Not much good comes out of back-to-back 4-13 seasons in the NFL, but there is a least one good thing: back-to-back high draft picks. For the New England Patriots, that meant the No. 3 overall pick in 2024 — their highest slot since Robert Kraft took over as owner in 1994. The year before he took over, the pre-Kraft Patriots owned the No. 1 pick and used it to draft the quarterback they believed would turn the team’s then-dismal fortunes around, Washington State’s Drew Bledsoe.
With their No. 3 pick last year, they did the same thing, drafting quarterback-of-the-future Drake Maye out of North Carolina. In 2025, after their second consecutive 4-13 campaign, the Patriots own the No. 4 overall pick — again, a valuable commodity. But they no longer need a quarterback. So what do they do with their highly prized pick?
Experts Say Patriots Should Trade Down in Draft
Conventional wisdom has held that the Patriots, who — after winning just 33 of their 85 games in the five seasons since legendary quarterback Tom Brady left the team — are in need of a top-to-bottom rebuild, should trade the pick down. That way, they can add additional draft selections and speed up the revamp of their roster.
But on the February 28 edition of the FS1 sports talk show Speak, former 11-year NFL wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson — himself the NFL’s No. 1 overall draft pick out of USC in 1996 — urged the Patriots to go in exactly the opposite direction.
According to Johnson’s argument, New England should trade the No. 4 pick not down to collect additional assets, but up — even though that move would certainly result in the Patriots owning fewer draft picks than they do now. The Tennessee Titans, who currently hold the top pick, would likely require multiple picks to give it up.
What’s the point? Johnson, who was drafted by the New York Jets, said that swapping first-round draft positions with the Titans would allow the Patriots to select 2024 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter of the Colorado Buffaloes — a two-way player who excels both at cornerback and wide receiver.
Hunter Said to Bring ‘Locker Room Changing Culture’
“Perfect landing spot for Travis. You get Drake Maye an offensive weapon,” Johnson explained on the FS1 broadcast. “You now have a corner you can play opposite of [Christian] Gonzalez, which is an All-Pro guy. You play him opposite of that and you get a locker room changing culture.”
Not only did Hunter, who turns 22 later in March, win the Heisman, he also won the Chuck Bedarnik Award for the best defensive player in college football — and the Fred Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver. No other player has ever taken home both of those awards.
Trading up to get the No. 1 pick would not be a first for the Patriots, though it would be the first time in the Kraft era. In 1984, the Patriots owned two first-round picks, No. 16 and No. 28. They sent them both to the Cincinnati Bengals, along with a 10th-round pick (the NFL draft shrunk from 12 rounds to eight in 1993 and to seven a year later). The Patriots also gave up their 1985 fifth rounder.
In exchange they received the top overall selection, which they used to take wide receiver Irving Fryar out of Nebraska. Fryar caught seven touchdowns in 1985 as the Patriots got to the Super Bowl for the first time in their history. In nine seasons with the Patriots before a trade to the Miami Dolphins, Fryar caught 38 touchdown passes, seventh on New England’s all-time list.
