One week before the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, the Patriots are telling the world they’re open to trading the No. 3 overall pick.
It could be classic pre-draft posturing as the team needs a new franchise quarterback, but New England scouting director Eliot Wolf, the team’s de facto general manager after Bill Belichick’s departure in January, sent a message while speaking with reporters on Thursday.
“We’re open to anything, moving up, moving down,” Wolf said. “We’re open for business in the first round and in every round. We have some holes we feel like we need to fill in the draft, and we’re a draft-and-develop team. The more picks we have, the better. But if there’s an opportunity to move up and strike if the board kind of recommends it, then we won’t be afraid to pull the trigger on that either.”
Belichick’s 24th season with the Patriots was his worst, a 4-13 campaign that led to he and the team parting ways.
And with a top-three pick in hand, the Patriots traded 2021 first-round pick Mac Jones to the Jaguars for a 2024 sixth-round pick after he failed to pan out as a franchise QB.
The draft truly begins with the Commanders at No. 2, as the Bears are certain to take USC quarterback Caleb Williams at No. 1 after trading Justin Fields to the Steelers.
Washington is also expected to take a quarterback, and the remaining options projected to go high are LSU’s Jayden Daniels, UNC’s Drake Maye and Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy.
It’s unclear whether the Commanders would be willing to move one pick down should the Patriots want their pick of those three.
If the Patriots are comfortable passing on the top available quarterbacks and going into 2024 with Jacoby Brissett as their starter, they could potentially get a major haul by trading down.
The 31-year-old Brissett, a Patriots third-round pick in 2016 who spent his rookie year in New England, returned to the franchise this offseason on a one-year, $8 million contract.
He bounced around between the Commanders, Browns and Dolphins the last three years after playing four seasons with the Colts.
