Patriots Trading No. 3 Pick Just Became a Lot More Realistic Following Jayden Daniels' Commanders Comments
By Jovan Alford
With the 2024 NFL Draft on the horizon, all eyes are on the Washington Commanders and New England Patriots to see what they do with the Nos. 2 and 3 picks on Thursday night. Everybody knows the Chicago Bears will take Caleb Williams with the No. 1 overall pick.
However, as for the second and third overall picks, there’s been some discussion on who will be drafted after Williams. Will it be Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, or J.J. McCarthy? The Patriots’ first selection at No. 3 overall will be dictated by what the Commanders do.
In the days leading up to the draft, the consensus has been that Washington will take Daniels at No. 2 overall. However, it seems as if Daniels isn’t particularly fond of the idea of playing for the Commanders.
Diana Russini of The Athletic reported on Wednesday that Daniels is “cool” with Washington, but his “dream world” would be to reunite with Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce (who he was around at Arizona State) or play under Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell.
Jayden Daniels was given a high grade by many teams. While the QB is “cool” with Washington, I’m told in his “dream world” he would reunite with Raiders coach Antonio Pierce (who was an asst coach at Arizona State when he was a Sun Devil) or play under Kevin O’Connell in…
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) April 24, 2024
On the surface, it doesn’t come as a surprise to see Daniels wanting to play for those two guys as he knows Pierce from their days at ASU and O’Connell runs a good offense for QBs.
Nonetheless, if you are the Patriots’ front office brass, you could use the No. 3 overall pick as a trade piece to entice one of those teams to move up for Daniels. The Raiders’ QB situation isn’t the greatest with Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell, while the Vikings could roll with Sam Darnold as the starter.
If New England were to swap spots with either of those teams, who are both outside of the top 10, it would give them more draft capital and the Patriots could still take a quarterback (Michael Penix) or go wide receiver.
At the same time, the Patriots would likely have to be overwhelmed by the trade packages to move down from No. 3 overall as it’s not often they get to pick this high in hopes of landing a franchise quarterback.
With the NFL draft more than 24 hours away, we should expect to see more rumors and smokescreens pop up involving the Patriots and other teams across the league.
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