Patriots 2023 Offseason Thread

It should be illegal that the Eagles got Jalen Carter.

I hate Bill.

Wow, great pick. All pro potential. Not a lot of that in this draft.

Thought he'd be long gone as of a week ago. Hope he meets that top 7 hype!

Size on the perimeter was a major need

I love the pick personally. I manifested it this morning

Yeah, I guess the frustration wasn't knowing much about the kid when they took him. He certainly sounds like he has an incredible ceiling. Also have zero faith in next year so best available is probably the better call as well.

Bills defense has always been built around having a big time shutdown corner. Law - Talib - Revis - Gilmore… hopefully this kid is the next one.

While I love the Patriots’ pick, it’s tough to see three AFC contenders get Johnston, Zay, and Kincaid in the 20’s. Hopefully Pats can get Mac a weapon on day 2.

Got enough ammo to move up and get their next target too..

A few thoughts on the Christian Gonzalez pick

My top potential #14 picks (Skoronski, PJohnson, Witherspoon, Bijon) were all off the board already at 14. Disappointed but not surprised.

I can't imagine that Mac Jones is going to be excited about starting next season with Trent Brown and Reilly Reiff as his OTs. Considering their need at the position, I was surprised they did not go all out to get Orlando Brown in free agency. But they did not.

Given their (many) positions of need and this years talent distribution by position, I'm surprised they did not take Brandon Jones at 14 and a CB at 46. This year's CB class is very deep whereas the OT talent drops off a cliff after early round 2. They should be able to get a good RB or a good DE later. There were no round 1 talents at FS this year. This was a weak WR class. All those round 1 WR picks (except maybe JSN) looked like reaches to me.

Christian Gonzalez is a very physically talented guy although his production this year was not comparable to that of Witherspoon or even Emmanuel Forbes. However, as he is only 20.8 years right now, there is potential for significant development. I can easily imagine a world where Gonzalez becomes a shutdown corner, although it is far from a sure thing.

If I were BB, I would now package pick 46 with a 4th and a 6th and try to trade up to the top of round 2. Even 46 + two round 4s if necessary. Then select Dawan Jones in round 2. Christian Gonzalez + Dawan Jones is at least comparable to BJones + best corner in round 2 (Cam Smith? Joey Porter?) I guess they could draft an IOL (Schmitz, Bergeron?, Torrence, Voorhees) and move Onwenu back out to OT, but that seems like a stretch.

Finally, I am happy that BB didn't select a 3rd-4th round talent in the 1st round and then defend the move by leaking that some team was considering drafting him in the 2nd round, so we needed to draft him in the 1st round. That did not happen this year.

I’d say there’s no chance they aren’t moving around the board today. It’s likely moving up. Coming into the draft they only had 4 non draft pick spots left on the roster and they added another pick dropping that to 3. 12 picks is too many and 7 top 4 round picks are more guaranteed rosters spots than they will want to give rookies. Bill trades up a lot in the second round. I’d expect it again today.

From The Beast ($)

Speed is in his genes: he was a HS track star (finished 6th in 200M at states) and has two sisters who were track stars including one who ran hurdles in Tokyo Olympics for Colombia. Gonzalez also played WR, wildcat QB, and punter in HS. Strength and tackling need work, but huge wingspan and sounds like GLUE in man coverage, which we know BB loves.

I'm getting excited. Also The Beast is the best!!!

Given depth of the draft, I'm hoping we use our ammo to make three Day 2 picks instead of moving up from 46. Someone good will still be there and I'd love to see some WR, TE and OT action.