I'm sure BPA is a significant factor in the Pats' draft decisions. But c'mon, in this draft, if a WR was #2 and another player in a position that was well stocked on the roster was #1, I have to think they would have drafted the #2 player.
Depends. I think Bruschi has it right when he said they really look at filling roles instead of filling positions, and I think the Harry pick is a really good example of this idea. While we are all looking at how to replace Gronk at TE, they are actually looking at how they replace the go to routes from Brady to Gronk. Harry obviously isn’t a TE but they can use him in both the slot and outside to run the same routes Gronk ran for Brady, especially those that became their go to routes when game’s and season’s are on the line. They can get the blocking they need out of their TE’s and gave Brady the routes he needs available to him. So while we slot by position they look at the roles they can fill, and those are very different things.