Hate the Cole Strange pick or love it, the Patriots made it.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the first-round pick out of Tennessee-Chatanooga will be playing in Foxborough very soon and could well be New England’s starting left guard when the team’s season opens on September 11.
Interestingly, most of the talk following Strange’s surprising selection at No. 29 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft has been along the lines of “like the player, hate the pick.”
But given how much we’ve heard about how much people dislike taking Strange — or any offensive guard — in the first round when there were other, more important positions of need to be addressed, why not discuss why the Patriots were so enamored with him in the first place?