As the 2022 NFL Draft draws near, the New England Patriots and Houston Texans have finalized a draft pick trade to shore up their strategies.
According to Adam Schefter, the Patriots dealt their fifth-round pick (170th overall) to the Texans for that team’s sixth- and seventh-round picks, the 183rd and 245th overall selections.
While that might seem like a fairly benign transaction, it certainly says a lot about the interests of both franchises.
For the Patriots, it’s par for the course in Bill Belichick’s desire to stockpile later draft picks and forsake mid-round selections.
Since 2012, the Patriots have only used six fifth-round picks, and three of them have been spent on specialists (Joe Cardona 2015, Jake Bailey 2019 and Justin Rohrwasser 2020).
New England was entering the 2022 NFL Draft with two fifth-round picks. https://t.co/VqcyTbJgxq
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) April 25, 2022
The trade gives New England nine picks in this year’s NFL Draft, most of which come at the beginning or end of the draft.
For the Texans, it’s a chance to get back into the fifth road as they’d traded their original pick from that round when they acquired wide receiver Anthony Miller. Miller was cut in October, so that was a bit of a lost draft pick for them. The franchise now has five Day 3 selections (2 fourths-rounders, a fifth-rounder, and 2 sixth-rounders).
The trade may or may not have an impact on both or either franchise and we probably won’t know for sure for a few years. But in the meantime, there were certainly plenty of thoughts and reactions from around the NFL world as they attempted to prognosticate what it all means.