–The NFL Draft begins with the first round on Thursday night. The second and third rounds are on Friday. And the fourth round through the seventh round will be on Saturday.
As it stands while I write this, it’ll be a busy Thursday and Friday night for the New England Patriots, who have two first-round picks and two second-round picks in this year’s draft. But I’ll be honest with you. I’ll be shocked if Bill Belichick makes all four of those picks. I’m not even talking about trading up. I’m talking about trading one of those first rounders for a multiple picks in later rounds. Sure, it’ll be tempting to move up to take one of the quarterbacks that are projected to go in the Top 10. But if any organization knows that you don’t need to draft a quarterback in the first round, it’s the Patriots. So I don’t expect them to do that this year.
But I do think they should and will draft a QB. If you told me the Patriots wait until the third round to draft a quarterback that nobody is currently talking about, I’d be just fine with that.
Was anybody raving about Jimmy Garoppolo before the 2014 draft? The Patriots took him late in the second round, but they probably could have got him in the third round, or maybe even in the fourth.
And obviously, you have Tom Brady, who was a sixth-round pick in 2000. Brady will go down as the biggest steal in the history of the NFL Draft. The quarterbacks taken ahead of him that year? Chad Pennington (first round), Giovanni Carmazzi (third round), Chris Redman (third round), Tee Martin (fifth round), Marc Bulger (sixth round), and Spergon Wynn (sixth round).
Absolutely wild.
Also, it’s not as if the Patriots need to draft a QB who’s ready to be a starter right now. After all, they still have Brady, and they will for a few more years at the very least. I mean, I’d love for them to trade up and draft Baker Mayfield, but I’m also trying to be realistic here. And under that mindset, history shows that Belichick doesn’t need to take a quarterback in the first round in order to find a guy that he can win with. I expect the Patriots to take a linebacker and an offensive tackle before they even think of taking a QB. But we’ll see what happens, and I’ll be sure to react to it on my podcast.
–One topic I’ve been repeatedly reacting to on my podcast lately is the status of Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski. After plenty of offseason drama, both Brady and Gronkowski have seemingly committed to the 2018 season. Brady’s agent, Don Yee, told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Brady “expects” to return for the 2018 season. Then, Rob Gronkowski posted on instagram that he met with Belichick and told him he will be back in 2018. Now, all eyes will be on Alex Guerrero, who is presumably part of the reason that Brady and Gronkowski had suddenly drawn a line in the sand.
As I told you all offseason, if they did in fact draw a line in the sand, I’m Team Belichick. But, at least everyone can rest easy knowing that both Brady and Gronkowski will be playing for the Patriots in 2018, if you actually needed to hear them say they were committed.
–Here’s a reminder that you should subscribe to my YouTube channel (youtube.com/DannyPicard) to watch my new series, “363: OFF THE AIR.” Episode 2 dropped recently, and we took it into the wrestling ring. You’ll have to see this for yourself. Episode 3 will be released soon, so make sure you subscribe and then hit the notifications tab.
“363: OFF THE AIR” is a peek behind the curtain at what goes on while “The Danny Picard Show” is not recording. It’s kind of a spin-off to my YouTube street hockey film in 2012, “363: The Road to the Southie 3-on-3.” We ended up getting over 50,000 views on that, but I never capitalized on it. So, here I am, nearly six years later, giving you a new “363” series with a familiar sentiment and similar entertainment value. Only, this isn’t a one-time film. It’s a series, and new episodes will be released regularly, with plenty of interesting cameos.
So please subscribe now.
Listen to “The Danny Picard Show” at dannypicard.com. Also available on iTunes, Tunein, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and Spotify. Subscribe to his YouTube channel at youtube.com/dannypicard.
