According to ESPN's prophet, Adam Schefter, it appears as if the Patriots are making waves as a team that wants to trade up. Keep in mind that the teams the Patriots are associated with in the report are all teams around the second round, so it looks as if the movement will be around the 28th overall pick, not the 17th. There are two plausible option, surrounding potential trades from the 28th draft spot:
1) The Patriots are looking to move up to get ahead of the Baltimore Ravens. The Patriots have done this before (Rob Gronkowski), where they move ahead of teams with similar needs in order to get the player of choice.
2) The Patriots are still in the process of due diligence. They brought in the border-line first round quarterback prospects to see whether teams would be willing to trade up for those players. That's the Patriots checking the product. Now, they're evaluating the possible trade suppliers. If teams ahead of the Patriots are willing to trade down, that's an additional supplier the Patriots will be competing against to trade with a quarterback needy team from the top of the second. Determining which teams are willing to trade helps the Patriots see if the teams are a) looking at any prospect in particular [if they're willing to trade, they might not feel strongly about a prospect]; and b) competing to trade down.
I think option 2 is the more likely scenario, but because the report is from Schefter, I have to give it some weight. Don't be surprised if the Patriots trade up three or four spots from 28 overall (like up to the Seahawks at #25, a team Schefter says is looking to trade down), but also don't be surprised if the Patriots trade down again.