The Patriots should not trade either of their first round picks.
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // April 22, 2012 // News, NFL, Videos // No comments
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The New England Patriots have the power to severely alter the course of the 2012 NFL draft. This is the week where of all of the mock drafts stop and the real action begins.
In the course of that action is serious business and that business revolves around teams trying to move up to get the guy they want this year or sliding down to get a coveted guy that should still be available at a lower price with the bonus of additional picks.
The Pats are holding the 27th (from New Orleans) and the 31st pick in the first round. There is a popular theory that is developing that they will use one first round pick and trade another.
You have to look at what is available and determine what the potential scenarios could be.
There are teams such as Atlanta that not only don’t have a first round pick, they don’t pick until deep in the second round.
Their GM Thomas Dimitroff is a former Pats executive. The relationships are there to get things done.
The only problem is that the Falcons have very little to bargain with without hurting their core and they are struggling to find any cap room that they can get.
Even under the new rookie wage scale, a first round caliber pick is going to be hard to sign with limited dollars. These kids have not worked all of these years to come out balling on a budget.
Figure in that the Dirty Birds have the same secondary needs as the Pats do and that one is a no-go.
There are other situations such as this one that lead to similar conclusions.
That is logical thinking and the NFL is not a logical place. If they do a deal, it will come from left field.
The Patriots have traditionally been willing to trade out of the big money slots in favor of drafting in later to save some money.
If you don’t know, to simplify things, the later you are picked the less money you get. This is especially true for the first two rounds of the draft.
This formula has been successful for the Pats but now they are knocking on the door of some cold hard facts.
They have extreme needs on both sides of the ball.
When a guy like Nebraska’s Alfonzo Dennard gets arrested for punching a cop suddenly the idea of taking a high caliber cornerback in the second round is out of the question.
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