The NFL Draft is less than two weeks away and as of now the Patriots have the No. 15 overall pick, their highest selection since 2008.
With that being said, there's been plenty of discussion relating to the possibility of the team moving up inside the top 10 to presumably take a quarterback.
Speaking on his pre-draft video conference Thursday, Bill Belichick gave a scenario where he would look to move up.
"You go through that exercise and talk about that but I’d say normally, something, there’s less options at 15 than there are at 28, 30, 31, some other spots we’ve drafted from, but I’d say normally something would happen and there could very well be a player there that either you don’t expect to be there or maybe he is a couple spots, maybe at 12, 13, he’s still on the board and you really thought that he’d be gone in the top six, seven picks," he said. "Then the question comes, do you move up and try to get that player that’s fallen a little bit? Those are kind of the scenarios you got through. Which players would you move up for to get?"
At the same time, the same exercises get run to potentially move back, as well.
"Which players would you not move up for that you would wait and decide whether you want to pick them at the spot you’re at and what players, if certain players weren’t there and you felt the value of that pick might be the same whether you’re at 15 or a lower position… again, it’s the same thing in every round but you’re talking about the first round," he said. "You feel like you’re going to get the same quality of player or maybe the player that you like for whatever reason you think would be available at 20, then maybe you trade back to 20 and take him there or take that value at 20 rather than taking it at 15.
"Again, I’m just picking numbers here out of the hat but the concept, that’s really what it is. Who do you move up for? Who do you take if you stay and what players are on the board? If players are on the board that you feel like don’t add a lot of value or maybe they’re not the kind of fit for your team that you’re looking for in that particular situation, then maybe you say, ‘OK maybe we consider moving back.’ Now you can only move back if somebody else wants to move up so ultimately you have to be ready to pick but sometimes… there’s certainly been many of times where we felt like we were able to get the same player or comparable value at a lower point in the draft so we moved backwards."
When it comes to Round 1, the Patriots will likely be targeting quarterback, wide receiver, and potentially linebacker and cornerback.
