Mock Draft Roulette: What The Patriots Could Do By Trading Back?

FOXBOROUGH, MA — The NFL Draft is just one day away. On Thursday, the New England Patriots will officially start a new era, and it could come with a new quarterback under center.

In the third edition of our Mock Draft Roulette series, however, we dig into what happens if the team decides to stock up on draft picks to build around a quarterback taken in the future.

The first mock draft sorted through what could happen if the team takes a quarterback, and the second edition tossed around the idea of staying at three and taking another position.

Read more: Patriots Mock Draft Roulette: Why A Receiver Could Make Sense At 3

Read more: Patriots Mock Draft Roulette: Why The Team Should Pick A Quarterback

Here's why a trade back could make sense for the Patriots:

The Trades

It’s been widely rumored that the Minnesota Vikings are looking to move into the top three or four picks to select a quarterback. The package would likely include picks 11 and 23 in this year’s draft, with additional draft capital in future drafts possible, too.

Let's say the Vikings do want to move up to three, and the Patriots are interested in accepting the offer.

This presents the Patriots with two options:

1. Stay at 11 and 23 and pick whichever tackle, wide receiver or other players are still there.
2. Use picks 11 and 34 — or maybe even 23 and 34 — to trade back up to select one of the top receivers.

The logic for staying at 11 is there’s probably still a chance to get one of the highly-ranked tackles while adding someone like Adonai Mitchell of Texas at 23. With 34 still in the Patriots’ possession they can add someone like UConn’s Christian Haynes or West Virginia’s Zach Frazier.

Trading back up to pick five with the Chargers, for example, would probably eliminate adding two top 50 offensive linemen, but would allow the Patriots to select one of Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze or even Marvin Harrison, Jr., if the draft breaks right. At 23 the team could still have a chance to draft versatile offensive lineman Graham Barton, of Duke, or center Jackson Powers-Johnson, of Oregon. Both could serve as the heir apparent to center David Andrews while playing guard for at least their rookie season.

Given the theme of this mock draft, let’s see what trading back into the top five with Los Angeles can do.

The Draft

Round 1, Pick 5

Malik Nabers, LSU

Malik Nabers is a living, breathing big play.

As a true sophomore, he led the SEC in receptions. As a junior he repeated that feat while adding over 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns to his stat line, leading the SEC in receiving.

Dane Brugler pointed out that, in the storied history of LSU receivers, Nabers is the most prolific. He only played three seasons there.

The fit with the Patriots is obvious, as he can play all over the field and provides downfield explosion that the team desperately needs. Nabers by all accounts won't be available at 11, and it appears likely he'll be worth the trade up.

Still available at this selection were Washington wide receiver Rome Odunze, Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt, Penn State offensive tackle Olumuyiwa Fashanu and Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.

It’s unclear if McCarthy would still be there at five, especially if Minnesota were to execute a trade with New England and take one of the other quarterbacks in Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels, so for the sake of the exercise he was removed from contention for this pick.

To move up to five in this draft, the Patriots would need to give up picks 11 and 34.

Round 1, Pick 23

Graham Barton, Duke

Outside of a secondary pass catcher or one of the highly ranked tackles falling, Barton being available at 23 after selecting Nabers would be best case scenario for this draft approach.

As the draft process moved along this offseason, Barton went from likely guard on most boards to a potential franchise center. However, some experts like Nate Tice believe Barton has four-position potential with both guard spots, center and right tackle a potential possibility for Barton.

This is an almost perfect scenario for the Patriots, who have multiple spots on the line they can improve and a potential gap at center if Andrews decides to leave in free agency or retire at the end of the upcoming season.

Similar to McCarthy, Brian Thomas Jr., Nabers’ teammate at LSU, was technically available at this pick. It’s not common to see him fall this far in most mock drafts, so he wasn’t the selection here. However, if the Patriots were to be in a position to draft Thomas and Nabers, you won’t find a naysayer with this audience.

Still available at this pick were Jackson Powers-Johnson, Adonai Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Johnny Newton, Xavier Worthy, Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr.

Round 3, Pick 68

Kiran Amegadjie, Yale

Amegadjie is relatively new to football, only picking up the game midway through his high school career. However, he thrived against Ivy League competition at Yale, being named honorable mention All-Ivy or first-team All-Ivy in each of his three seasons.

He played right guard as a junior and moved to left tackle for his junior and senior seasons — the 2020 Ivy League season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic — proving that Amegadjie does have positional versatility.

Amegadjie is a raw prospect with unique traits including length and movement skills. Could he be special? Absolutely, but there's projection here.

Still available at thjs pick were Kris Jenkins, Junior Colson, Tez Walker, Christian Mahogany, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, Roger Rosengarten, Ricky Pearsall.