The 2018 NFL Draft is over, the initial and secondary waves of free agency have passed, offseason workouts are underway, training camp will be here before we know it, and the Patriots appear no closer to finding the eventual replacement for their 40-year-old franchise quarterback.
All discussion of replacing Tom Brady, though, must come with the usual caveat: He was the 199th player drafted 18 years ago. The field of potential future Patriots quarterbacks is infinite. Obviously, it didn't come from the second round of the 2014 draft, where they took Jimmy Garoppolo. It very well could come from the seventh round this year, where they took LSU’s Danny Etling.
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But it's risky to believe lightning will strike twice in Foxborough, and it crazy to think Etling is part of the long-term plan. However, as May approaches and a relatively tense offseason continues, the Patriots are still no closer to fixing what’s eventually going to be a problem, no matter how well Brady takes care of himself and no matter hard Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft butt heads about it.
The Patriots went into this draft with an extra first-round pick and an extra second-rounder thanks to, respectively, the Brandin Cooks and Garoppolo deals. They came out of it with eight trades, a record for a franchise that’s made an art out of it. They moved down so much, they made no picks in the third and fourth rounds, going 87 selections between taking anyone.
The pick they got from the 49ers for Garoppolo was eventually traded five times in this draft, and part of the final haul were second- and third-round picks in 2019.
But none of the trades was to move up to get any of the first-tier or even second-tier quarterbacks. Not for a star, not for a sleeper, not for a project. Etling might stretch the definition of even that, despite how highly several observers spoke of his Pro Day at LSU, where he threw to the numerous big-name prospects.
The Patriots instead kept trading down. It signaled that there was nothing up higher in the draft than what they could get further down, in bigger quantities. They clearly included quarterback in those assessments.
"We knew we were going to add a quarterback to our team at some point, so it’s relative to what other options we might have, relative to other positions,’’ Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said after the draft ended Saturday. "There’s no template like, ‘Well we’re going to take one here, we’re going to take one there.’
"You just evaluate the player and, look, we think Danny has some decent traits and some decent qualities to work with, so we’ll put him in our program and see how he does."
Of course, the Patriots are legendary for their resourcefulness with quarterbacks in the Brady-Belichick era. In four years, Etling is as likely to be starting for another team as he is to still be a Patriot, and they’ll be shuffling the pick they got for him to get more picks.
Brady might still be starting for the Patriots then, too. Unless they have figured out by then the identity of his heir apparent. It’s almost May, leading to his 19th season. They don’t seem close to figuring out now.
