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Scott Pioli explained what he thinks the Patriots will do in the 2023 NFL Draft
"The whole idea of 'turning heads,' honestly, Bill doesn't care about that."
The Bruins lost in overtime to the Panthers 4-3 in Game 5 of the first-round playoff series on Wednesday night. Boston still leads the series 3-2 ahead of Friday’s Game 6 in Florida (puck drops at 7:30 p.m.)
The Red Sox dropped the series finale against the Orioles 6-2. Thursday will be a day off for the team before returning to Fenway Park to begin a three-game series against the Guardians.
Tonight 8:30 p.m., the Celtics face the Heat in Game 6 of their own first-round playoff series. Just like the Bruins, the Celtics hold a 3-2 series edge.
Also happening tonight, the 2023 NFL Draft gets underway at Union Station in Kansas City, with teams picking their way through the first round. The Patriots enter the draft holding the 14th overall pick.
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Scott Pioli on how the Patriots might draft: Predicting exactly what Bill Belichick will do in the NFL draft can be a foolish venture. A more realistic idea is to simply predict what his general plan might be.
And as former Patriots executive Scott Pioli outlined during a Wednesday appearance on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” Belichick and the New England front office inevitably have a plan already outlined.
Pioli quickly dispelled the notion that the Patriots might do something in order to specifically make a splash.
“The whole idea of ‘turning heads,’ honestly, Bill doesn’t care about that,” he explained.
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Citing the 2022 draft, Pioli elaborated on Belichick’s approach.
“Even Cole Strange. Everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ but here’s the thing: As we mentioned earlier, what Bill does is very calculated,” said Pioli. “He knows exactly what he’s going to do. Cole Strange was a surprise to a lot of people. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone in that building, certainly not to Bill. They knew exactly where they were going.”
Projections for who the Patriots might select in the first round are varied. Some even believe that Belichick could draft Texas running back Bijan Robinson with the 14th pick.
“Bill loves the running back position,” Pioli offered when asked about Robinson. “There’s great value in it, but I just wonder if that would be high to take one. So to me — I don’t know where they’re going to head — but I’ll tell you what, Bill knows where they’re heading.”
Pioli went on to note that the Patriots could end up trading back in the first round to stockpile more picks, continuing a familiar Belichick strategy.
“Maybe the way that they’ll be turning heads is by trading back a little bit,” he said. “Looking at this draft, there are only 16, 17, 18 guys that people literally believe are first-round pick value.
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“I could see Bill dropping back,” Pioli added. “‘Hey, we’re going to get a decent player in the 20s, but maybe I can get more for next year.'”
As a prediction, it fits what Pioli remembers about working with his former boss.
“We used to love to gather [draft] capital,” said Pioli, who was with New England from 2000-through-2009. “We were smart enough to know that we were going to be wrong, and we were going to be wrong a lot. The more picks you have, the more chances you have of being right.
“Don’t worry about what the draft grade’s going to be,” he concluded. “Get as many players in that building that you can try to develop.”
Trivia: If the Patriots took Bijan Robinson in the first round, he would be the team’s first University of Texas first-round pick since who?
(Answer at the bottom).
Hint: 2015.
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“Do you view this season as a failure?”: After the Bucks were upset by the underdog Heat in the first round, Giannis Antetokounmpo gave a thoughtful response to a reporter’s question, touching on larger themes in sports.
On this day: In 2008, the Patriots selected Matthew Slater in the fifth round of the NFL Draft. Slater, who has made 10 Pro Bowls in his career (helping New England win three Super Bowls in the process) will unquestionably stand as one of the best draft picks of the Belichick era.
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Having already picked linebacker Jerod Mayo on day one of the draft, the Patriots also picked future Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell in the third round (he was at that point a quarterback).
Daily highlight: Jimmy Butler’s off-balance clutch basket sent the Bucks-Heat game into overtime, where Miami eventually won and sent No. 1 seeded Milwaukee crashing out of the playoffs.
Trivia answer: Malcom Brown
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