Mock Madness: Patriots with trades shock the NFL with an electric 7-round mock draft

Final Comments and grade of this first, Eliot Wolf draft (think you're going to like it!)

The 2024 draft's in the books. With all rounds completed, let's take stock of what first-year general-manager-in-training Eliot Wolf accomplished in this mock. At first glance, it looks pretty darn good, very darn good actually. Wolf may have hit the ball right over the Green Monster at Fenway Park and had it land on the Mass Pike heading west.

He's started things off by wasting no time in getting his No. One objective in the bank, the quarterback for the next generation of Patriots' success, Jayden Daniels. It all starts there and Wolf aced his first test and scored big with Daniels. he can do all that's required in the 2020s National Football League. Draft grade already, an A+.

Wolf followed with a deft trade down with the Chargers of the Pats' second-round pick at 34 and their 229th picks (seventh round). He picked up LA's pick No. 37 in the second round and an additional fourth-round pick to boot. For a team that needs everything on offense, another fourth-rounder helps.

At pick No. 37, Wolf plugged another huge hole with a big offensive tackle, BYU's Kingsley Suamataia. He'll possibly move into the starting left tackle slot immediately or maybe start on the right. Wherever it occurs, he'll be a starter. Two picks and the team's two most important needs are filled, a very good start.

Wolf continued maneuvering around the draft board by then trading the teams' pick in the third round, the 68th to the Denver Broncos for their pick No. 81 in the third round, and their pick in the fifth round, pick No. 122. He dropped down some picks and gained an added a pick in a meaningful round. When you're thin everywhere on offense, more picks are better.

With that Denver pick, Wolf shored up another top need and added big Kansas State tight end, Ben Sinnott. The TE room is almost bare and an additional one or two were essential. Wolf moves aggressively to add Sinnott there in the third round. With their own pick, No. 104 in the fourth round, the Pats added another offensive tackle in Roger Rosengarten from Washington. He's projected as a right tackle and fits in nicely with Suamataia who'll likely man the left at some point.

With their second fourth-rounder, acquired from the Chargers, the Pats selected wide receiver Ricky Pearsall from Florida. Again, assuming that a top free agency objective will be a No. One wideout, Pearsall is a nice complimentary addition. And Wolf goes right back to the WR well in the fifth with the pick acquired from Denver, No. 122 and selects Brenden Rice, a big wide receiver from USC. Agian, more reinforcements to a needy offense.

The Pats then wraps up the draft by smartly taking another tight end with the team's own fifth-round pick, it's Dallin Holker from Colorado State. And finally, with the Pats' sixth-rounder, they add to another offensive room that needs help, the running backs, and draft Henry Holani from Boise State.

That's it, the eight players selected by the Patriots in the 2024 draft. If it seems like they were all on offense, it's not an illusion, they were. This is a draft for need, a variation on Wolf's father Ron's suggestion that he just take the best player available. That's fine if your team is well-balanced. The Patriots aren't, so Eliot Wolf has gone for the best players available, albeit in the offensive positions of greatest need. It's exactly what he should have done.

He added a top quarterback, two solid offensive tackles, two wide receivers, two tight ends, and a running back to boot. That's how you address an offense that was deficient in all of those areas in 2023. Will those picks work out? Some of them usually don't. But it's how he's conducted the draft that gives him the best chance of succeeding big-time. That's all you can ask for, and he's delivered.

Elitot Wolf did what he had to do. He drafted consensus players up and down the board. He drafted on an offense that needed the help most. And he got a player of tremendous potential at the most important position on the field with his top pick, quarterback Jayden Daniels. Here, it all adds up to one thing, a draft Grade of A+++ for Eliot Wolf and the Patriots. Finally.

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