Cole Strange wasn’t the first-round pick everyone, well anyone, was expecting.
The offensive lineman out of Chattanooga was projected to go in the third or fourth round and Bill Belichick decided to grab him in the first. The New England Patriots had players like Nakobe Dean, Andrew Booth Jr., Kyler Gordon, Christian Harris, John Metchie and many more available.
Trading Shaq Mason and letting Ted Karras walk this offseason also led to more questions surrounding the Patriots’ decision on Day 1 of the draft. But, Strange is here and he’s ready to make a contribution in the trenches.
In his introductory press conference, he discussed his playing style and it fits in perfectly with the Patriots.
“My playing style is aggressive and relentless,” Strange said, transcribed by NESN. “… I have always wanted to play my own game and make it to where people are saying ‘I’d love to play like Cole Strange.’ I have never really looked at anyone else and wanted to emulate what they were doing.
“I wanted to create my own way of playing which is aggressive and trying to play nasty, which is the way I think the game of football is supposed to be played.”
Belichick discussed the selection of Cole and had similar feedback.
“He’s long, he’s athletic. He’s physically tough. He’s an aggressive player,” Belichick said. “I think he has a good combination of skills, run and pass, movement, length, strength, again, all of which will hopefully get better. Like they will with any player coming from college to the National Football League. But I think he has a good skill set, and he’s a smart player that makes a lot of good decisions on the interior line there, timing, when to come off, and combo blocks, things like that.”
The Patriots made a puzzling selection with Kyle Dugger at the beginning of the second round two years ago and it paid off. Time will tell if selecting Strange in the first round will be worth it.
