With Bill Belichick soon to be on the clock really needing to get it 100 percent right for the first time since 2001, last Thursday’s NFL draft was a big day for Patriot Nation. But, given his exasperating draft history of mindlessly trading up and down the board, I didn’t enter the night with great confidence. Especially with his annoying penchant for trading out of the first round for a better “value” pick in the second and then blowing it on failed DBs like Joejuan Williams, Duke Dawson, Cyrus Jones, Jordan Richards, Tavon Wilson and Ras-I Dowling.
But after a less than satisfactory year after Tom Brady took his talents to a south beach, this time there couldn’t be any of the usual nonsense. He needed to get a long-term quarterback solution. That had everyone but those holding out for a trade for Jimmy G begging, and I mean begging, for a trade up to get one of the five top-rated quarterback prospects.
That set the stage as the night started. And the following is an account of how it went for David Long the fan, not the columnist, over the mostly excruciating 100 minutes from when Roger the Dodger opened the 2021 NFL draft until Coach B picked at 15.
I was calm, cool and collected through picks 1 and 2. Three was a shocker, at least to the “experts” who assured all that after trading three firsts and a third to move up there the 49ers would absolutely take Alabama QB Mac Jones. But somewhere along the line indecision crept into the SF war room and they went with ND State’s uber-athletic Trey Lance instead. That also put to rest the local media’s (except me) obsession with Jimmy Garoppolo’s return to Foxboro being inevitable. Never was, because no team has ever been imbecilic enough to dump a solid veteran QB to hand its legit Super Bowl ambitions over to any rookie on Day 1.
However, that didn’t change the equation for Patriot Nation, as two of the top five QBs remained as Lance was just swapped for Jones. That meant the real action, angst and worry now got started with all the picks to 8 trade-up possibilities. Scuttlebutt had the Falcons (4) and Carolina (8) as possibles to go QB. But thanks to enormous cap hit consequences on Matt Ryan and Carolina having just traded for Matt Darnold,that was unlikely.Still I crossed my fingers, but neither did. Phew. Denver, who clearly needs a QB, was next. But nope, they went DB Jaycee Horn to eliminate another QB contender or trade-up slot, making Denver’s choice both weird and lucky for New England. Phew again.
At 10, ESPN’s Mike Greenberg says “we’ve got a trade.” Please don’t say Chicago, WFT or New Orleans! Nope, in a move even weirder than Denver’s, hated rivals Philly and Dallas go all Henry Kissinger on us to swap 12 for 10. But turns out not to be détente but a desire to jointly screw another AFC East rival, as Philly jumped ahead of the G-Men to take Bama wideout Jaylen Waddle, whom the NYG’s badly wanted.
So, with the G-Men and Dallas having no QB interest, I’m back to the trade up mantra. Except at 11 I hear, “We’ve got another trade between the Giants and … Chicago.” Yikes! That means QB 4 is gone. Still, It’s still sort of lucky, as they took Ryan Day’s Ohio State QB Justin Fields to leave the already QB-solid Cowboys, Chargers and Minnesota between the Pats and the QB I wanted all along — Jones. So I’m back shouting, “GO UP will you please!” Although to be truthful it was more like begging him, along the lines of when I was on my knees begging Grady Little to take Pedro out of Game 7 vs. the Yanks during the 2003 baseball playoffs.
But then it’s all in jeopardy. Another trade is announced for the last pick before the Pats. Now it’s double fingers and legs crossed and I’m in full body contorted mode while squinting at the TV to help me both hear (good news) and not hear (if it was bad). Don’t ask me how it does either, because it doesn’t. Then comes the biggest shocker of the night, when the Jets of all teams save Bill from himself by moving into the 14th slot. They already took Zach Wilson, so no QB there. Of course, given his history I knew freaking Bill could still trade back and out of the first round.
But no — Roger the Dodger goes, “with the 15th pick the Patriots select” — please no DB, please no DB — “Mac Jones of Alabama.” Exhale and say PHEW as I uncross my cramped fingers, legs and de-contort my torso. Well, in truth I may have exaggerated the contorting parts just a bit. You’d have to be insane to do that at my age. Though when I was kid I once left my head resting on a radiator one Sunday in November as it kept getting warmer and warmer because doing it coincided with a big Giants comeback vs. Washington and I figured it was good luck. Hurt all the next day, but it was worth it. You know, once a lunatic fan, always a lunatic fan. So while exaggerated, that is how it played out in my head.
As for the net cost accounting to get the last three available QBs: (1) San Francisco — the position swap from 12 to third overall cost first-round picks in 2022 and 2023, along with 2022 third. (2) Chicago — their 2022 first pick to go from 20 to 11. (3) New England — thanks to a nice combo of strategy, guts and a little luck they spent nothing. We’ll hold back on “In Bill We Trust” stuff until we see the goods from the 4.0 GPA graduate-a-year-early ex-Alabama chucker.
So good luck and welcome to town, young man.
