New England Patriots: An unusual draft strategy explained and exposed

The New England Patriots reportedly employ a very unusual (to say the least) draft strategy.

A great article by one of the best New England Patriots writers in the business, Mike Reiss of ESPN provides some illumination on what I’d call the often peculiar Patriots’ draft strategy. It’s well worth a read.

Reiss explains that the Patriots employ what he calls a “restrictive” draft board. This expose provides an explanation for some of New England’s often bizarre trades and other draft moves.

Speaking about Patriots personnel man, Nick Caserio, Reiss notes,

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"For two consecutive years, Caserio has acknowledged the Patriots made draft-day moves — giving up a volume of picks they had worked to accrue — because they were running out of players to select."

As an observer who has not been enamored with Patriots’ draft strategies most years, 2020 included, this was quite illuminating. Reiss goes on to say that from an available pool of some 2000 players, only 35 to 40 make the cut to be considered “realistic draft options” for the New England Patriots.

Now, we seem to finally have an answer to how the Patriots draft thanks to some really great reporting by ESPN’s MIke Reiss.

New England Patriots evidently dump draft picks because players available later wouldn’t be on their list

So evidently, the Patriots with a dwindling number of those “realistic draft options” often move picks that they don’t think they will have players left for on their list. Basically, this looks a lot to me like a “draft pick dump”.

I’m not going to get into the details, but Reiss sums up that the Patriots essentially dealt away 6 picks to get 3 this year, since they may not have had players on their list available when those additional picks turned up.

So let’s get this straight, the Patriots unload picks maybe later in the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. rounds because they might not have players available from their limited pool of worthy players to draft? This is so bizarre and foolish on its face, that that it almost perfectly explains why the Patriots’ drafts are so unproductive.

What this boils down to is this, it seems the New England Patriots won’t even keep some picks if their draft board is running out of names. They will seemingly trade up to get a listed player, even if he doesn’t really warrant a pick that high.

So out go 4th and 5th round picks that can be used on productive college players at positions of need who would be available there, to select a “list-worthy” guy in say the 3rd round like Dalton Keene.

Keene is the tight end from Virginia Tech they drafted in the 3rd round who really didn’t seem to have anywhere near that draft value. I have to call this a silly “draft pick dump” strategy that is counter-productive in any number of ways.

And Pro Football Reference notes these lower rounds have been productive at times for New England in the past. Trey Flowers was 4th round pick.

Asante Samuel was a 4th round pick. Shaq Mason was 4th round pick. Jarrett Stidham was 4th round pick. Ja’Whaun Bentley was a 5th round pick. Elandon Roberts and Nate Ebner were 6th round picks. The moral of that is, why not use all those picks and maybe hit on (or stumble upon?) a gem or two once in a while. A certain 199th pick also comes to mind.

Of course, New England using their “restrictive list” has also botched many high draft choices who evidently were on the list including a bunch of the absolutely “head-scratching” variety. This includes their abominable record of drafting in the second round the past 20 years.

This revelation really does a great service to all the New England Patriots fans who have looked forward to the draft every year with great anticipation. And then, they have been perplexed, baffled and bewildered at many of their team’s selections.

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I’d sum this draft strategy up pretty simply, after bemoaning so many lost opportunities to draft really good players. It’s ludicrous. Foolish. And counterproductive. To think that only 35 or 40 players are worthy of or could fit your team out of hundreds, thousands, well, is just patently absurd.

I’ve written before and I have to say it again, No. 12 bailed the Patriots out of many a bad draft and personnel decision in the past two decades. He isn’t here now. And I’ll be mightily surprised if they don’t pay a steep price because of their poor decisions in 2020.

And, again, if I’m proven wrong, I’ll take my lumps. I’ll buy a chocolate hat and eat it. We’ll see.

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