As I mentioned last week, he’s made only four selections higher than 20th overall in his time with New England so he’s certainly used to it.
It makes things a little easier since you cancel your hopes of landing 10-15 prospects for sure heading into it, but you’re stuck waiting to see what falls to you.
Whenever a run on a certain position happens, it pushes down the value at another position. So the Pats are left with what they can get and often those late first-round picks are really good trade bait.
The Pats made their entire draft last year by trading out of the first round and picking up multiple picks from Minnesota. The difference between the late-first and second round isn’t much.
The bonus before the rookie salary cap was that they weren’t often forced to take a pick that came with a bloated and potentially cap-harmful contract.