FOXBORO, Mass. — Come hell or high water, the New England Patriots seemed intent on coming out of the 2018 NFL Draft with Florida cornerback Duke Dawson.
After trading back twice in the second round of the draft, the Patriots didn’t want to lose Dawson by holding steady at the 63rd overall pick. So, they packaged their late second-round pick with a fourth-round selection to move up seven spots to ensure they would land Dawson, who took a pre-draft visit to New England this spring.
The Patriots have had their eye on Dawson for years.
“This was a player that had thought about potentially declaring as an underclassmen last year, so we’ve been tracking him or doing work on him for the past two years,” Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said Friday night. “He may not have started, but he’s played a lot of football. He was the third corner or the third safety — you’re talking about (Vernon) Hargreaves, (Teez) Tabor, Quincy Wilson — so, he was in the mix, and he was competitive with that group. This guy’s played a lot of football against a lot of good people in a good program. So, he may not have on paper started X amount of games, but he’s played a lot of football. And you can see that on a weekly basis.”
Caserio hammered home the point that Dawson’s versatility attracted the Patriots.
“Has experience essentially playing three positions,” Caserio said. “He’s played safety, he’s played corner, he’s played slot corner. So, pretty versatile player, played in the kicking game a little bit. So, has a lot of experience doing multiple things. …
“What’s the best position? We’ll see. Devin (McCourty) played corner his first year, he went to the Pro Bowl as a corner. Now, he’s been one of our most dependable players as a free safety for however many years he’s been here. How’s that going to go? I’d say it’s not like the offensive line but similar in trying to get as many of our best people out there, and we’ll allocate them accordingly, positionally. Maybe it’s package-based, maybe it’s week-to-week based on who we’re playing.”
Dawson was fairly dominant as a senior at Florida no matter where he was playing. He let up 21 catches on 48 targets for 223 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions for a 37.1 passer rating against. He projects as a potential slot cornerback in the NFL, but Caserio highlighted that Dawson also can play outside or at safety.
