FOXBORO, Mass. — It might take a team of scientists and mathematicians to decipher who exactly the New England Patriots will wind up receiving in the Jimmy Garoppolo trade.
The Patriots, of course, dealt Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers last fall, with the Niners sending back the 43rd overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. New England was scheduled to make that selection Friday night, but rather than doing so, they opted to trade it to the Detroit Lions, kicking off a string of three rapid-fire Patriots trades that saw them move down, down and back up in the second round.
Trade 1: Patriots and Lions
Lions receive: No. 43 overall pick
Patriots receive: No. 51 and No. 117
Trade 2: Patriots and Chicago Bears
Bears receive: No. 51
Patriots receive: No. 105 and a 2019Â second-round pick
Trade 3: Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buccaneers receive: No. 63 and No. 117
Patriots receive: No. 56, which they used to select Florida cornerback Duke Dawson
So, in essence, the Patriots traded Garoppolo and a 2018 second-round pick (No. 63) for Dawson, a 2018 fourth-round pick (No. 105) and a 2019Â second-round pick, either of which New England still could flip.
Whew.
After that flurry of deals, Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio announced the Patriots likely were done drafting and trading for the night. They would not make any additional selections in the second or third rounds.
As the tail end of Round 2 played on the media workroom televisions inside Gillette Stadium, Caserio explained why the team chose to trade down.
“I would say it’s a combination of things,” he said. “There was quite a bit of action on the pick, so we looked at everything and thought, all right, it seems to make some sense if we move back a few spots. Maybe we get the same player or the same group of players. You have a list of players that you feel comfortable with taking at some point, so you just try to look at everything — just try to look at the whole picture and try to have some idea.
“But that was a pick that was, for whatever reason, in demand. So we listened, and we make the decision that we did, and we eventually ended up picking there at the bottom of the round.”
The Patriots surprisingly stood pat on Day 1 of the draft, selecting Georgia offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn with the 23rd overall pick Thursday night and Wynn’s college teammate, running back Sony Michel, at No. 31. It was just the third time in the Bill Belichick era that the Patriots had taken two players in the first round.
Belichick, Caserio and Co. did swing a trade early Friday afternoon, sending a third-round pick (No. 95) to the San Francisco 49ers for offensive tackle Trent Brown and a fifth-rounder (No. 143).
