Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: Quarterbacks, Trades, Minnesota Vikings and the No.3 NFL Draft Pick-Crossover

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

Will the New England Patriots select their future franchise quarterback with the No.3 selection in the 2024 NFL Draft? While many signs point to “yes,” all options are reportedly on the table. With the Minnesota Vikings likley to offer both the No. 11 and No. 23 selections as part of a package to pry the pick from the Patriots, will both sides make a deal? Host Mike D’Abate welcomes Luke Braun, host of Locked On Vikings to discuss a potential deal between both clubs on this special edition of Locked On Patriots. #NFL #patriots #nfldraft  Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFm...Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-...And follow host Mike D’Abate on X, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans — @mdabateNFL Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! eBay MotorsFor parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply. RobinhoodRobinhood has the only IRA that gives you a 3% boost on every dollar you contribute when you subscribe to Robinhood Gold. Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% match. Available to U.S. customers in good standing. Robinhood Financial LLC (member SIPC), is a registered broker dealer. BetterHelpThis episode is sponsored by BetterHelp.  Make your brain your friend, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/LOCKEDON today to get 10% off your first month. GametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. FanDuelNew customers, join today and you’ll get TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS if your first bet of FIVE DOLLARS or more wins. Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for joining us here on this special weekend edition of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Not only a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day, but also free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button, download, follow wherever you get your podcasts

to ensure that you get the latest episode as soon as it's available. I'm your host, Mike DeBate. I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated, so reach out to me and let me know what's on your mind on X at M-D-A-V-A-T-E-N-F-L. While you're out there,

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Visit Fanduel.com slash LockedOn to get started. And Pats fans, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. And thank you for joining us here on this special edition trade or no trade episode of the LockedOn Patriots podcast. And of course, if we're talking trades, we're talking the number three overall pick in the NFL draft. The Patriots' prime piece of draft capital. And the question is, right now, will the Patriots make the move? Will they not make the move?

Gerard Mayo has said that every option is on the table. Robert Kraft has said he'd like the Patriots to get a top-flight quarterback, but he leaves the football decisions to the football people. Well, one of the big decisions that the Patriots are facing is whether or not to take, as once again Gerard Mayo put it, a bag, a package of draft picks which essentially equates to an offer the Patriots can't refuse. Which teams out there are in the position to do that? Well, judging by their actions just a little over a couple of weeks ago, the Minnesota Vikings may find themselves in position to make a move for the Patriots' number three overall pick.

Swung a deal with the Houston Texans and picked up the number 23 pick overall. So now Minnesota has the number 11 pick and the number 23 pick, and you know they are working the lines, trying to move their way up and get their own franchise quarterback. One of the calls I'm sure they've already made and I'm sure they're going to continue to make is to Elliott Wolfe. The question is, how much sweetener do the Minnesota Vikings have to add in order for the Patriots to take the offer seriously and maybe even accept an offer from Minnesota.

Well, if you're talking Vikings, folks, there is no better in the business than my colleague and my good friend, Luke Braun, host of Locked On Vikings. Luke is as dialed in as any one of the Minnesota Vikings, and he's going to join me here in just a few seconds, and we're going to play a little game of trade or no trade. We're going to talk about the positions both teams are in, all of the parameters that will factor into the ultimate decision of whether or not the Patriots accept the Vikings offer. And we're also going to take a look at what that offer may look like. Here on this special edition of Locked On Patriots, I welcome in my good friend and colleague, Luke Braun, host of Locked On Vikings, crossing the streams weekend style here on the Locked On Patriots and Locked On Vikings podcasts. Patriots fans and welcome to all you Vikings fans that are joining us here on a cross the streams episode.

Yeah, folks, we're actually crossing the streams. We've got the crossover in full effect. It's definitely not something you see during the off season, but it doesn't stop us from being able to pick the brains of the great local experts we have here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. None better than my colleague and friend joining me here today, Luke Braun, host of Locked On Vikings. You can catch him all over the Locked On NFL and Locked On Podcast footprint. Does an amazing job with everything he does every time he puts voice to microphone. Luke, always a pleasure. Thanks for joining me here today on this crossover episode of

Locked On Patriots and Locked On Vikings. Yeah, you and I don't get to do these a lot. We actually had a chance this year, but we didn't place in the right division. So we still won't get one. But yeah, Mike, we got a lot. We got a couple of things to talk about, huh? Oh, yeah, absolutely. 2024 NFL draft. That first wave of free agency is behind us now.

