On Tuesday, the NFL announced the compensatory selections awarded in this year’s draft and the New England Patriots received the maximum of four. Adding to their already existing capital, the team will therefore head into draft season with 12 selections at its disposal — second most in the league behind only the Miami Dolphins’ 14. Of those 12 picks, however, only two have originally been assigned to the organization.
The other 10 selections were acquired either through the compensatory process or via trade. Let’s therefore take a closer look at where New England’s 12 picks are coming from:
Round 1 (No. 23): New England’s original selection.
Round 3 (No. 87): New England’s original selection.
Round 3 (No. 98): Compensatory selection for the free agency loss of defensive end Trey Flowers to the Detroit Lions.
Round 3 (No. 100): Compensatory selection for the free agency loss of offensive tackle Trent Brown to the then-Oakland Raiders.
Round 4 (No. 125): Via trade from the Chicago Bears. New England acquired this pick as well as 2019 third- and fifth-round selections from Chicago in exchange for 2019 third- and sixth-rounders.
Round 6 (No. 195): Via trade from the Denver Broncos. New England acquired this pick when it sent cornerback Duke Dawson and a 2020 seventh-round selection to Denver in 2019.
Round 6 (No. 204): Via trade from the Houston Texans. New England acquired this pick when it sent cornerback Keion Crossen to Houston in 2019.
Round 6 (No. 212): Compensatory selection for the free agency loss of defensive tackle Malcom Brown to the New Orleans Saints.
Round 6 (No. 213): Compensatory selection for the free agency loss of wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson to the Chicago Bears.
Round 7 (No. 230): Via trade from the Atlanta Falcons. New England acquired this pick when it sent safety Jordan Richards to Atlanta in 2018.
Round 7 (No. 235): Via trade from the Philadelphia Eagles. New England acquired this pick together with defensive lineman Michael Bennett in exchange for a 2020 fifth-round selection.
Round 7 (No. 241): Via trade from the Seattle Seahawks. New England acquired this pick when it sent tight end Jacob Hollister to Seattle in 2019.
If you add the selections up and assign the respective values of colleague Rich Hill’s draft chart, you can see that the Patriots’ draft capital is worth a total of 404.37 points — slightly higher than our projection from Wednesday morning, but still only the 23rd most valuable in the NFL. While New England does have a high volume of picks, the team therefore needs to make the most out of it in order to come away with a successful rookie pool.
One reason for the team’s comparatively limited draft picks value is the absence of a selection in the second round. The Patriots, of course, sent that pick — the 55th overall — to the Atlanta Falcons ahead of the 2019 trade deadline to bring wide receiver Mohamed Sanu on board. The pick would have been worth 100.88 points, according to Rich’s calculations and is one of six that New England opted to trade away so far:
Round 2 (No. 55): Via trade to the Atlanta Falcons. As noted above, New England sent this pick to Atlanta in 2019 to acquire wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.
Round 4 (No. 129): Via trade to the Baltimore Ravens. New England sent this pick to Baltimore to acquire offensive lineman Jermaine Eluemunor and a 2020 sixth-round selection that has since been traded away again.
Round 5 (No. 168): Via trade to the Philadelphia Eagles. New England sent this pick to Philadelphia to acquire defensive lineman Michael Bennett and the aforementioned 2020 seventh-rounder.
Round 6 (No. 202): Via trade to the Arizona Cardinals. New England sent this pick to Arizona to acquire offensive tackle Korey Cunningham.
Round 6 (No. 207): Via trade to the Buffalo Bills. New England sent this pick to Buffalo to acquire offensive tackle Russell Bodine. The selection was originally part of the trade that brought Jermaine Eluemunor to the Patriots.
Round 7 (No. 237): Via trade to the Denver Broncos. New England sent this pick and cornerback Duke Dawson to Denver to acquire the aforementioned 2020 sixth-round selection.