Yeah, that was badly worded on my part. BB is always in the market to upgrade the roster, usually in unconvential ways, and NOONE knows the value of quality depth than him. Unlike most teams the Pats will pass on the high end player, to grab TWO "merely" good ones.
The Pats will always have have a strong roster to start with even in a year when we have so many FA. Over the past decade I have often proposed BB go for a few "quality" picks in a draft than a lot of the low picks we get. Usually in the years I did that BB would end up trading down and ADD picks. .
Over the next 2 months, I think we end up resigning most of our important FA's and/or add corresponding FA's from other teams, and end up with a predraft roster that would be competitive even without a draft. With all the names you mentioned we have a number of guys who are likely going to be a lot better than anyone we can get after the 3rd round. So again, I'm hoping BB will use those back end pick to either trade out and up into the future, or use them to trade up in the current draft. I wouldn't hate it we end up with just 4 or 5 guys if those guys are "quality picks".
That being said, given my history of predictions, BB will likely end up adding picks and we wind up with 11 rookies.....and he will end up being right in the long term.
I think, in general, what you say makes sense, but I think BB is always looking long term and sees late picks and bubble guys from a perspective of what can they become, so he finds a spot if he feels they are worthy.
But this year, more than any in memory, we have a very, very thin roster. Since there is a lot of cap space, we may be adding a bunch of FAs, but as of right now, compared to last year, we are missing a lot:
OL is in tact, which is awesome, but depending on Solders future, now is the time to find his replacement. And we certainly could upgrade depth at every OL spot with draft choices. (I think anything higher than a 5th would have a guaranteed spot, and a 5,6,7 would be competitive for a roster spot)
RB- Blount is a FA, that's 1100 yards missing (white is free next year, as is Lewis)
WR- Edelman and Amendola (if he takes a 5mill paycut) are both FAs in 2018
TE- Need to replace Benentt
DL- Nink is near the end and is FA after this year. Sheard and Long are not under contract. A 4 man rotation is down to 1 plus an aging guy going into likely his last year here.
LB- Hightower is not under contract. VanNoy is in his last year. We never really replaced Collins.
DB- Harmon and Ryan were major contributors that have to be replaced.
We have a long, long way to go to get the 2017 team in the shape the 2016 was, so I am on board for every draft pick we can find.