7:20 PM – CONTINUING COVERAGE IN THE COMMENTS SECTION
If you’re looking at this from the front page, just st follow the link in the above header and scroll to the bottom of the post to find the comments for this post.
Now that Chris Warner is here and ready to weigh in, I think it would be more efficient if we moved the rest of today’s draft coverage to the comments section. That way Chris won’t have to wait for me to post my thoughts before he can get on and post his.
It also gives you guys the chance to dive right into the middle of it and give us your reaction to a draft that has seen two Patriots trades already, before the first round is even complete.
I hope you’re enjoying the draft (I am, after that last trade – EIGHT PICKS in the next two rounds! That HAS to be unprescedented.) and you’re ready to get all interactive. Remember, you’ll find the rest of our running commentary below.
6:53 PM – BENSON: PATS TRADE AGAIN; ONE MORE SECOND ROUND, TWO MORE THIRDS
The Pats have traded pick 26 of the first round, and the fifth round pick (162) they acquired from the Ravens earlier, to the Green Bay Packers in return for their second (41) and two third round choices (73, 83) in this draft.
The Patriots will now drop, essentially, nine more spots in the draft (and that fifth rounder) and got a two and two threes for doing so.
New England now has the 34th, 41st, 47th, 58th, 73rd, 83rd and 89th choices in the next two rounds. They now have thirteen picks and eight in the top 100.
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
6:52 – WARNER: BUTLER OR EVERETTE BROWN FOR PATS
I’d love Everette Brown or Butler here. Wonder if BB has someone in mind. Wouldn’t have minded Vontae Davis, but we’ll get an up-close look at him this year for better or worse.
The question remains: exactly how much do the Pats need a pass-rusher or defensive back?”
Chris Warner can be reached at chris.warner@patriotsdaily.com
6:35 PM – PATRIOTS TRADE BACK FROM 23
The Patriots have traded their first round pick, the 23rd of the first round, to the Baltimore Ravens for the 26th selection of the first round, and a fifth round pick (162) this year. It appears that Baltimore will choose Michael Oher (they just did).
Considering that the Miami Dolphins have all but committed to Darius Butler, it appears the Patriots will decline the chance to select the regional product. The USC linebackers are still there.
The Pats now have twelve picks in the draft, and they’ll be on the clock again in a second.
5:49 PM – MOVIN’ ON
We’re at the 17th pick (Browns, from Jets) and it won’t be long before the Pats have to decide whether to keep or trade the 23rd selection.
Five more teams pick before New England but those who were excited by the offensive tackle talk yesterday will be interested to know that Michael Oher is still on the board.
So are Rey Maualuga, Clay Matthews, Everette Brown, Robert Ayers, Brandon Pettigrew…..also Pro Football Weekly’s 14th ranked player, CB Darius Butler. Is this breaking his way?
Cleveland just traded again, with Tampa Bay, who is taking Josh Freeman (one ahead of Josh McDaniels at 18). Three quarterbacks and three offensive tackles in the first seventeen picks, as Butler gets one closer to the Pats.
Chris Warner is back from spring football. Hopefully we’ll hear from him soon.
Denver just took Ayers at 18, getting a player that Maycock says will be the best defensive player in this draft three years from now.
Cleveland is up for the third time today at pick 19.
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
3:10 PM – LESS THAN ZERO
Bill Belichick just finished telling the NFL Network that there is a “less than zero chance” the team will trade into the top ten of the draft.
Belichick also told the network’s draft coverage that there have been preliminary conversations on all of the team’s four first day picks. Belichick called chances that he would trade down from 23 “pretty good.”
Talk about a buzz kill, though – Mike Mayock has apparently been telling today’s viewers that this is one of the worst drafts in recent memory (I swear I never heard him say this once over the last three months), and when asked by host Rich Eisen about Mayock’s claim, Belichick said “I’m not going to disagree with Mike on this one.”
“Who are we going to trade up to get (in the top ten), Mike?,” Belichick laughed in response to a subsequent Mayock question on the trade up rumors. “You don’t like anybody up there either.”
It’s under an hour before the draft starts and it is beginning to sound like it could be a lot longer than that before the Patriots make a pick.
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
2:29 PM – MISSED NUGGET
Just looking at Florio’s page again and noticed that I missed an interesting piece of information last time through.
