Pats aim to strike gold

Prospects often pan out for Belichick & Co.

Dial it back a year and the names hold little weight. But by the time the Patriots made their furious rally past the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, the 2016 rookie draft class was everywhere.

Wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell, a fourth-round pick, caught 32 passes for 401 yards and four touchdowns in the regular season. Third-round offensive lineman Joe Thuney locked down the starting left guard position. Sixthround selection Elandon Roberts became a regular contributor at linebacker. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett, nabbed in the third round, won a regular-season game against the Texans starting in place of the suspended Tom Brady and the injured Jimmy Garoppolo. Defensive tackle Vincent Valentine, cornerback Cyrus Jones, and offensive lineman Ted Karras had meaningful snaps, as well.

All in all, out of the nine players selected, seven made the 53-man roster and, in some cases, critical contributions to the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl title.

For one draft, that’s a significant impact. But, realistically, most organizations don’t hit that type of home run. There always remains the possibility for lukewarm results, if not a near whiff. However, for the Pats, that latter scenario has not been the case lately.

So as they prepare to make their picks in next week’s NFL draft, starting in the third round at No. 72 overall, it’s realistic to think, even without a firstor second-round pick, the Pats can strike gold again.

“Our philosophy really hasn’t changed,” director of player personnel Nick Caserio said this week. “We evaluate the players, we assign the grades to the players and then however the draft ends up unfolding then we deal with it as it comes.”

It has unfolded well recently. Of the 22 offensive and defensive starters for the Pats in the Super Bowl, seven were picks from the last four cycles. That does not include running back James White, who technically did not start but sure finished well, and long snapper Joe Cardona. Overall, seven starters on each side of the ball were selected by the Pats, as well as rookie free agents David Andrews and Malcolm Butler mixed in with those acquired through trades and free agency.

Two players from that four-year time frame — linebacker Jamie Collins (2013, second round) and center Bryan Stork (2014, fourth round) — were no longer on the team, but started in Super Bowl XLIX. For Caserio and coach Bill Belichick, it makes for an enviable hit rate.

Some classes lean heavier at the top than others. The 2010 draft produced the type of quality not seen most years, as the Pats grabbed safety Devin McCourty, tight end Rob Gronkowski and the late tight end Aaron Hernandez. The fate of Hernandez is well chronicled, but the Patriots likely don’t make it to Super Bowl XLVI without the contributions of all three, and McCourty and Gronkowski are still linchpins to the team’s success.

The true lean years of the Belichick era came in the 2006 and 2007 drafts, as kicker Stephen Gostkowski (2006, fourth round) was the only real long-term answer in Foxboro. (And of course the Pats used picks from the 2007 draft to acquire Wes Welker and Randy Moss.) But most other classes had value at least somewhere with more than one player.

But as Caserio said this week, the draft is only one facet to the team-building exercise.

“It’s very fluid. It’s very ongoing. There’s a lot of communication,” he said. “There’s a lot of dialogue on a daily basis and even though the draft is over it’s not like ‘OK, well, flip the page. Let’s close the books and go to the golf course and have a nice day.’ That’s not how it works. That’s not reality so we just kind of transition into the next phase.”

And if this draft is anything like the last one, that next phase will be a fruitful one.