Patriots packed with picks as NFL Draft nears – Fall River Herald News
FOXBORO – They won’t pick early, but they will pick often.
Asterisk: They’ll have the opportunity to pick often.
The Patriots’ initial choice in the upcoming NFL draft won’t come until the 32nd pick of the first round (that’s the price a team pays for winning a Super Bowl championship), but through their assigned selections, a compensatory pick and a choice acquired in the trade that shipped guard Logan Mankins to Tampa Bay, they currently hold down five of the top 101 slots and nine of the 256 in the draft overall.
That currency includes three of the six picks from Nos. 96-101.
Not that there’s any guarantee it’ll remain that way.
Armed with that cache (although two of the selections are compensatory picks that cannot be dealt), Bill Belichick has a track record for draft day trades: 53 over his 15 drafts as Patriots head coach.
The first round of this year’s draft kicks off at 8 p.m. next Thursday. It’ll resume with rounds two and three scheduled to start at 7 p.m. on May 1, then conclude with the final four rounds beginning at noon on May 2.
“We’re just kind of winding down here with the process, a little more than a week out with the draft,” Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said as the team held its annual pre-draft press conference at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday. “We’re just trying to finalize some of our preparation.
“Most of the information we’ve accumulated to this point. Now it’s a matter of kind of consolidating everything and sorting through everything and kind of putting our plan together in for next week, which we all know that can be somewhat kind of a moving target relative to where we’re scheduled to pick and what could happen in front of us.”
A look at the Pats’ picks with the draft one week away:
1. First round (assigned selection) No. 32
2. Second round (assigned selection) No. 64
3a. Third round (assigned selection) No. 96
3b. Third round (compensatory selection) No. 97
4a.. Fourth round (from Tampa Bay, via Mankins trade) No. 101
4b. Fourth round (assigned selection) No. 131
6. Sixth round (from Tampa Bay, via trade for linebacker Jonathan Casillas) No. 178
7a. Seventh round (from Tennessee, via trade for linebacker Akeem Ayers) No. 219
7b. Seventh round (compensatory selection) No. 253
The team dealt away its assigned picks in rounds five (as part of the Casillas trade), six (the Ayers trade) and seven (to St. Louis for wide receiver Greg Salas).
Clearly, the ability to move up (as the Patriots did twice in deals with Cincinnati and Denver that positioned them to select defensive end Chandler Jones and linebacker Dont’a Hightower in the first round in 2012) or down (as they did with Minnesota in 2013, trading out of the 29th slot for four later-round picks, the first of which yielded linebacker Jamie Collins at No. 52) exist.
Page 2 of 2 – “I would just say any time you move up or down it’s really usually player specific or player driven,” said Caserio. “So if there’s players that you’ve graded a certain way or that you valued a certain way relative to other needs, other teams’ supply and demand at that position, that can dictate whether or not you feel it’s necessary to move up or if you feel like you could get a similar value, a similar player at a lower level and accumulate picks then you can move down.
“A lot of that, too, is, OK, where are you in terms of your overall roster. We’re not talking about like (an) infinite number of spots (the Patriots are currently at 75 players, 15 below the 90-man limit). So if you move back, you’re going to accumulate picks.”
Caserio said to this point the team’s trade talks have been limited.
“I would say to this point we really haven’t talked to too many teams,” said Caserio. “Now, next week will we talk to a team or two? Possibly. But until you actually get into the draft and into the process and the players start to come off the board, then it’s kind of hard to say, ‘OK, well, we’d like to move up. OK, we’ll get back to you.’ You’re talking in circles. It’s kind of a wasted phone call.”
Mayo reportedly reworks deal: The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that after having his last two seasons cut down by injuries, veteran linebacker Jerod Mayo has agreed to take a pay cut.
According to Rapoport, Mayo, who was originally scheduled to make a base salary of $6.25 million in 2015, will now earn $4.5 million, with the opportunity to make up to $6 million if he meets incentives.
Mayo has option years on his deal for 2016 and 2017.
Glen Farley may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @GFarley_ent.
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