Mike Vrabel Exposes Patriots NFL Draft Strategy

Everyone is wondering what the New England Patriots will do with the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft, not to mention all of the other picks they own later this month.

The Patriots still have plenty of holes to fill in spite of a very active free-agent period, so they will have to choose carefully when they are on the clock.

New England has obvious needs along its offensive line and at wide receiver, but with the Pats go out of their way to address those issues in the draft? Head coach Mike Vrabel revealed his team's strategy while speaking to reporters this week, and it seems like the Patriots are strictly going to go with best player available.

“We certainly want to pick the best player as many times as we can,” Vrabel said. “The player that we think at that point is the best player and then we’ll figure it out. Maybe you look at one position and then we may have some returning starters — or we feel like are starters — or there’s depth at that position. But to add premium players when available is something that you should probably always try to do.”

That falls in line with Eliot Wolf's comments earlier this offseason, when Wolf said that New England was not going to force any draft picks and that selecting the best player on the board is the superior way to go about doing things.

That is true to some extent, but it's also a very risky method, because it can cause a glut at one position while ignoring other obvious areas of need.

For example, if a quarterback is the best player available, are the Pats going to draft one? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Hopefully, the Pats will just be able to acquire elite talent to patch some gaping holes.