Draft success must only start with Maye
The first Patriots draft in 25 years without the football fingerprints of Bill Belichick is in the books. To borrow a Belichickism, the hay is in the team-building barn for New England’s new regime of coach Jerod Mayo and director of scouting/de facto general manager Eliot Wolf.
Barring a major trade for a proven wide receiver, this is the well of talent the Patriots will have to draw from in 2024. With that in mind, here are five thoughts on the work of the Wolf of Patriot Place.
1. This draft will be remembered for the selection of quarterback Drake Maye at No. 3, but it should be measured by what the Patriots unearth after a potential franchise passer. It takes more than a single successful selection to rebuild a perennial contender.
Maye may be of the most import because he plays the most influential position in North American team sports, but if the Patriots aspire to be a draft-and-development team, as Wolf proclaimed, they must discover impact players outside the first round. Particularly among the cohort nabbed between the second and fourth rounds — wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk, offensive tackle Caedan Wallace, guard Layden Robinson, and wide receiver Javon Baker.
The good news is that the teams where Wolf cut his teeth displayed success in this area. When Wolf was assistant GM in Cleveland in 2018, the Browns took Baker Mayfield No. 1, but found their best player, Nick Chubb, in the second round. Wolf was imbued with his player personnel philosophies from his time in Green Bay (2004-17) with Ted Thompson, where the Packers majored in finding talent beyond the first round.
The Pack picked wide receivers Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, and Davante Adams in the second round, and James Jones in the third. They plucked four-time Pro Bowl guard Josh Sitton, two-time All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, and Pro Bowl defensive lineman Mike Daniels from the fourth. In the fifth round, they excavated gems including All-Pro center Corey Linsley, dynamic running back Aaron Jones, and safety Micah Hyde.
Fingers crossed Wolf and Co. duplicated that in Foxborough.
2. Maye isn’t a no-assembly-required franchise quarterback, but one of the elements the Patriots like was how he faced and dealt with football adversity. Maye’s final year at North Carolina didn’t go as projected. He failed to equal his gaudy 38 touchdowns (vs. seven interceptions) and 66.2 percent completion percentage from 2022. Changes at offensive coordinator and with his offensive line undermined his production and stunted his growth as a decision-maker.
“Not to take anything away from anyone else in the program, but the game was on his shoulders for them,” Wolf said, diplomatically. “He really was able to elevate them and make them into what they could be.”
A team source said before the draft, about Maye’s surroundings compared with Jayden Daniels at LSU or J.J. McCarthy at Michigan: “You have to factor
all of that in to kind of figure out and put the puzzle together. This guy had to deal with a lot of adversity with coaching changes and scheme changes.”
Left unsaid was Mac Jones, the Patriots’ prior Tom Brady replacement contestant, didn’t handle adversity well after enjoying first-class coaching and teammates at Alabama that elevated him.
3.The selection of Polk in the second round (No. 37) was the opposite of Maye. Polk is a super safe pick, and it would be surprising if he flamed out like some of the Patriots’ past wide receiver draft busts — the list reads like the Stanley Cup, with Tyquan Thornton on the precipice of inscribing his name.
Polk lacks the explosiveness to profile as a No. 1 wideout, but will fight for the ball and for his quarterback. He reminds me of a souped-up Jakobi Meyers.
That said, get ready for Polk to be compared with some of the pass-catchers taken after him: Adonai Mitchell (No. 52, Colts), Malachi Corley (No. 65, third round, Jets), Jermaine Burton (No. 80, Bengals), Roman Wilson (No. 84, Steelers), and Washington teammate Jalen McMillan, who went 92d to Buccaneers. Keep an eye on Mitchell, who has George Pickens-esque ability, and Wilson. The Steelers rarely miss at receiver.
4. The true starting-over nature was reflected in the selection of Robinson with the first of two fourth-rounders. Robinson might be the next Shaq Mason, also a fourth-round guard. But he’s the fifth interior offensive lineman the team has drafted in the first five rounds in the last three drafts, starting with the dubious selection of first-rounder Cole Strange in 2022.
Last year, the team took three players — Jake Andrews, Sidy Sow, and Atonio Mafi — who played at guard during the season. This is what bad, rebuilding teams do: peddle furiously and end up back where they started, burning draft capital like calories.
The Patriots are implementing their third offensive system in three years. It’s plausible some of the in-house guard options aren’t regarded as fits by new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and new offensive line coach Scott Peters.
I asked Mayo about this unusual investment.
“We’re in the business of bringing in good players and breeding competition,” he said. “Some of those guys you spoke about that you guys see as true guards currently on our roster, those guys have flexibility as well . . . We want to put the best five guys out there and see what happens.”
5. My favorite Patriots pick was Baker in the fourth round. It’s just good business to double up at a position of need, but of all the players the Patriots drafted, Baker has the best chance to exceed his slot. The former Alabama four-star recruit transferred to Central Florida and developed into a dynamic target on deep shots and post-catch.
He’s faster than his timed 40-yard dash speed of 4.54 and demonstrates desperately needed juice on the outside. Baker ranked second in yards per catch among Division 1 receivers at 21.9. As draft guru Dane Brugler pointed out, Baker’s 21 catches of 20-plus yards were fourth in major college football, trailing only top-10 picks Malik Nabers and Rome Odunze, plus Virginia’s Malik Washington, who led the nation with 110 receptions, more than twice as many as Baker’s 52.