Patriots owner Robert Kraft: I want ‘top-rate, young quarterback’ in NFL Draft

The New England Patriots are widely expected to select a quarterback with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. At the same time, there are a handful of ways they can add a new signal-caller through the draft.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft doesn’t care when or how it happens: He just wants a franchise quarterback.

“We’re gonna be open to whatever can come our way. In the end, I’ll let the team make the decision what they think is best. One way or another, I’d like to see us get a top-rate, young quarterback,” Kraft said Tuesday at the league meetings in Orlando, according to NFL.com.

Who will be that player?

USC star and 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams is expected to be selected by the Chicago Bears at No. 1, but every pick thereafter is a guessing game. LSU star and 2023 Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels, North Carolina‘s Drake Maye and Michigan‘s J.J. McCarthy are all in the mix to be selected by the Washington Commanders at No. 2 and New England at No. 3.

The wild cards of this year’s quarterback class are Washington‘s Michael Penix and Oregon‘s Bo Nix, both of whom had decorated stints the past two years. New England could potentially trade back in Round 1 with a team that has its sights set on Daniels, Maye or McCarthy and then select one of the two former Pac-12 QBs. It could also take the best non-quarterback at No. 3 and bank on Penix or Nix slipping to its second-round draft choice (No. 34).

The Patriots are coming off a 4-13 season that featured quarterback Mac Jones getting benched in favor of Bailey Zappe. Then in mid-March, they traded Jones, whom New England selected with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Alabama, to the Jacksonville Jaguars for a sixth-round draft pick.

The Patriots have already signed journeyman QB Jacoby Brissett to a one-year, $8 million deal, reuniting the veteran with the franchise that picked him in the third round of the 2016 NFL Draft. Elsewhere, New England primarily allocated its approximately $87 million in cap space to keeping its own free agents, re-signing offensive lineman Mike Onwenu, tight end Hunter Henry, wide receiver Kendrick Bourne and linebackers Josh Uche and Anfernee Jennings. The team also added running back Antonio Gibsoon, among other moves.

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The Patriots have missed the playoffs in three of the past four seasons, are coming off their worst season since going 2-14 in 1992 and don’t have their long-term quarterback. But that doesn’t change Kraft’s expectations in both the short and long term.

“I think we’ve actually made some improvements,” Kraft said. “We signed a number of younger players that we had drafted or had been in our system.

“As a foundation, if you want to win consistently, you have to draft well and then get those players on the second contract. We started to do that this year. We pursued the people we wanted in free agency.”

Kraft also expressed that his expectation is “to make the playoffs” this season.

The Patriots are entering Year 1 of the Jerod Mayo era, who succeeded Bill Belichick as head coach after his 24 seasons at the helm.

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