In a bit about Adam Schefter re-emerging as a Sprint draft correspondent, the former NFL Network ace says that the Patriots are no longer considering trading up in the draft (presumably he means in the first round).
If Schefter is right, it could mean that LSU DE Tyson Jackson will be picked third by the Chiefs (Pioli again!), and the Pats will focus elsewhere, probably on picks 23-58, where they’re due to pick (roughly) every ten picks. You have to believe a first round pick next year will be part of their draft haul today.
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
2:02 PM – RUMORS
Back from work now and I see that there has been continued speculation as to the Patriots’ intentions today.
Mike Reiss has his typically reasonable analysis of the supposed Top Ten trade up, suspecting that the Pats may have been taking measure of the market with their inquiry of the Jacksonville Jaguars, owners of the supremely desirable selection number eight (it’s the new number one pick). Mike figures it wasn’t the only call the Pats made.
I can see that. They did kind of lowball that offer (if the report is accurate), coming up a couple hundred shy of a match on the value chart. They had to know that would be rejected, especially before the draft. I’m not sure what their intent is, but can we all agree it isn’t to stand pat at 23?
Mike Florio speculates that the Pats may also be looking to trade out of the first round entirely. Strangely, I could see that too. Speaking of strange, there’s been a Chris Mortensen sighting.
Elsewhere the Patriots Twitter is tweeting vague, SOS-style messages, like “Already a lot of rumors flying around”.
Well, what rumors, you tight-lipped bastard? Do you intend to share any of those rumors with us, or is there another goddam website that I have to visit to get the rest of this?
One good thing I found out from Twitter is that Belichick will be on the NFL Network at 3:00 p.m. On that one, it’s all I needed to know.
Let me ask you something, though. If Twitter is supposed to be this latest, greatest, revolutionary Internet-based communication tool that everybody has to have, why do all their web pages look like shit?
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
7:46 AM – MORNING HAS BROKEN
For the past couple of years we’ve culminated our draft coverage with a running real-time dialogue on the events of the big weekend, as they happen. Now that the 74th Annual National Football League Selection Meeting is finally here after months of anticipation, we’re ready for another weekend of bad computer posture, not enough sleep, too much to eat and drink, and a string of stream-of-consciousness blog posts that we may live to regret.
Not really – short of the actual games, this weekend is as good as it gets for NFL fans. I’ve been looking forward to this morning since last December, when the Jets went belly up for the Dolphins and the Patriots 2008 season ended.
I’ll be here throughout the day and evening and into tomorrow, and my colleague Chris Warner will join me after he attends – get this – a spring football game today. I tried to tell him we can stop looking at prospects now, but he wouldn’t listen.
I’m also hoping you’ll join us by leaving your comments below, or dropping me a line at scott@patriotsdaily.com. We’d love to know what you’re thinking as the weekend unfolds.
The big day – after all, the Pats have four first day selections – begins with more reports that New England is trying to trade into the Top Ten. There was a lot of talk yesterday, after Peter King’s initial report, that a move could be for an offensive tackle, but Jason Cole says a Pats trade up would be all about LSU DE Tyson Jackson.
I understand that the right (and by right I mean correct) offensive tackle could start for the Pats for the next 8-10 years, even longer, but I have to say I’d be more excited today by a bold move to secure an impact defensive player like Jackson, a Seymour-Warren style end ideally suited for the Pats three-man front.
I guess it will come down to what Kansas City does in the number three slot. The buzz is that nobody wants picks 2 through 7 in this draft (cost), and that Scott Pioli would like to trade back. If he doesn’t find a partner, the rumors are that he could try to replicate his Seymour-Warren success with Jackson. That means (presuming Cole is correct) any trade involving the Pats will assuredly happen on the fly, depending on the end’s status.
I also wonder about Malcolm Jenkins. If the Jackson thing breaks wrong for them, might the Pats still try to move up to secure the Buckeye swingman, the best defensive back in the draft?
Whatever happens, those who Twitter will be the first to know, as the Pats are expected to announce their picks – even ahead of TV – via the free service at twitter.com/realpatriots. Which is cool and everything (I guess) but for me nothing will beat Mike Reiss and Chris Gasper on the indispensable Reiss’s Pieces.
Maybe you can squeeze us in there every once in awhile too, as we offer our humble thoughts on the breaking stories while quietly hoping our personal draft boards (Day One, Day Two) don’t prove to be ridiculously inaccurate by the time it’s over.
