Patriots insider reveals plan for No. 3 pick in 2024 NFL Draft

Will they, or won't they? That has been the biggest question regarding the Patriots' plans for their first-round pick.

Most have assumed they will keep their selection, given its coveted position and their desperate need for a quarterback. Others have floated the idea of them trading down, with even Eliot Wolf stating it as a possibility late last week.

Now that the 2024 NFL Draft is just three days away, the debate is heating up, with many analysts and fans deciding what the team's best course of action should be.

It will continue to be the hottest topic until the Patriots are on the clock on Thursday, but insider Mike Reiss provided some clarity on what the staff is thinking behind the scenes.

Patriots plans are what most believe they will be; stick with the No. 3 pick and draft a quarterback

With Mac Jones traded to the Jaguars in free agency, Bailey Zappe clearly not being the quarterback of the future for the team, and Jacoby Brissett signed to presumably be a bridge quarterback, it makes sense to hear Reiss reveal that the current plan is to select a quarterback in the first round.

"The most likely scenario, per sources, remains that the Patriots will stay put at No. 3 and select LSU's Jayden Daniels, North Carolina's Drake Maye or Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.

Simply put, as one Patriots source said late last week, "you can't win without a quarterback." Mayo and some top decision-makers have privately acknowledged that their legacies will be tied to whatever they decide at quarterback."

Although it seems like the plan is set, the door is said to still be cracked for a potential trade down, but under one condition: Mayo and Co. will only consider it if they receive an unbelievably over-the-top, can-not-wrong trade offer from another quarterback-needy team.

"So now, barring an unexpected blockbuster trade offer, according to sources, the Patriots will move forward with a plan that has been months in the works -- getting a quarterback."

Because of the importance being put behind the decision to take a quarterback with the pick coupled with the absolute haul they'd want in return to trade out, it seems unlikely the Patriots will do anything but take a quarterback.

It's what Robert Kraft has proclaimed he wants from the first-round selection and if sources are correct about Mayo and Wolf stressing the importance of their legacies behind the pick, it won't make sense for them to pass on taking a quarterback this year for nearly any reason.

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