After trading out of Round 1 Thursday night, the Patriots added pick No. 37 and with that pick New England selected Lenoir–Rhyne (located in North Carolina) safety Kyle Dugger.
He's extremely athletic and won the Cliff Harris Award, which is the Divison-II Defensive Player of the Year. As a sixth-year senior, he finished with 31 tackles, six passes defensed and two interceptions despite playing only seven games due to a hand injury.
It is worth wondering if the team was targeting Alabama safety Xavier McKinney, who went the pick before to the Giants.
Here are three quick thoughts on Dugger.
-- Since he wasn't a full-time starter in high school until his senior year, he wasn't heavily recruited. Dugger considered going to JUCO or prep school, but decided to accept his only college offer – Lenoir-Rhyne. He made a ton of plays over his college career, but the question is will that translate to the NFL level where the game is much faster than at the D-II level.
-- Dugger had a great spring, which caught the eye of a lot of NFL scouts and coaches. He stood out at the Senior Bowl and then at the combine was one of only six safety prospects to run his 40-yard dash under 4.5 seconds (4.49). His 42-inch vertical leap was tops among all defensive backs and tied for second-best of any player.
-- The 24-year-old is the highest D-II player drafted this century. The highest drafted D-II players in the NFL currently are Janoris Jenkins (No. 39 overall), Adam Shaheen (No. 45 overall) and Nathan Sheperd (No. 72 overall).
