Drake Maye might be the only homerun of the Patriots' 2024 draft class

The 2024 season is beyond the mid-point and the New England Patriots outlook is dismal at 2-7. The season is slipping away. Good teams are built in the offseason. The Patriots made a mess of the 2024 off-season.

They flopped completely in free agency, and the draft is the subject of a retrospective here. A draft can impact any NFL season if you get it right. Having the right approach and making the "right" picks positionally and not reaching are initial positive indicators.

Personnel head, Eliot Wolf, began the draft nicely by brushing aside ideas of trading the third overall pick and drafting UNC quarterback, Drake Maye. Maye was the right pick, at the right position, at the right time. Wolf aced the pick and was off to a flying start. But after the first pick, the draft unraveled.

Patriots selecting Drake Maye was a foundational step

An NFL team's rise or fall is based on their quarterback. The Patriots needed one. Wolf held firm against misguided media suggestions to trade the pick and took Maye. How'd that work out for him? The answer of course is brilliantly.

Wolf made the right pick, yet, even so, it's no sure thing. Some work out, some don't, especially with high quarterback selections. But based on early returns, Maye is everything they could have hoped for, and more.

Maye's early excellence has justified his lofty draft status. After him, however, Wolf made a gross omission that clouded his draft and helped sink the 2024 season. The egregious error was not selecting an offensive tackle in the second round (or even later) after taking Maye. The Patriots had no bona fide left tackles on the roster.

After Maye, the Patriots muffed the draft

Wolf had two solid left tackles available to him at pick No. 37 in the second round, BYU's Kingsley Suamataia and Houston's Patrick Paul. Either was a plug-and-play starter on the left side. Wolf had signed free agent right tackle Chuks Okorafor and touted him as a possible left tackle. It was a massive blunder. He couldn't play and was gone after two games.

He then whiffed by selecting wide receiver Ja'Lynn Polk from Washington in the second round. He may have been a bit of a reach, but not much. Yet, foregoing a left tackle made the pick a disaster. Additionally, Polk has not measured up. He has a mere 10 catches for 78 yards and a TD in eight games. He's teetering on the brink of being a draft bust.

After Polk, Wolf took an offensive tackle where depth was needed. Unfortunately, he took right tackle Caedan Wallace from Penn State when the need on the left persisted. Like Okorafor, Wolf dreamed he could miraculously transform Wallace from a right tackle to a left. Wallace couldn't play left tackle, either. He's also been injured and played in only four games starting one. It was a wasted premium pick for a team needing a left tackle.

Wolf misplayed his fourth-round pick by drafting a guard, Layden Robinson from Texas A&M. The team was loaded with guards who could be drafted later (witness Ted Karras and Mike Onwenu, both sixth-rounders). Robinson has played in seven games, started six, and been OK. But he was an overdraft.

The rest of the draft has delivered little. Fourth-round pick wide receiver Javon Baker from UCF has not had any real opportunities to be a part of the offense. So far, he's played in just four games and has zero catches, with his most recent playing time being spent on special teams.

Next were sixth-rounders, cornerback Marcellas Dial from South Carolina and QB Joe Milton III from Tennessee. Dial has at least seen the field, playing in all nine games with four tackles and a forced fumble. Milton hasn't played.

Taking QB Milton was befuddling since they had previously signed journeyman QB Jacoby Brissett and then drafted Maye. Wolf then finished by taking a position of need, a tight end, Jaheim Bell, from Florida State, in the seventh round. Bell has one catch for one yard in seven games.

The Patriots hit big with QB Drake Maye in the 2024 draft, a promising beginning. After that, while Eliot Wolf did, to his credit, make picks in positions of need, they have largely flopped. He also completely neglected drafting the second most important position on the team, a left tackle. This omission contributed mightily to the Patriots' quarterbacks being sacked 31 times, tied for second in the NFL. It's a big part of this season's gloomy story.

The Drake Maye pick gets an emphatic A+. After that, the draft's grade is D. Maye's selection and brilliance lift the entire draft, even though he was foolishly kept on the bench for almost five games. The rest of the draft to this point is eminently forgettable.

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