When all was said and done, the New England Patriots had selected eight players in the 2021 NFL Draft. The initial response to the haul was a positive one, with major needs such as quarterback and defensive tackle getting addressed early and valuable rotational depth added later.
But are those feelings about the Patriots’ haul justified, at least when looking at the pre-draft evaluation of the players in question?
To find that out, we looked at 20 big boards and compared their rankings to how the Patriots actually drafted. Of course, not every player was present on every one of the boards — only the Patiots’ first three selections were, in fact.