Timing is everything in life, and for the New England Patriots, they could end up owning the No. 1 pick in an NFL Draft that is considered weaker than recent years.
The Patriots are one of seven teams tied at the bottom of the standings with a 2-7 record, but because they have the worst strength of schedule of those teams, they sit in the No. 1 pick spot entering Sunday's Week 10 game against the Chicago Bears.
There's always plenty of hype going into every NFL Draft, regardless of whether the class is viewed as super strong or fairly weak. Unfortunately for the Patriots, the 2025 class is not considered to be elite, and the lack of high-end quarterback prospects is a major reason why.
There's no can't-miss QB prospect such as Andrew Luck, Trevor Lawrence or Caleb Williams in college football right now. There's still a good chunk of the season left, so it wouldn't be shocking if a couple quarterbacks take a huge leap up the rankings, but right now there's not a consensus No. 1 pick.
Even last year, it was obvious that quarterbacks would be selected with the first three picks, and that's what ended up happening when Caleb Williams (No. 1 to Bears), Jayden Daniels (No. 2 to Commanders) and Drake Maye (No. 3 to Patriots) were the first three players off the board. There's no guarantee that a similar scenario will unfold in 2025.
With that said, is it a bad year to have the No. 1 pick?
The Athletic's draft guru, Dane Brugler, joined Phil Perry on a new episode of NBC Sports Boston's Next Pats Podcast to discuss that topic and much more.
NFL
"It's never a bad thing to have the No. 1 overall pick in a draft because there's always gonna be good players to choose from," Brugler said. "But relatively speaking, I think you could say that.
"Because we saw two years ago the haul the Bears got for the Panthers to go up and take Bryce Young. There's just not gonna be those types of trade offers in this draft. I mean, there always could be, you never know. If a team is desperate enough, and there's directions from ownership on down saying, hey, go get us a quarterback. You never know, we could see something like that, but on the surface, with what we know right now, that's just not how it looks. That's not how NFL teams are talking about these guys, talking about these quarterbacks, talking about this draft."
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"But again, if you enter the draft with the first pick compared to the 15th pick, you're at an advantage compared to the team picking later because you have a chance to take the best player on your board."
The player being projected to go No. 1 overall in most recent mock drafts is Colorado star Travis Hunter. Brugler feels strongly about Hunter's upside.
"In my opinion, the best player in this draft is Travis Hunter from Colorado, the wide receiver/cornerback who plays both sides of the football," Brugler said. "It'll be interesting how that is talked about throughout the process. Every team's gonna look at it a little bit differently. I would love for him to be my starting cornerback, and then you mix in 10, 15, 20 plays per game on offense -- I think that makes the most sense. But I think he is worthy of that No. 1 overall pick.
"Whereas with the quarterback position, you just don't have that. Some teams like Cam Ward from Miami, some teams like Shadeur Sanders from Colorado, but they're not being talked about as, oh yeah, the No. 1 overall pick, pencil it in right now. That's just not how teams see these guys."
Patriots fans should be rooting for the top QB prospects in this draft class to finish the season strong. That kind of scenario would make the 2025 class stronger and, as a result, make the Patriots' first-round pick more valuable if they ever consider trading it.
"I think right now, in early November, Cam Ward from Miami is the favorite to be the first quarterback drafted," Brugler said. "That's not a consensus view, but the majority of teams that I talked to, that is kind of where they lean. Some of those teams don't need a quarterback, and so maybe they're not looking at it with as critical of an eye, but I think that's where the vibe is right now.
"Cam Ward is the favorite. And so if I'm a Patriots fan, I'm rooting for Cam Ward to finish out the season strong, go into the College Football Playoff and play his butt off."
