Patriots should not trade with the Minnesota Vikings
The New England Patriots are in line to draft third overall in the upcoming 2024 NFL Draft. There will be continued speculation and opinions as to what New England and de facto general manager Elliot Wolf ultimately should do.
New England has holes all over the roster with needs at quarterback, offensive line, and wide receiver to name a few. Luckily, for the Patriots the draft is deep with all three of those positions.
The Patriots could draft a quarterback and will either have Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye to pick from. If they go wide receiver, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Malik Nabers are the top ones. The top offensive line prospects include Joe Alt and Olu Fashanu.
The latest rumor is the possibility of the Minnesota Vikings moving up to number three and the Patriots moving down to number 11 in a trade.
Today, the, Vikings traded their 42nd pick, 188th, their 2025 second rounder to the Houston Texans for number 23 and 232nd pick. Minnesota now owns the 11th and 23rd pick in the upcoming draft. A speculated trade of trading those picks in a package to move up to number three would be a bad trade.
In a scenario where the Patriots do not believe in the play of whichever quarterback falls to them at three, then they should trade out. However, trading back to 11th overall is too far down the board.
Harrison, Nabers, Alt, and Fashanu will be gone by the time the 11th pick comes around. Missing out on a blue chip prospect would be a mistake in an early rebuild.
Even the best of the best draft experts and scouts get player evaluations wrong. Just because a player was a high pick, doesn’t guarantee success. Trading down, though makes it tougher to target a specific player and brings in many more unpredictable possibilities into play.
For example, if the Patriots were punting on selecting a quarterback early, to make a trade with the New York Giants to move down three spots to number six, that’d make a lot more sense. Patriots would be guaranteed one of the top two wide receivers or one of the top two offensive lineman.
At the end of the day, the Patriots are in a prime spot to target a specific player. To pass that opportunity up and let 10 other teams decide your draft board is a risky game the Patriots can’t afford to play.
