Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has a tendency to not go the box-office route in the first round of the NFL draft, whether it's trading down or targeting an overlooked position.
Peter King believes the future Hall of Famer will carry on with this trend Thursday night.
King released his 2022 first-round mock draft Monday morning, three days before the seven-round event kicks off in Las Vegas. Projecting New England's move is a difficult exercise, as the Patriots have several needs to address. But King ultimately settled on Bernhard Raimann, an offensive tackle out of Central Michigan who hasn't followed the standard path to the NFL.
From King's latest Football Morning in America column for NBC Sports:
Raimann is one of the best stories in this draft, by far. Austrian kid who first played football on a club team in Vienna at 14. As a high school exchange student, he played receiver on his Michigan high school team for a year. Back to Austria to finish high school. Bitten by the football bug. Committed to Central Michigan for the 2017 season -- but had to fulfill a six-month Austrian military commitment, so he didn't start working with the team till 2018. Tight end for two years. Then the pandemic. When football practice began again, Raimann was moved to tackle as a 290-pound player, and he started 18 games at left tackle in the last 1.5 seasons.
Big, big upside -- and the Patriots can likely use 2022 as a developmental year if they pick him. Great point by Daniel Jeremiah: "Reminds me of the Sebastian Vollmer pick." The native of Germany played college football at Houston, and was a second-round pick of the Pats in 2009 -- and played on two Super Bowl-winning teams. The Patriots would take a replay of that, as would Mac Jones.
New England currently is more in need of guards than tackles along the offensive line, but Belichick and company might be wary about the long-term future of Isaiah Wynn. It also never hurts to have O-line depth, and the Patriots have a pretty good track record of drafting and developing linemen.
DraftKings Sportsbook as of Monday morning has a +380 price on an offensive lineman being the exact position of the first player selected by New England. Defensive back (+250), linebacker (+300) and defensive lineman/EDGE (+330) all have shorter odds for the Patriots.
