The broad consensus during the NFL Draft was that the Patriots reached on their first two picks, Chattanooga guard Cole Strange and Baylor wideout Tyquan Thornton. But as time has passed, we’ve been fed a steady diet of reports from anonymous league sources about how the Patriots actually didn’t misread the board.
This is quite the cleanup.
The latest revelation about Thornton came earlier this week. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler writes in his post-draft notes column that the speedy receiver “wasn’t necessarily a reach for many teams.” Fowler says Thornton was on the radar of the Packers, Saints and other clubs during day two of the draft.
Last week, NFL Media’s Mike Giardi reported there was one team “ready to pounce” on Thornton, which is why the Patriots traded up to No. 50 for the player.
Those tidbits contradict the immediate chatter about Thornton. Days after the draft, SI’s Albert Breer reported “few” teams had more than a fourth-round grade on Thornton, who ran the fastest 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine, but only put up one productive season at Baylor.
The about-face about Thornton mirrors what we’ve read about Strange in recent days. There was a team eyeing Strange in the 40s, according to Giardi.
If that’s true, that team is an outlier as well. We know the Super Bowl champion Rams didn’t think Strange would be selected until late in the third round. Sean McVay may have been making fun of himself when he burst out laughing following the Strange pick — as he and other NFL media members have gone to painful lengths to tell us — but the Rams still evaluated him differently.
Belichick’s recent draft track record isn’t good. Of the 28 players taken since 2019, just 12 have played in more than half of the Patriots’ games since then.
The Patriots have take an array of early round busts over the last seven years, including but not limited to: Malcolm Brown, Jordan Richards, Cyrus Jones, Duke Dawson, N’Keal Harry, Joejuan Williams, Josh Uche and Anfernee Jennings. Maybe the latter two will see the field more often this season, but so far, the two linebackers have been non-factors.
The word of unnamed league sources only goes so far. The spin job is apparent.