Who should teams be looking out for in the second and third rounds?"The New England Patriots added wide receiver N’Keal Harry in the first round and they have five more picks scheduled for Friday. It would be a shock if the Patriots didn’t make some trades White Chris Hogan Jerseys , but the point is that New England is well positioned to take advantage of all the talent still on the draft board.So without further ado, here are the top players still on the board, based on Arif Hasan’s Consensus Big Board.Top 15 TalentsFlorida OT Jawaan Taylor: Previously a top 10 prospect, Taylor has slipped due to medical red flags about his knees and back.Ole Miss WR D.K. Metcalf: Metcalf is an athletic phenom, but he didn’t produce in college and his route tree is limited. He’s a high-upside selection.First Round TalentsLSU CB Greedy Williams, Washington CB Byron Murphy: Both could have gone in the top 20 as they’re both elite cornerback prospects, but only one cornerback (Deandre Baker to the New York Giants) went in the first round. There are a ton of defensive backs still on the board.Delaware S Nasir Adderley, Florida S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson: Both safeties were potential first round picks, too. Don’t be shocked if any of these four defensive backs are taken by the Patriots in the second round.Oklahoma OL Cody Ford, Kansas State OL Dalton Risner, Texas A&M OL Erik McCoy: All were fringe first round picks, all should come off the board pretty quickly to start the second round.Ole Miss WR A.J. Brown, Iowa State WR Hakeem Butler, South Carolina WR Deebo Samuel: I would have been happy if the Patriots selected any of these players. They are likely to come off the board quickly to start the second round.Alabama TE Irv Smith: Smith is the best tight end on the board and the last of the big three prospects. I wouldn’t expect him to stick around long.Missouri QB Drew Lock: It’s clear that teams weren’t high on quarterbacks in this class. Still, Bill Belichick loves a good SEC player with production, so maybe the Patriots could make a move to add him early on Friday.Second Round ProspectsThere were only three players ranked outside the top 50 that were drafted in the first round: Washington OT Kaleb McGary, Texas Christian DL L.J. Collier, and Alabama State OT Tytus Howard.Temple CB Rock Ya-Sin Chris Hogan Jerseys 2019 , Michigan State CB Justin Layne, Notre Dame CB Julian Love, Penn State CB Amani Oruwariye, Clemson CB Trayvon Mullen, Central Michigan CB Sean Bunting: There are a ton of cornerbacks still on the board...Virginia S Juan Thornhill, Washington S Taylor Rapp, Alabama S Deionte Thompson, Iowa S Amani Hooker: ...and a ton of safeties, too. I would expect the Patriots to get one of these top talents on Friday.Michigan DE Chase Winovich, Florida DE Jachai Polite, Louisiana Tech DE Jaylon Ferguson, Boston College DE Zach Allen, Ohio State DT Dre’Mont Jones, Alabama LB Mack Wilson: There isn’t much depth in the defensive front seven, though. If the Patriots want to add any of these players, they’ll have to do it early.Mississippi State OL Elgton Jenkins, Mississippi OL Greg Little: The offensive line talent is thinning out and only project players will be left pretty quickly. The Patriots would have to move quickly for either of these players.Iowa State RB David Montgomery, Penn State RB Miles Sanders White Eric Rowe Jerseys , Memphis Darrell Henderson, Alabama RB Damien Harris: The Patriots don’t have a need for a running back, but it would be helpful for the sake of the draft board if other teams selected these players early on and pushed other talent down to the Patriots...NC State WR Kelvin Harmon, Ohio State WR Parris Campbell, Stanford WR JJ Arcega-Whiteside: ...the same could be said about these wide receivers. Maybe the Patriots will have started a run at receiver (fingers crossed) and other talent will be available for New England.Texas A&M TE Jace Sternberger: Perhaps Sternberger will be on the Patriots’ radar if Alabama’s Smith is off the board. What would’ve happened if New England had chosen Garoppolo over Brady?" />Skip to main contentclockmenumore-arrownoyesHorizontal - WhitePats Pulpita New England Patriots communityLog In or Sign UpLog InSign UpPatriots NewsOpinion and AnalysisContribute!About the SiteTopicsPatriotsOddsShopStubHubMoreAll 322 blogs on Horizontal - WhitePatriots News Opinion and Analysis Contribute! FanPostsFanShotsAbout the Site List of Patriots Twitter AccountsWrite For Pats Pulpit!New User Welcome and Commenting GuideCommunity GuidelinesMastheadTopics Patriots Off-Season CoveragePatriots Opinion/AnalysisPatriots NewsPatriots Draft CoverageSportfolio ManagementFiled under:Patriots AnalysisPatriots First ReadWhat if the Patriots didn’t trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers?New,54commentsWhat would’ve happened if New England had chosen Garoppolo over Brady?EDTShareTweetShareShareWhat if the Patriots didn’t trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers?Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty ImagesOn October 31, 2017, Bill Belichick made the (correct) decision to move on from Jimmy Garoppolo. But what if he hadn’t made that decision? What would the last year and a half look like for the New England Patriots?Before I start, you need to understand, no matter what anyone tried to tell you, the Patriots would not have been able to keep both Tom Brady and Garoppolo. Because of that, I’m just going to be talking about the past and future of the Patriots if they had traded Brady instead of Garoppolo. Also, let’s assume that the Patriots wouldn’t have traded Brady mid season, meaning he still wins MVP, and then throws for the most yards in Super Bowl history in 2017, and then the Patriots trade him in the offseason. That sentence hurt my brain, but let’s take a look anyway. First, there’s the matter of what the Patriots would’ve gotten in return for Brady. This is more complicated than you might think. Trading Tom Brady would be like trying to sell the Mona Lisa. You’d get a ton in return Eric Rowe Jerseys 2019 , but whatever you got wouldn’t be enough. They are both truly priceless, items so valuable that you will never be able to receive full value in exchange.Let’s put that aside and think like an NFL GM for a second, though. Who would be willing to trade for Brady? You would think that it would have to be a team that feels they are just a quarterback away from at least making the playoffs. Because, no matter how dominant Brady is right now, realistically, he only has a few years left.Why would the Browns have traded the #1 pick to the Patriots for Brady? Instead, you could draft Baker Mayfield and have him for the rest of his career. In all likelihood, the Browns weren’t going to be great any time soon (they might be pretty good this year, but no one would’ve predicted that last offseason), and it’s better to have a young QB who can be the face of your team and franchise for the next 10-15 years when you’re in that situation.So that means the Patriots are probably getting a mid to late first round pick, and, even if you’re getting multiple picks, I can’t imagine that would be enough. Let’s say that Belichick ended up pulling the trigger anyway, and making the trade. Does that then create a cascade of changes? Do they hold onto Brandin Cooks instead of trading him for #23 in 2028? Do they draft Sony Michel at #31 in 2018 (if they even get thatslot with Garoppolo at the helm)? They also wouldn’t have been able to make as many trades in the second round, because most of them came from the pick they got for Garoppolo.Would you feel a little better about the trade if you knew that Michel was the running back, and the Patriots still had Cooks? Probably not, but I think they’d still be decent. Maybe they still would’ve traded for Trent Brown but, without a tackle waiting behind him White LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys , perhaps they would’ve tried to keep him.It’s also hard to imagine that they would’ve done into Garoppolo’s first season as a starter with the receiver depth chart looking the way it did at the beginning of last season. At the same time, Belichick has always built his team with the next five years in mind, so perhaps it wouldn’t have looked so different after all. It’s certainly not as simple as just swapping Brady out for Garoppolo, but what the exact team would look like is impossible to know. One thing is a certainty, the Patriots wouldn’t have won Super Bowl 53 this season with Garoppolo at quarterback. Regardless of whether or not he ended up tearing his ACL, I can’t imagine hin leading the Patriots to the title this year. So that’s one title that the Patriots would have sacrificed to make the change, and who knows how many more Brady will win before he hangs them up.Now, some people in the media have been trying for years to convince you that Garoppolo was the next great QB, and that it was time to move on from Brady to the next phase of the dynasty. The real question, however, is whether or not Garoppolo could play well enough, and for long enough, to justify the decision in the long run. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the answer to that. Even if he is never truly elite in San Francisco, he might’ve had a different set of circumstances, and better coaching, in New England that would’ve allowed him to be more successful. In the end, we should all be very thankful that Belichick didn’t listen to those talking heads LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys 2019 , and decided to keep Brady instead of Garoppolo. Even though there has been much made about the return they got from the trade, I think we can all agree they did just fine. The Patriots would have certainly given up the short term success they had last year, and could have this year. But, they would be banking on the success of the years after Brady retires. They did the right thing, but there’s something even more incredible to me.In 2013, Felger and Mazz asked the question of whether you’d trade Brady for Andrew Luck, who was drafted first overall in 2012. They thought you should, and Brady has not only proven them wrong about Luck, but is still playing, and has proven them wrong about Garoppolo as well. Belichick drafted Garoppolo to potentially be Brady’s successor, but Brady wasn’t ready to give up the throne just yet. Hopefully, the Patriots’ head honcho is able to find a successor as good as Garoppolo in the future. Otherwise, whether they made the right decision in trading Jimmy or not, there might be some tough years once Brady retires. Pat is a host of The Patriot Nation PodcastInteract with him on Twitter @plane_pats