New England Patriots: 5 Biggest needs to address in 2020 NFL Draft

With the 2020 NFL Draft quickly approaching, here are five biggest needs for the New England Patriots to address in the draft.

In an offseason of transition for the New England Patriots, shifting from one era to the next, the 2020 NFL Draft will be a key component to the future of the Patriots. The incoming players will offer New England to inject some much-needed youth into a veteran-filled team and could allow it to start to aim more towards the future moving forward.

The offseason has been a busy one for the Patriots, to say the least, with many notable players leaving the team via free agency to take their talents elsewhere for the 2020 campaign. Most notably, legendary quarterback Tom Brady surprised the NFL by leaving New England to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during free agency.

The good news for the Patriots is that they have a decent amount of selections for the 2020 Draft on April 23-25, but most of those selections are currently slated to take place in Day 3 of the draft and in the final few rounds. That is unless New England makes some moves and packages a few of those draft picks to try and move up in the draft order and to a higher round to snag a player or two.

On Day 1 of the draft, New England will have one pick in the opening round. On Day 2, which will feature rounds two and three, the Patriots are looking like they will have three selections. And on the third and final day of the draft, consisting of rounds 4-7, New England has a total of eight selections.

The Patriots currently contain a total of 12 draft picks this year, including one first-round pick, three third-round picks, one selection in each of the fourth and fifth rounds and a total of six picks in rounds six and seven.

Here is a full breakdown of New England’s selections leading up to the draft: Round 1 (No. 23), Round 3 (No. 87), Round 3 (No. 98), Round 3 (No. 100), Round 4 (No. 125), Round 5 (No. 172), Round 6 (No. 195), Round 6 (No. 204), Round 6 (No. 212), Round 6 (No. 213), Round 7 (No. 230), Round 7 (No. 241).

With the Patriots likely eying some players that could come in and provide some depth to their roster right out of the gate in a few different areas on each side of the ball, it wouldn’t be surprising at all to see them try and package some of those later-round picks together to move up to a higher round.

With draft week finally here, let’s take a look at five areas of need for New England as it heads into the draft with a dozen picks.