The New England Patriots finished their 2023 season as one of the worst teams in the league, landing the third overall pick in this year's draft and selecting North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.
With a lot of questions about the talent on their roster and the difficulty of their schedule, New England could have another rough year in 2024.
However, no matter how bad it is, Sports Illustrated's Connor Orr predicts that the Patriots won't draft at No. 1 overall in 2025, even if they finish with the worst record in the NFL.
Here's what Orr wrote about New England's first-round pick in his "100 bold predictions for the 2024 NFL season" piece:
"While there is a bit of prediction-making trickery at work here—the Patriots took a QB this year, and so even if they are the worst team in the NFL they would likely trade the No. 1 pick absent a clear, franchise-altering nonquarterback atop the board —I do think that the Patriots will eke out a few games with Jacoby Brissett as a starter before the ball is permanently handed off to Drake Maye."
Honestly, Orr's point makes a lot of sense. New England has a lot of holes, and if they could add more young talent by moving down a few spots, they should explore that opportunity.
Maye would have to be historically bad as a rookie to get replaced by a draft pick a year later. However, it's not completely unheard of. The Arizona Cardinals went 3-10 with rookie Josh Rosen under center in 2018 and they used the first overall pick in 2019 on Kyler Murray.
Despite that example, it's still unlikely that the Patriots would have that quick of a trigger especially after watching the performances of Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe in 2023.
