Patriots

Although there was some speculation before the draft that the Patriots might trade the team's 2024 first-round pick, New England ultimately decided to maintain the third spot and choose quarterback Drake Maye.

While this logical conclusion seems inevitable in hindsight—the Patriots' recent head coach, Jerod Mayo, and team manager Eliot Wolf clearly made it some extent to construct the strategy around a rookie quarterback—it was not a whole foregone conclusion.

According to an excerpt from a recent episode of the HBO series “Hard blowsprogram that has been following the Giants' offseason, New England has at least discussed the possibility of trading away the team's top pick.

The clip “Hard Knocks” shows Giants general manager Joe Schoen calling Wolf to inquire about New England’s plans.

“What's going on?” Schoen began. “Are you still listening or are you making a decision?”

Wolf said the Patriots were “pretty comfortable” with keeping the team's pick and choosing a quarterback.

“But again, if you offer us like [picks] 1, 2, 3 this year, 1, 2 next [year]“I mean, I’m exaggerating,” Wolf remarked.

“This has to be something crazy?” Schoen interpreted, sensing that the Patriots wouldn’t surrender the pick and not using a substantial offer.

Ultimately, Schoen concluded that Wolf and New England wouldn’t part with the pick without having “multiple” picks in 2024 and 2025.

Wolf never finally agreed to the parameters and explained that the team was “in a situation where we are only [will] probably sit down and pick a quarterback, ?”

While the behind-the-scenes look provided an interesting hypothesis to ponder, draft night passed with none high-profile trades from the Patriots or Giants. New York opted to persist with the sixth pick, with Schoen taking wide receiver Malik Nabers from LSU.