The New England Patriots haven’t hidden their willingness to listen to trade offers for the No. 3 overall pick of the 2024 NFL draft, but per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, multiple teams, including the Minnesota Vikings, have attempted to move up.
Sitting at No. 3, the Patriots have a ton of leverage in one of the rare drafts where three of the top quarterbacks could easily be considered the No. 1 overall pick.
Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels are expected to be available on the board, and those are two high-end prospects every quarterback-needy team in the NFL would love to have a crack at.
The problem for those teams is the fact that the Patriots desperately need a quarterback as well. So this isn’t a situation of them looking to force a trade before they’re on the clock on Thursday night. The Patriots would be happy to stay put and get their quarterback of the future, unless some outlandish trade offer wows them enough to move down the board.
Schefter wrote:
The Patriots, slated to pick No. 3, also have been fielding calls from teams. It would take a big offer for New England to move off that spot knowing it needs to come out of Round 1 with a quarterback, but the team has listened. And the Vikings, among others, have attempted to move up.
Tom E. Curran claimed he believes it could take “a lot more” than three first-round draft picks to get the Patriots to agree to trade the No. 3 pick. For a team like the Vikings, one has to wonder if they’d need to include All-Pro wide receiver Justin Jefferson in a package to get a deal done.
Of course, they could always snub their noses at paying a king’s ransom and moving forward with Sam Darnold, Nick Mullens or Jaren Hall at quarterback.
The bottom line is the Patriots are in the driver’s seat in these pre-draft negotiations.