I’m actually headed into work for awhile now (I crush it in a quiet office, friends) but I’ll check back with you later on.
Scott Benson can be reached at scott@patriotsdaily.com
Patriots Daily 
Hey Scott,
It’ll be a long day for you. Anyway my thoughts on a trade up. It could be a smokescreen because they definitely low balled the Jaguars and no one serious would have agreed to it. The other thought is in order to want to move up you have to identify someone who is absolutely unique in the draft and has separation from the other guys at that position. Tyson Jackson does not fit that definition. You can get Robert Ayers OR Jarron Gilbert easily at a less cost due to the lack of hype so that makes no sense. And that goes for OL as well. None of them are as good as Jake Long was last year. They all have holes in their game/and/or character. So they’re out. RB the same. There’s a few that all look alike including Moreno. WR – nope. TE-nope. I see only B.J. Raji and Aaron Curry as possible elite talents. And Curry comes with an asterisk. Can he project to inside linebacker in a 3-4 and team with Mayo. If so he just may fall to #8 assuming KC and Cleveland pass.
As for some other wacko projection how about either St. Louis or KC drafting Sanchez and turning around and offering him in a trade to the Jets or Redskins at a somewhat reduced rate. I know I would do that if I couldn’t trade down before the pick. Trade down after the pick.
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According to the draft value chart the Pats are making out like bandits fleecing their greedy opponents.
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Maybe. But these picks all have to go somewhere, don’t they? How long can they continue to trade these things? If this draft is so mediocre, can they trade them to 2010 which is supposed to be stronger?
Why am I asking so many questions?
Can’t wait for the Peppers talk to end, one way or the other. We shall see.
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Chris, I don’t know if you saw earlier in the post but Belichick practically shit all over the draft in an interview with Mayock and them earlier today. I have to believe they were talking about the first round, because he isn’t accumulating these picks to trade all of them. They have to think this is where the sweet spot is. Even if they traded away half of their next eight picks over the next two rounds they’ll still take four of the top 100 players in this draft.
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I did see that, Scott. I just wonder how much value is in this draft overall. Trading out of the first makes sense, but I feel like there’s a limit to how much can be had, both picks-wise and trade-wise, especially considering how crap-worthy 2009 appears.
That said, if they hit on some value now and early tomorrow, I’ll be happy.
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they’ll end up with one of their projected 23rd pick guys at 34, and still people will be asking Mike Reiss what Bill is thinking!
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PATS TAKE CHUNG AT 34
All right! I pushed Delmas ahead of him at the very end, but Chung stood out from the start. A down in the box banger who sounds quick enough for one on one tight end coverage. Excellent!
Maualuga, though…I’ll always wonder about that. We’ll see soon enough.
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Patrick Chung. Really don’t like it much. Not much at all. He’s a guy who hasn’t impressed me in film nor in his combine. Waited a long time for nothing spectacular.
I may have said the same thing about Mayo. I hope I’m equally off in my judgments.
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If the scouting reports are at all accurate, this gives them the third safety to drop down in the box while Meriweather and Sanders play the backline. They need depth and flexibility back there.
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Fair enough. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Alphonso Smith or one of the much-discussed OLBs there, but if he’s consistent, then it’s the right pick.
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Two more teams before the next pick and Everette Brown, Darius Butler, Max Unger, Connor Barwin, Clint Sintim, and Eban Britton among the players there.
Maualuga to Bengals – perfect landing spot for a player with character questions.
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If it’s Barwin or Sintim, I’ll be happy. What the heck happened to Brown, btw?
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Pats have next two picks.
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TRADE WITH OAKLAND
Always a good thing. Pats get 40 for 47, 124 and 199. Now have two pix in a row.
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Ron Brace, Boston College
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Darius Butler with 41
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Ron Brace. Let’s here it for the fat guy. How does it affect the Vince Wilfork signing? We shall see.
41 now comes in: Darius Butler. Three defenders with first three picks.
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But where are the passrushers? Have Woods, Crable and Redd had unbelievable workouts this off-season, or have we all overrated the OLB candidates due to need?
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I think you have to take this as a vote of confidence to the off-seasons of the three you mentioned, buttressed by TBC. I don’t know how we can draw any other conclusion from their actions today.
