Patriots 2023 NFL Mock Draft 5.0: Alabama vs Michigan draft class

There are two guarantees with the New England Patriots and the NFL Draft: They will trade down, and they will draft at least one prospect from Alabama or Michigan.

To say head coach Bill Belichick loves shopping at those schools would be an understatement. The roll call for Roll Tide players is up to eight, while former Wolverines is up to nine.

Now of course a team will have some misses along the way, like CB Cyrus Jones (Alabama, 2016) and Shawn Crable (Michigan, 2008). But the hits are really impressive: Mac Jones (2021) Christian Barmore, (2021) and Dont’a Hightower (2001) from Alabama; Michael Onwenu (2020), Josh Uche (2020) and Tom Brady (2001) from Michigan.

And like all of us, Belichick is a creature of habit. It’s expected that he will tap the same well he usually does when looking for draft prospects.

The NFL Draft has some very talented prospects from Alabama and Michigan that would appeal to the New England Patriots.

Of late, can you blame him? Alabama churns out elite pro ready prospects annually. Michigan’s talents as a whole isn’t on Alabama’s level, but many of them become productive pros for a long time.

So let’s have some fun here. Imagine if the Patriots only drafted players from either school. What would that draft class look like? How good would it be? Which school would have the better draft class?

The easy answer seems obvious, but that doesn’t mean all ‘Bama or Michigan players get selected by the Patriots. 31 other teams will make sure of that.

The rules are simple. Use the Patriots’ selections to create a one school draft class through the fourth round with no trades. Using trades cheating. It’s too easy to build a stronger class with trades.

And it must be realistic. So no, the New England Patriots aren’t getting Will Anderson.

After the mock drafts are done, compare classes and pick a winner.