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Adam Schefter on GHS: Patriots have lots of options on table in Round 1 of NFL Draft, including trading up for QB
Selecting No. 23 overall, really anything can happen with the Patriots in Thursday's first round of the NFL Draft.
If a quarterback they love starts to fall, they could trade up. They could stick with pick No. 23 and get a good player, or they could even trade back to add a second-round pick that they don't have due to the trade for Mohamed Sanu last year.
On The Greg Hill Show Thursday morning, ESPN's Adam Schefter was asked if he thinks the team could trade up for a quarterback, or even trade back to pick up a second-round pick that they do not currently have.
“I think both would be on the table. It just depends on how the board falls," he said. "If, hypothetically, Tua (Tagovailoa) went five and Justin Herbert went sixth, all of a sudden they are not trading up for a quarterback. If the Dolphins went for a positional player, like an offensive lineman, and Tua or Herbert went sixth and one of them started to slide and made it to 12 or 13, could it then get interesting? Yeah, I think it could. Right?
“But, you can’t say that going into the draft tonight. I guarantee they have gone over all of these scenarios and tried to figure out what they are planning for, but until it starts happening you don’t know. Like if we went back to the draft that (Patrick) Mahomes and (Deshaun) Watson were in, the Chiefs and Texans had an idea, ‘Oh yeah, we’d like to think we’d like to come up. Let’s see how this shakes out.’ And it shook out in a way that all of a sudden they are on the phone wheeling and dealing, making moves to come up.
“Yeah, if one of those quarterbacks starts to slide, I wouldn’t be shocked if they did that. But, if they don’t, and it gets to their spot, maybe they want a second-round pick and there are teams interested in coming up. So, maybe they move back at that point.
“I am not trying to ride the fence, I just think all those options are on the table going into tonight.”
Overall, the Patriots have 12 selections in the draft, which are tied for the second-most in the entire NFL.