Niklas comes from the Matthews family of great NFL football players with a tie in to BB.
ND TE Troy Niklas' uncle is the great 14X ProBowler OL for the Houston Oilers, Bruce Matthews. His brother Clay Jr. played LB for the Browns with BB as HC. Here's what wiki says
Quote:
Bruce comes from a football family. He is the son of
Clay Matthews, Sr., who played in the NFL in the 1950s. His brother,
Clay Matthews, Jr., also played 19 seasons in the NFL, mostly for the
Cleveland Browns. He is the uncle of
Green Bay Packers linebacker
Clay Matthews III,
Philadelphia Eagles linebacker
Casey Matthews, and Kyle Matthews of USC football. Bruce's disposition for football has been continued by several of his sons. His son
Kevin played center for
Texas A&M until the 2009 football season,
[1] and is currently a member of the
Washington Redskins.
Jake Matthews is currently a senior at Texas A&M University and plays offensive line for the
Texas A&M Aggies, a position for which he was nationally ranked coming out of high school. His son Mike is also on the offensive line for Texas A&M, he is currently the starting center.
[2] He is the uncle of Notre Dame Fighting Irish Tight End Troy Niklas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_M...an_football%29
Maybe it means nothing at all but it's worth noting I think.
Also, BB has never drafted a WR in the 1st round so it's highly unlikely he'd trade up to do so in the deepest WR draft of his tenure. OTOH Ethan Hammerman (DraftMecca writer and Pats fan) said yesterday "If the Pats decide to move up, and it jives with all the info I've heard this year...Mike Evans. Mark it down."
If the Bills at 9 and Giants at 12 don't draft Evans, a trade to get ahead of the Steelers at 15 with either the Rams at 13 or the Bears at 14 would probably be necessary. Roethlisberger would benefit greatly by have a comeback receiver like Evans. I don't see that much draft capital expended by BB but I do think Evans is a very special player and with BB you just never know. Any trade up like that would almost require next year's 1st.
Beckham is another WR BB could be targeting ( if he's targeting any WR). Beckham is a far more well rounded WR than Evans & Beckham can play any WR position on the field. He's also a return guy. Both are special players & either would make the Pats extremely tough to defend.