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Listen Brace gives them tremendous flexibility to perhaps use more 4-3. Wilfork will be taken care of.
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PATS TAKE BRACE, BUTLER AT 40, 41
I had Brace on our board, but I was surprised that it was Brace there and not Butler or Barwin.
Amazing all the people (including me) who saw Butler was a viable pick at 23. Now they have him at 41.
Still no linebackers, and just one pick left today.
Chris, they are loaded for your board tomorrow. Now they have shed their fourth and sixth round picks to get from 47 to 40; I wonder if they will try to trade those third round picks back tomorrow, or if they’ll do all their picking in the second and third rounds this year. Three second rounders so far.
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Scott, I’m looking at the latter: more early Day 2 picks and trading away the later picks. They have three rookies already and might not have much room for more.
I’ve got to get some sleep tonight. It’s going to be a long one tomorrow.
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I bet you hit on Ingram tomorrow. Tyrone McKenzie?
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Or maybe they might really go weird and use a 4-2-5. Employing 3 safeties.
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Carolina just traded up for Brown. Maybe Peppers is in play. But instead of before the draft after. We’ll see.
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Barwin…Unger….these were both mentioned as possible first rounders. Pat White is about to get a bunch of Wildcat questions in Miami.
Carolina gave up a first to move up and get Brown. If the Patriots had only waited….
Now Sintim for NYG.
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they traded out of the 1st so Goodell wouldn’t be able to announce the Pats pick, and I don’t blame them
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Barwin gone to Texans.
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I hate the fact that Sintim went to the Giants. Barwin now gone to the Texans.
Kruger, Sidbury, Veikune. Michael Johnson? Still some value.
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There are at least two red heads in NJ who are thrilled Sintim went to the Giants.
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I thought Unger might be a good pick, but he just went to the Seahawks.
Twitter intimating they have some third round ammo to move up today from 58.
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Veikune to the Browns. I’m surprised he went before Kruger.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Pats drafted an offensive player and not an OLB at 58.
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Anyone recall teams making a deal for a player already drafted? In the NBA players are drafted and often moved after the fact, but I can’t recall that happening in the NFL draft.
I ask because Bah-win is so much like Vrabez.
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Beatty, the tackle?
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I’m throwing out a prediction even though i don’t have to: Cornelius Ingram. Why not?
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Or, Vollmer! Vollmer!
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Kruger to Baltimore. *sigh*
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That’s going to please them over at boston.com.
Barely heard of the guy in three months reading everything I could about rhe draft. Pro Football Weekly had him as the 19th best OT.
That said, I trust their judgement on linemen.
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He’s from Germany, just like the Shamwow.
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I’ve had it for today, men. Chris, I’ll start a new post in the morning for our day two action. Hope to see everybody then.
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Get some rest, Scott. See you tomorrow. I’ll be trying to find out something about Vollmer online besides the whole 6-8 German thing.
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Will they pick a LB and a TE in the 3rd?
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I say yes and yes.
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Found a Draft Guys review of Vollmer. He’s got the first German-Texan accent I’ve ever heard:
See y’all tomorrow morning.
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Aaaaaannnd… We’re back!
Pats picking 9th in the third round (or at least scheduled there). Here are my top 9 available Pats-centric picks: Mickens, CB; Ingram, TE; Caldwell, C; Gilbert, DE; Johnson, FS; McKenzie, LB; Jason Williams, LB; Andre Brown, RB.
I assume Gilbert will be gone. Johnson becomes less of a priority after the Chung pick. I’ve probably overrated Williams, but I love his athleticism. Four picks scheduled this round (9,19,25,33). Only the last (33 – 97 overall) can’t be traded.
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CB Bradley Fletcher to St. Louis. Higher than expected, but he wasn’t as much of a sleeper as I thought.
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Gilbert to the Bears. I get the sinking feeling we’ll be hearing his name for a long time. By far the best DL available, especially for a 3-4 team like NE.
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Jason Williams to the Cowboys. Did I say I overrated him? Maybe the Cowboys did, too.
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Pats are tweeting that their first third-rounder has gone to Jax for a 2010 second-rounder and a seventh this year (232 overall).
Love the future pick. NE once again gets an extra second-round selection in a draft they obviously like a lot more than this one.
Pats slated to pick 19th in the round (83 overall) next. About nine slots to go.
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