These are the official 2016 New England Patriots draft picks, as announced by the NFL today. I had been tracking them with each new trade that rolls in since there’s no easy way to officially get the draft order until the NFL releases it.
If you go by the draft value chart (which is admittedly just a rough guideline) the Patriots could package the 60th and 61st picks and get all the way to the top of the second round if they wanted to. However this draft seems to be like most drafts — not a lot of truly elite prospects — but this one has considerable depth, making the Pats four selections on day two carry a lot of power.
You can never make up for the loss of the first round pick, but with the number of selections that the Pats have, they should be able to mitigate the damage.
The big hole will come at the start of Day Three, when the Pats will have to wait almost 100 picks to make a selection. Expect #196, #204 and both of the seventh rounders to be trade bait for them to move up and make a pick somewhere in the fourth or fifth round.
The compensatory picks cannot be traded this year (that will change in 2017) so the 6th round is guaranteed to be busy with three selections within 13 slots. Hitting a sleeper pick in that group could very well make or break this draft. It’s too bad we don’t have pick #199.
As for Day One, PatsFans.com is organizing a Blackout Initiative for all Patriots fans. It’s a great idea but it will take all of us to make any kind of dent. Click on over and show some support for my favorite Pats messageboard on the web.