New England Patriots: Reassessing top 3 needs heading into the Draft

The New England Patriots, much like the rest of the NFL, are beginning to turn their attention from free agency to the 2022 NFL Draft. The Draft, which takes place on April 28-30, is just a few weeks away, and teams are putting their final scouting reports together as the 28th nears.

The Patriots will head into the Draft after a fairly quiet free agent period. They focused on re-signing their own players, as well as picking up some players on cheap deals or low risk trades. A far cry from the 2021 spending spree we saw, yes, but with the team backed up against the salary cap, they did about as good as they could considering the circumstances.

With New England swinging a trade for DeVante Parker yesterday afternoon, they are probably done making acquisitions prior to the Draft now. Unless a corresponding move were to be made, the team would not have enough cap space to sign their draft picks, which obviously won’t happen. So with Parker now onboard, that seems to signal a change in the agenda for Bill Belichick and the Pats as the calender flips to April.

While the Patriots didn’t make a million moves like some of their competitors did, their outlook heading into the Draft is much different than it was a couple of weeks ago. So with some new players onboard, as well as some players returning that weren’t necessarily expected to, let’s reassess the New England Patriots top three positions of need as they head into the 2022 NFL Draft.