of the entire offense and team for that matter other than the quarterback, their offensive line. This line in 2019 due to injury, poor drafting and poor in-season trades for replacements was, well, offensive.

The Patriots have not drafted well for years. Even in the mid-2000s when they had great teams, they drafted poorly. Check out the 2005-2008 drafts to see what I mean. It has cost them dearly. In Super Bowl wins.

The inimitable Tom Curran of nbcsports.com wrote that he felt the Patriots should have won 11 Super Bowls under Brady. That’s Super Bowl wins. Tom is right. I have always maintained that the Patriots could have, should have won double-digit Super Bowls during the Tom Brady era. In that case, I’ll say they should have won maybe 12 or so with better drafting and personnel decision making generally.

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