Draft rumors: Patriots will “seriously consider” trading up for Noah Fant
According to a new report released Thursday, rumor has it that the New England Patriots are seriously considering trading up for Iowa tight end Noah Fant.
Could the guy who wore No. 87 for the Iowa Hawkeyes end up replacing the guy who wore No. 87 for the New England Patriots these last nine years?
If the latest buzz is to be believed, that’s just what might happen tonight in the 2019 NFL Draft.
A new report links the Patriots to Iowa tight end Noah Fant. Podcaster Tony Pauline of Draft Analyst went so far as to say New England will “seriously consider” trading up to draft Fant before he gets picked up by another team. Fant is currently projected by some experts and analysts to go as high as the early teens, while others think he could fall to the 20s.
Either way, the Patriots probably won’t get a shot at him where they’re currently slated to pick at No. 32 overall, the final pick of Thursday night’s Round 1 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Pats head coach and de facto GM Bill Belichick has shown a propensity for trading up and down throughout previous drafts he’s overseen, often packaging higher-priced draft picks for quantities or bundles of lower-valued or future picks in the process. It’s not often that he makes dramatic moves to climb up in a draft, but this year could potentially be an exception.
New England is tied for the league-lead for the most draft picks of any team with 12. It’s not unreasonable to project that Belichick could try and combine some of those picks (especially in the second and third rounds) in order to move up higher in the first round if there’s a player he’s really enamored with.
If that were to happen, though, who would he be moving up to get? The Patriots don’t have a ton of needs, but the ones they do have are imperative to address. Depth is a major concern at tight end, wide receiver, defensive line, and perhaps even at quarterback (if the team is thinking long-term).
Fellow Hawkeye T.J. Hockenson is widely-viewed to be the best tight end in this year’s draft class, but he’s also not expected to last beyond the first 10 picks. Fant isn’t far behind Hockenson in terms of receiving ability, although he’s considered to be an inferior blocker compared to Hockenson.
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Belichick and the Patriots loved their old No. 87, Rob Gronkowski, for a number of reasons; one of which was his dual-threat ability as both an exceptional receiver and a stellar blocker. The hope in drafting Fant, if that’s what the Patriots end up doing, would be that Belichick and the rest of the coaching staff could mold him into a better blocker. If they succeed, there’s a chance he might just be talented enough to be a Day One starter for the Patriots when the season officially kicks off in September.
The first round of the 2019 NFL Draft gets underway tonight at 8 pm EST.