Five Patriots/NFL Thoughts Following Night One of the 2024 NFL Draft
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Some thoughts coming off of Thursday night:
Following Drake Maye’s selection Thursday night, the talk is obviously what the future of New England’s offense will look like with the North Carolina QB at the helm, but Jerod Mayo made one thing clear.
Don’t forget about the rest of the guys in the Patriots QB room.
“Look, I don’t want you guys to forget about the other quarterbacks that we have on our roster,” said Mayo following Maye’s selection. “It’s about competing and it’s about going out there every day striving to get better,” he added, referring to each of his quarterbacks.
As it currently stands, the club has veteran Jacoby Brissett, who the club added this offseason. By all accounts, he’s expected to start the 2024 season for New England and carry the baton for the players behind him. From there, in addition to Maye, they still have Bailey Zappe and former CFL standout, Nathan Rourke, who the club gave an exclusive rights tender to back at the start of the offseason.
That’s likely going to set up a potential battle for the final spot at quarterback, with Rourke likely hoping to unseat Zappe, given that it would be surprising to see New England carry four quarterbacks into the season.
The question from there would be where Maye’s position to start the year would fall on the depth chart. The rookie could get slid back to the third spot, while Rourke or Zappe would backup Brissett. The club would likely then have Maye still present on the sideline to watch and learn to begin the season.
Seeing Maye as the backup early on would be somewhat of a surprise. Especially since one hit to Brissett could potentially thrust him into the line up before he’s necessarily ready.
Still, Maye sounds like he knows what he’s in for, saying Thursday night that he’ll prepare as if he’ll be under center and he’s looking forward to getting started.
“I’ll prepare and be ready to be the starter, but at the same time I think you know as a young guy coming in there, it’s not given to you, you’ve got to earn it,” said Maye. “The NFL is someplace you’ve got to work your butt off, and my job is to go in there and earn the guys’ respect. Help whoever is the starter if I’m not, I’ll be the best player that I can and help this team win.”
Maye’s excitement was obvious as he spoke to reporters, with the rookie ready to do whatever he needs to as he moves on to the next level. It’s obvious that he’s got some things to work on and both Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo emphasized after the pick that they’ll make sure they do everything they can to support him.
“I just think we need to support him any way we can,” said Wolf Thursday night. “On the field, off the field. We need to add some weapons to the offense. We need to shore up the offensive line. We have good players already at those positions, but really just increasing the depth and the competition. Like Jerod mentioned, that competition is going to be at every position.”
It was interesting to see things play out Thursday night, as the Vikings, despite having two first-round picks, weren’t able to make the leap to entice the Patriots out of their spot.
According to some reports, the biggest hang-up seemed to center around the lack of day two picks for Minnesota, leaving both New England and Arizona to stand pat and make their selections at their respective spots.
As expected, the Cardinals ended up taking wideout Marvin Harrison Jr., providing Kyler Murray with a much-needed explosive threat in the Cardinals’ offense. Arizona was expected to be one of the key trade partners for teams looking for a quarterback, yet nothing materialized. The same can be said for the Chargers, who ended up taking Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt at #5 overall.
However, the Giants, Vikings, and Broncos – all QB needy clubs – weren’t able to get a deal done to move up. Maye’s pick by New England seemed to cause New York to switch gears, as they didn’t target Michael Penix Jr. or J.J. McCarthy, instead opting to grab a wide receiver after taking LSU’s Malik Nabers at #6 overall.
Given what we’ve seen from other young quarterbacks, it appears they’ll try and see if maybe that’s the formula to bring the best out of embattled QB, Daniel Jones.
Still, the Vikings ended up with McCarthy, trading up one spot with the New York Jets and taking the former Michigan quarterback at #10 overall. McCarthy will now be in a battle with Sam Darnold as Minnesota tries to move on after losing Kirk Cousins to the Falcons via free agency this offseason.
One interesting nugget emerged on McCarthy after his pick. The former Michigian QB reportedly asked Vikings GM Adofo-Mensah during a pre-draft discussion a blunt question.
“Is there any reason you wouldn’t draft me?” he asked.
Adofo-Mensah admitted to McCarthy that they had questions about him given the offense he played in, but he didn’t question his talent.
“I said, honestly, from a talent standpoint, no,” said Adofo-Mensah. “You are just a little bit of an unknown because you played in an offense that is pretty run-heavy and different things like that, so there’s some guesswork, but we think you can do it.”
Head coach Kevin O’Connell apparently agrees. He said Thursday night that he sees something special in McCarthy, which he explained definitely stood out during the process.
“A lot of times you can make a mistake with guys that look like they’re smiling and having a good time and are really successful, and misjudge what kind of competitor they are,” O’Connell said. “There is a fire inside of them to be the best version of himself. He wants to win. He’s won at every level he’s played. … The one thing you hear is that he was a driving force behind a lot of [Michigan’s success].”
We’ll see if McCarthy lives up to his billing. Should the Vikings also figure out a way to keep Justin Jefferson in the fold and get him extended, they could remain a factor in the coming years should McCarthy’s history of winning continue.
