The NFL Draft remains more than seven weeks away, no team on the clock until Thursday night April 25.
That means seven-plus weeks remain until the Patriots make an actual decision regarding the No. 3 overall selection, the most important personnel decision made by Robert Kraft’s organization in his three decades of ownership.
As the annual NFL Scouting Combine wraps up in Indianapolis, there is a relative professional sports lifetime between today and the “QB or not QB?” choice to be made by the Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo collaborative that has taken hold in the post-Bill Belichick era in Foxborough.
Nearly two months to analyze and overanalyze the decision. Mental and philosophical football paralysis is a real concern.
Fifty-one days to beat this topic into ground more than it’s already been beaten to death in the days leading up to and after the conclusion of the disastrous 2023 campaign that left the Patriots in this pivotal position.
So what the heck are fans and media alike supposed to ponder for the next Mayo jersey-number days of the winter and spring calendar?
It feels like most people are already dug in on their position.
Heck, if you believe recent sourced reporting out of Indy, New England’s brain trust (brain question might be a more apt description at this point) has already mapped out its plan for the No. 3 pick and will be selecting the best quarterback available on this forthcoming fateful Thursday night. (And for the absolutely nothing that it is worth, that’s exactly the swing-for-the-fences approach preferred here!)
Of course others have other ideas and feel equally as strongly about their philosophical positioning.
There’s the mindset that the Patriots’ roster – pre-free agency of course, when $100 million will be burned/saved – is too flawed a support system with which to saddle a young quarterback. That collaborative wants to trade back, collect assets, build the talent pool and figure out the QB spot at some later point when the welcome mat is more open to the position at Gillette. It’s a theory.
Some, though, prefer to stick and pick. Stand Pats, as it may be. Take the best player on the board, regardless of position, at No. 3.
That would likely bring Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. or mammoth Notre Dame left tackle Joe Alt into the conversation. Both are seen as elite talents. Both at positions of immense need in New England. It’s a worthy idea, the thought that you never regret going with the best football player on the board. Although, to counter that thought, the Giants might be a different team had they “reached” for Josh Allen at No. 2 overall rather than the “safe” pick of All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley back in April 2018. Just a thought.
Many of these plans co-exist with the idea that New England could and should add a veteran quarterback to the mix. The option could be high-priced selection such as Kirk Cousins or Baker Mayfield, a cheaper journeyman type like Jacoby Brissett or a what-does-he-have-left flyer on Russell Wilson. It’s a theory that could lead to incrementally more improvement on the short term with less would-be upside stability in the long run.
Whatever you are thinking on this March 4 morning, more than a week away from the March 13 start to free agency frenzy in the NFL, you’re probably set in your ways in terms of what you want Wolf, Mayo and the Krafts to do with the No. 3 pick. It feels like forever that we’ve been writing and talking about it. But it also feels like forever remains until we come to some sort of fulfilling or unfulfilling conclusion, depending on our desires.
In the sports talk radio world of WEEI, callers often begin their on-air comments with something to the effect of “One thing I haven’t heard anyone talk about yet…”
Please Draft God, if there is actually any new angle or point of contention in this Patriots’ pre-draft process as we all ponder the potential glory and busts of the No. 3 pick, please offer it up.
It really does feel like every bush has beaten and stone has been flipped on the topic and we still have a long two months to go! But, guess this is the new life we lead in New England as a former dynasty-turned-4-win team. We’re not used to this the way those in Carolina, Chicago, Jacksonville or Houston might be.
It is what it is.