It might take more than flowers to get Robert Kraft to send the third overall pick to the Vikings.
The Patriots are posturing for an “unprecedented deal” to move out of the third overall pick. That’s the term used in Sunday’s item from Mike Reiss of ESPN.com.
They want a “blockbuster” offer, per Reiss. Otherwise, they’ll draft a quarterback of their own in that spot.
It’s hard not to view it as puffing. No one knows whether any of the top prospects will become franchise quarterbacks. No one knows where the best quarterbacks in football will come from.
The Patriots know that better than any team. They got Tom Brady at pick No. 199.
This is about the Patriots trying to take advantage of someone’s desperation, especially with the Vikings seeming particularly desperate. And that’s fine. But it’s also fine to call it what it is.
If the Patriots were hell bent on taking the best quarterback on the board after the Bears and Commanders (or someone who trades up to No. 2) take theirs, they wouldn’t even entertain a trade. That’s what the Bengals did in 2020, rebuffing all offers from the Dolphins and never wavering on Joe Burrow.
This time around, the Patriots surely will engage in a careful analysis of what they expect from the player they’d take at No. 3 and what they could get with the picks and/or players that another team offers.
The two teams negotiate. The team that wants to move up makes its best offer. And the Patriots make a dispassionate determination as to whether they’ll be better off using the pick or trading it.
The rest of it is bluster. The Patriots didn’t win six Super Bowls with bluster. They won by being smart and analytical and objective.
That’s how they’ll be again. Otherwise, they’ll potentially miss an opportunity to make their team better by getting more tickets to the crapshoot lottery that is the NFL draft.
