Rich Hill's Patriots Top 100 Draft Big Board

I gave you my top 50 at the end of the NFL Season. I've been able to watch more players and polish my reviews as many important days, such as the combine and pro days, have passed. There have been specialized bowl games for top talent and there have been plenty of games analyzed and cut up for our viewing pleasure.

If you don't already know, Draft Breakdown is the premier website for game tapes of most prospects in the upcoming draft. Bookmark it. Favorite it. Share it with your friends. It's a gold mine.

While this can, and most certainly will, be subject to change, it lays out the game plan for the Patriots draft approach. Based upon positional strength in the draft, as well as the current value of positions in the NFL, we can point out to where the Patriots should be able to take advantage of prospects.

But before we jump in, we need to point out that Bill Belichick hasn't traded into the top 20 when his pick is at the bottom of the draft. It's too expensive for his taste and in order to move up ten spaces, he would have to give up multiple mid round picks. That's the last thing he wants to give up, especially in such a rich draft as this one.

So as a result, I've removed what are generally considered the top 15 prospects. They're out of the Patriots price range and it's extremely unlikely that they'll be available when the Patriots are on the clock- or even be available once the Patriots are able to afford trading up.

Here's a list of the excluded prospects:

DE Jadeveon Clowney

DT Aaron Donald

OLB Khalil Mack, Anthony Barr

CB Justin Gilbert

OT Greg Robinson, Jake Matthews, Taylor Lewan, Zack Martin

QB Blake Bortles, Johnny Manziel, Teddy Bridgewater

WR Sammy Watkins, Mike Evans

TE Eric Ebron

Of these players, CB Gilbert, TE Ebron, and OT Lewan have the greatest chance of falling into range, but most should be off the table.

Take note that the Patriots operate with an extremely stripped draft board. They'll head into the draft with under 100 players in min and try to get them; if they're unavailable, the Patriots will try to trade. So this top 100 represents a board with more names than the Patriots will have on their real board.

So let the debate begin. Thanks to CBS for the formatting. *'d players are underclassmen. Here are my rankings:

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Just missing the cut:

DT Caraun Reid, Deandre Coleman, Jay Bromley

LB Shayne Skov, Jordan Tripp, Prince Shembo, Kevin Pierre-Louis, Tyler Starr, Boseko Lokombo

CB Dayonne Nunley

QB Tom Savage, David Fales, Jeff Mathews

IL Tyler Larsen

TE Gator Hoskins, Xavier Grimble, Trey Burton, Marcel Jensen, Chris Coyle

WR Devin Street

These players are considered draftable and are potential targets in the "preferred free agent" rounds of 6 and 7.

What do you think?