Eliot Wolf's 2024 draft, his first in charge, is over. The full three days are in the bank. This effort will critique the three-day event and assign an overall grade after grading each day individually. Along with free agency, not particularly effective this offseason as conducted by Wolf in the view here, the draft will define the 2024 offseason.
So how did Eliot Wolf continue his preparations for 2024 in this draft?
We begin by evaluating the all-important Day One. In this case, the Pats had their highest pick since 1993, with the third overall. Did they nail this pick or not? Let's evaluate.
Patriots select Drake Maye with the third pick overall
No team will win much of anything without a top quarterback. Eliot Wolf recognized that fact and acted accordingly. He drafted a consensus top-three quarterback at pick No. 3 after Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels were taken. Wolf got it right and selected Quarterback Drake Maye from North Carolina.
With this pick, the Patriots stepped into the 2020s NFL with a young, big, dual-threat quarterback ready to lead the charge. Maye stands over 6'4" tall and weighs 223 pounds. He completed 63.3% of his passes for 3,608 and 24 touchdowns with nine interceptions. Admittedly, this was a step down from his 2022 campaign, when he was even better.
Maye can also run to make something out of nothing. Unlike the lead-footed quarterbacks of the past three years, he's not a liability on the run. In 2023, Maye gained 469 yards and scored another nine TDs on the ground. He may not be in Jayden Daniels' league, but who, other than Lamar Jackson, is?
While Maye may need some coaching up at the NFL level, his selection was spot on. He was
a consensus top-three QB in this draft, as adjudged by almost any and every evaluator. On a practical level, Wolf's boss, Robert Kraft, wanted a young quarterback to build around. You got him a top one. That was top-notch drafting by Mr. Wolf.
Grade: A+
Rounds two and three, did the Patriots continue a great draft?
Day Two came along,, and the Patriots had two high picks, No. 34 and 68, in each of the second and third rounds. Wolf made a slight trade-down and swapped the Pats' 34th pick in the second and their fifth-round pick, No. 123, to the Chargers for their 37th pick and their 110th fourth-round pick. It's a decent return, giving the Patriots two fourth-rounders.
With that 37th pick, they took a receiver, Ja'Lynn Polk, from Washington. At 6'1" tall and 203 pounds, Polk is a solid receiver who's more of a Z or flanker-type than an X, the true No. One outside receiver the Patriots needed. Additionally, Polk is no burner, having run a pedestrian 4.51 forty-yard dash at the Combine.
Speculation in some quarters was that the pick was a reach and many grades were mediocre. It was a reach. Polk had benefitted from having two other top receivers on hand at Washington, Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, leaving more space for him to operate. He won't have that in Foxborough, where the wide receiver room is littered with mediocre Z receivers.
The opportunity cost of this pick was also heavy. New England doesn't have an offensive left tackle. Two good ones, Kingsley Suamataia of BYU and Patrick Paul, and an aircraft-carrier-size player from Houston were available later in the round. The pick should have been the left tackle.
Grade: C+
Wolf reached again for a tackle/guard from Penn State with pick No. 68 in the third round taking Caedan Wallace. Wallace was another reach with several draft sites seeing the payer as a fourth, fifth, sixth, or even seventh-round pick.
If this pattern sounds familiar, Belichick's first two picks in 2022, guard Cole Strange and wide receiver Tyquan Thornton, were huge reaches. Strange is an average guard when he does play. Thornton hasn't done much of anything.
Wallace played right tackle exclusively for the Nittany Lions. Any illusions that Wallace may miraculously morph into a left tackle in the pre-season, as suggested by Mr. Wolf, don't warrant serious consideration. Belichick considered a similar "strategy" last year when he expended a fourth-round pick on guard (tackle?), Sidy Sow. It flopped.
Unlike Belichick, at least Wolf drafted some offensive players early, generally at positions of need. Unfortunately, he didn't pick the right players at the right time. It was a great start on Day One but a poor follow-up on Day Two.
Grade: C-
Patriots continue adding more offensive players in the mid-rounds
The Pats had five picks to try to bail out from that Day Two debacle, including two important ones in the fourth round. With pick No. 103 in that round, the Patriots selected a guard, Layden Robinson from Texas A&M. Wolf continued the head-scratching drafting as he loaded on positions that are relatively well-stocked, at least with bodies, if not talent.
Robinson is an odd selection. A guard is just a guard, an NFL commodity. The team's greater needs lie elsewhere at left tackle, tight end, and later, even an X wide receiver. This pick now connotes a trend and not a good one. This draft should have centered on top quality at positions of need only.
Grade: C+
With their second pick at No. 110 in the fourth round, the Patriots selected another wide receiver, Javon Baker, from UCF (Central Florida). Baker is another solid, good-sized at 6'1" tall and 202 pounds, slower receiver, having run a 4.54 forty-yard dash.
Those stats are eerily similar to Ja'Lynn Polk's, taken in the second round.
When you still desperately need an offensive left tackle and a young tight end to complement older veterans on the roster, another wide receiver (unless they consider Baker an X receiver) should have been lower on the list of priorities.
Baker has nice potential and is highly regarded by some, and adding another receiver in this draft is fine. But in the fourth round, with no left tackle around, the Patriots' priority should have been there. The grade in round four is C+.
Grade: C+
Patriots finish the draft with one defensive player and more help on offense
In round six, the Patriots made two late picks. With the 180th pick, they selected cornerback, Marcellas Dial, a 6'0" tall, 190 pound cornerback Marcellas Dial, a 6'0" tall, 190-poundner from South Carolina who ran a 4.46 forty at the Combine.
nfl.com says this about the likely depth or practice squad cornerback, "Man-cover cornerback with adequate size and toughness and above-average speed..."
Grade: B
Later with pick No. 193 in the sixth round acquired from Jacksonville, the Pats selected popular quarterback, Joe Milton III from Tennessee. The 6'5' tall, 235-pound Vol is the return from the Mac Jones trade. He'll fight for a backup role to Drake Maye.
Grade: B
The Pats' last pick finally delivered a tight end, Jaheim Bell, from Florida State. This is a nice pick. Bell is smaller at 6'2" tall and 241 pounds, an H-back tight end with the versatility to run the ball.
He caught 39 passes for 501 yards and three TDs for the Seminoles. Having neglected the position earlier, at least the Pats finally brought in a decent tight end at the end of the draft.
Grade: B
Final Grade
The 2024 Patriots draft is over. What began stron with quarterback Drake Maye slid downhill fast with reaches and misplaced priorities in the second and third rounds abounding. The most glaring errors were not drafting a left tackle or a young tight end until their very last pick.
On the plus side, Eliot Wolf went heavy offense throughout the draft, with seven of his eight total picks on offense. That's a nice break from the past and shows real acumen. Unfortunately, he failed to draft consensus players early on at key positions and neglected to shore up his most glaring position of need after the quarterback, offensive left tackle.
This draft should have been a springboard for a dramatic Patriots' offensive resurgence to challenge the Bills and Dolphins in 2024. It fell short. The overall grade for the 2024 draft is OK, but still an underwhelming B-.
Coupled with a lackluster free agency, the expectation is again a last-place finish for the Patriots in 2024, the only season that matters.