NFL Draft Board ‘Fell Pretty Nicely’ For Patriots, Eliot Wolf

If you know anything about the 2024 NFL Draft, and all drafts for that matter, you’re aware that it’s a crapshoot.

You don’t know who is picking who, which teams are looking to trade or how any of the players are going to turn out, and you have to make every decision under a time constraint.

It’s hard, so it has to feel good when everything falls your way like it did for Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf on Friday.

New England selected Washington wide receiver Ja’Lynn Polk with the No. 37 pick, electing to make a trade with the Los Angeles Rams to slide back a few spots while obtaining a better pick for later in the draft. Penn State offensive lineman Caedan Wallace was the pick at No. 68, and while the Patriots almost entertained trading back, they decided to avoid getting too cute.

“It fell really nicely for us,” Wolf told reporters late Friday night. “Polk was a guy we had targeted; Wallace was a guy we had targeted. We had some exploratory conversations about possibly moving back from No. 68, and then, it was just kind of like, ‘Well, why? This is the guy that we had wanted all along.’ So, sometimes it doesn’t fall for you; it fell pretty nicely for us today.”

You might be thinking, “If Polk was the guy the Patriots had targeted all along, why risk trading back?” Wolf agrees, which is why he didn’t risk making another trade despite having intel to suggest he might be able to.

“We felt like Polk was the player that we were going to pick at No. 34, and we felt based on some of the intel that we had from other teams that we would be able to trade back a little bit and still get him… That’s part of the reason we decided not to move back. It was just kind of like, ‘Well, let’s not chance it. This is the player we had targeted all along anyway. Let’s just pick him.’”

New England got its guys while addressing three major needs along the way. It remains to be seen how things will shake out, but the Patriots’ new regime seems to be off to a solid start.