The New England Patriots pulled off their best draft in close to a decade in 2021.
Good. Great. Grand. Wonderful. Now go do it again.
That's the challenge facing Bill Belichick's club this week as the 2022 NFL Draft kicks off Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Last year's class of Patriots rookies, headlined by first-round quarterback Mac Jones, second-round defensive tackle Christian Barmore and fourth-round running back Rhamondre Stevenson, was a significant step in the correct direction after a years-long stretch of subpar drafting. But as team owner Robert Kraft has now stressed in consecutive offseasons, the only viable way to build a long-term contender is by consistently hitting on your picks -- not just in one draft, but year after year after year.
"I'm happy that I think we had a great draft last year," Kraft told reporters last month at the NFL Annual Meeting. "That made up for what happened the previous four years or so, and I look forward to hopefully having a great draft this year. That's the only way you can build your team for the long term and consistently that you have a chance of winning is having a good draft."
Though every championship-winning Patriots team has featured a handful of impact veterans added via trades or free agency, the cores of those rosters were homegrown.
You had Richard Seymour, Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Ty Law, Kevin Faulk, Matt Light, Deion Branch, Ted Johnson, Lawyer Milloy, Vince Wilfork, Ty Warren, Jarvis Green, Asante Samuel and Adam Vinatieri in the early dynasty years. From 2014 to 2018, it was players like Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Devin McCourty, Dont'a Hightower, Patrick Chung, James White, Nate Solder, Shaq Mason, Joe Thuney, Trey Flowers, Matthew Slater and Stephen Gostkowski, with Tom Brady serving as the obvious link between the two connected eras.
Of the nine Belichick-era players who have been inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, only Rodney Harrison was not drafted by New England.
The Patriots' recent drafts simply had not produced many reliable contributors, which sapped their roster of young, building-block talent and necessitated an unprecedented offseason spending binge in 2021.
From 2016 to 2020, New England selected a total of 19 players in Rounds 1 through 3, and just three of them could be classified as definitive hits: Thuney (third round, 2016), Damien Harris (third round, 2019) and Kyle Dugger (second round, 2020).
Isaiah Wynn (first round, 2018) has been New England's top left tackle for the last three seasons, but he's struggled to stay healthy and was highly inconsistent in 2021. Sony Michel (first round, 2018) played a key role on a Super Bowl winner but was traded for a sixth-round pick before the end of his rookie contract. The jury's still out on Josh Uche (second round, 2020), who's shown only potential thus far.
Those drafts featured a few Day 3 finds -- Ted Karras, Deatrich Wise, Ja'Whaun Bentley, Jake Bailey, Mike Onwenu -- but an alarming number of early-round busts: Cyrus Jones in 2016; Derek Rivers and Antonio Garcia in 2017; Duke Dawson in 2018; N'Keal Harry, Joejuan Williams and Yodny Cajuste in 2019; Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene in 2020.
Last year brought a return to draft-night normalcy. After overhauling their prospect-evaluation process to increase collaboration between Belichick and his top lieutenants -- including Matt Groh, who's now the team's director of player personnel -- the Patriots seemingly nailed at least three of their top four picks. They also grabbed a pair of intriguing prospects in edge rusher Ronnie Perkins (third round) and linebacker Cameron McGrone (fifth round), who took de facto rookie redshirts but should compete for roles this summer.
Even if Perkins and McGrone don't pan out, Jones, Barmore and Stevenson look like players New England can build around. Now, with a current roster that's arguably worse than the one that was blasted out of the NFL playoffs three months ago, Belichick and Co. need to find more of those.
The Patriots enter this year's draft with clear needs at cornerback, linebacker and left guard and could use improvements at offensive tackle, edge rusher, wide receiver and defensive tackle, as well. They mostly focused on budget pickups in free agency, lacking the resources to be nearly as active as they were a year ago, and thus will need to rely on either rookies or recent draftees to fill some of those holes.
Kraft said he fully expects the Patriots to contend this season after enduring three straight years without a playoff win. For that to happen, another strong draft is a necessity.