In an offseason where the Atlanta Falcons spent $100 million to lure Kirk Cousins away from the Vikings, the most logical thing they could have done Thursday night was grab an offensive weapon to try and set their offense up for success under their new quarterback.
Instead, the Falcons went ahead and drafted his replacement.
The move came as a shock to everyone Thursday night, with Atlanta taking Michael Penix Jr. with the #8 overall pick.
General manager Terry Fontenot explained following the move that opting to grab a talented quarterback to keep in their pipeline made sense for their future.
“When you can add a high-caliber player like that, with his intangibles, those tools, he’s a winner, very, very excited,” said Fontenot Thursday night. “You don’t pass up that opportunity. Kirk Cousins is our quarterback. We are very excited about Kirk. Very excited about this team. Michael Penix, we are talking about the future.”
The only problem is, he seems to have forgotten about their present.
As it currently stands, the more realistic expectation with Cousins, despite his four-year deal, is that he’ll be in Atlanta for at least three seasons. But instead of trying to add an explosive weapon on offense, or even an impact player on defense, the club selected a player who may spend three years on its sideline watching it all unfold.
If you’re Penix Jr., even you have to be a little worried about how they operate. Especially since, by the time he’s in his own third season, they could again spend a pick on his replacement rather than helping him out.
It’s a bizarre situation, and it’s safe to say Bill Belichick is probably happy things didn’t pan out. Had he been the head coach there, he’d probably be losing his mind over this decision.
Broncos head coach Sean Payton made the bold move to part ways with Russell Wilson this offseason, leaving Denver as a team that definitely needed to come away with a quarterback Thursday night.
After seeing McCarthy go to Minnesota, the Broncos ultimately ended up taking Bo Nix with the 12th overall pick.
Payton said on Thursday night that Nix has the traits to be successful in their offense, pointing out things he saw during Nix’s time at Oregon as he explained his decision.
“He’s extremely intelligent, really smart. He handled a lot of the protections,” said Payton. “When you watch him, it’s pretty calming. He’s very efficient, and it’s not just because of the [underneath throws]. You see a ton of NFL throws in their offense.”
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Broncos center Alex Forsyth apparently played a role in the decision. Forsyth, who played with Nix at Oregon, reportedly endorsed his former quarterback ahead of the draft.
“Forsyth told the Broncos coaches that Nix is smart, knows every protection, handles it all at the line of scrimmage, and had the universal respect of the entire team,” said Schefter in a Tweet.
He also pointed out the meeting from Nix’s Pro Day, which he said Nix also “crushed it,” helped solidify the Broncos’ decision.
“Denver held a private workout with Bo Nix the day after his pro day,” wrote Schefter. “The night before the workout, the Broncos sent Nix three packets of offensive play installation. And the next morning, as they worked in the classroom with Nix, he “crushed it”, per a Broncos source. The Broncos then took Nix from the classroom to the field, watched him throw for an hour, and were convinced they had a quarterback they wanted.”
We’ll see if it works out. Payton probably won’t go through this process again if it doesn’t, so it should be interesting to see if Nix can ultimately be the player they need him to be in the coming years.
Another move that was pretty surprising was Buffalo’s decision to make a deal with the Chiefs to trade out of the #28 overall pick, allowing Kansas City to grab Texas wideout Xavier Worthy.
The move essentially allowed the Chiefs to strengthen its offense, leaving Buffalo still trying to replace Stefon Diggs, who the club traded away this offseason.
Then, to make matters worse, the club made another deal with the Panthers to trade out of round one, moving the pick they acquired from Kansas City. The Panthers then went on to grab South Carolina’s Xavier Legette.
According to Syracuse.com’s Matt Parrino, General Manager Brandon Beane’s decision to trade back with Kansas City happened because the players they had first round grades on were all gone. So now Buffalo will instead start off day two with the 33rd overall pick, one selection ahead of New England, who has the 34th pick.
For Beane, he explained the goal was to give themselves some additional ammunition heading into these later rounds.
“I could see them taking a receiver but you don’t truly know. … But where they were moving from, I don’t think it mattered to us who they were picking,” Beane said. “Now we’ve got the two 2s, a 3, a 4 and four 5s. I think that gives us a chance to fill some roles or use ammo to move around again, depending on how the board falls.”
The Patriots are expected to target a wide receiver at #34, whether it’s via the rumored trade for Aiyuk or instead taking one with their second round pick. According to Pro Football Focus, the five best remaining prospects are Adonai Mitchell (Texas), Troy Franklin (Oregon), Ladd McConkey (Georgia), Keon Coleman (Florida State), and Roman Wilson (Michigan), respectively, in that order.
It’s also possible that the Patriots could instead go with a tackle and possibly target North Carolina WR Devontez Walker further down, who would instantly provide chemistry with first-round pick Drake Maye.
Walker is projected to be a 3rd round selection, so it will be interesting to see if the club goes that route.
But so far, there have definitely been some surprises. What the Patriots will do from here is clearly a key question, and it should be fun to see how Day 2 plays out later tonight.
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