The New England Patriots, the Minnesota Vikings looking to the future. Pro days going on as we speak, Luke, but all eyes are on the 2024 NFL draft. And beginning on April 25th, these two teams clearly have an agenda coming up. Oh, yeah. Minnesota's in need of a quarterback. Kirk Cousins is no longer walking through that door. The New England Patriots are in need of a quarterback. Mac Jones is no longer walking through that door. The New England Patriots are in need of a quarterback. Mack Jones is no longer walking through that door. So the Patriots and Vikings find themselves

in unique positions right now to get that quarterback of the future. Minnesota raised the eyebrows of everyone in Patriots Nation when they completed a trade with the Houston Texans to get the number 23 pick along with the number 11 pick. It's looking like Minnesota would like to move on up the board and make that jump, make that move to try to get their quarterback of the future. Luke, when it comes to the needs and the wants of the Minnesota Vikings right now, how would you describe their sense of urgency to move up? How would you describe their sense of what they need in that quarterback room right now? The quarterback plan is the 1A, 1B, and 1C of all of that. Like that is the first thing that they are going to deal with.

They do have other holes on the roster. They are trying to, I think, piecemeal. You can see what they're doing in free agency on the defensive line. They are putting together like a whole bunch of roster bubble guys and sort of trying to moneyball it right now on D-line, which I don't know produces the best unit. at the very least you know you're not starting any undrafted rookies right necessarily you know you're at least you got competition in that room so you can kind of tell that they are very much preparing to really not be able to rely on the

draft for any of their principal starters for 2024 because they are planning to spend these first round picks on a quarterback. Um, that just beyond that, you've got a lot of rumors coming out of everywhere. And they've been coming out since the senior bowl that the Vikings are looking to trade up and that they've been bugging Elliot Wolf about it. They've been very aggressive with their offers and that they want number three. They like a lot of quarterbacks in this one. Kevin O'Connell at the, at the owner's meeting spoke with media and said, you know, Hey, we really are. We're really feel really lucky that, that we kind of managed to time it out into this year where we feel really good about how deep the quarterback draft is, which to me says, yeah, there's four guys that we'd take here. So we just got to get up to the top four. That said, I don't know if it's exactly all four guys being even'd take here so we just got to get up to the top four um that said i don't know

if it's exactly all four guys being even because otherwise you would just take the four three they probably would already executed that trade um so the question then becomes about we know who's going first we know that's caleb williams uh and then it becomes about what's washington gonna do what is new england hoping that Washington does? And if New England gets a bad answer there, does that change the calculus? Or maybe they already know what Washington's doing and it just hasn't been reported because who would be the guy that tattletales on that? And then maybe other conversations can be had. And if not, barring any of that, do the Vikings just come in with like throwing another first round pick on the pile and saying, does that make the difference? That's that's kind of the calculus that we're in right now.

But like, yeah, they will be moving up for a quarterback, whether it is New England that gets all those picks or Arizona or Washington. Kind of up to those three teams, which one wants to take the deal. But based on what all the head coaches said at the owner's meeting and stuff, it sounds like everybody's at least listening. And it's just a matter of who likes that deal the most. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's a great point because the new England Patriots up until now, Luke have almost been a foregone conclusion that they were going to take a quarterback at number three. Since Gerard Mayo took the head coaching reins here in New England, since Elliott Wolfe took on that role of being the de facto GM, even though technically his title is director of scouting, it seemed that that was the direction. Elliott Wolfe touted this quarterback's class and said this is a good year for quarterbacks.

We're keeping a very diligent eye on these guys and who might be a fit we want to make sure we get the right guy in here to be the quarterback of the New England Patriots someone that not only can handle the pressures on the field but also the inherent pressures that come with being an NFL quarterback I think the last time when they got Mac Jones in here it was a little bit of a balance of both. And then the problems that they had with the coaching staff in 2022 really soured that whole experience. The Patriots want to make sure that the guy that they bring in is going to be able to adapt to a new staff, but also be able to handle the pressures of quarterbacking here in New England. But the last few days we're hearing, you know, rumors coming around from the front office. We're seeing

Robert Kraft, the team owner say that the Patriots are going to be willing to listen to anything if a team comes in and gives us the bag so to speak those are actual words used by Gerard Mayo when he spoke with the media on Tuesday morning this to me is something that I think is going to be interesting are the Patriots willing to move from that number three pick to maximize draft capital? Because as you said several times, quarterback plan for the Minnesota Vikings, one, one, a one B one C it's all about the quarterback for New England. There are so many holes on this roster. Is it worth it for the Patriots to consider moving down and maximizing and getting maybe a couple

of potential first rounders either this year or next year to try to help beef up the roster and fill a lot of the holes that are on the team right now? That's the biggest question in New England. So as a Vikings fan, that's exactly what I want to hear is that the Patriots are looking at their roster and saying, look, if we put Drake May out there behind, you know, patchwork O-line, patchwork weapons, I am looking at where the Vikings are at. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, TJ Hawkinson will probably miss like half the season, but long term he's in place, you know, the bookend tackles like they have a structure that is ready and willing to nurture a quarterback. You've got Kevin O'Connell, former quarterback.

They're ready to develop a guy. But if you're the Patriots and you're looking at somebody like, say, former quarterback, they're ready to develop a guy. But if you're the Patriots and you're looking at somebody like, say, Drake May, who does need some development, he's he I mean, he's really exciting. He's top three quarterback. He's a great prospect. But they're the way that he maneuvers in the pocket is not ideal. He will leave the pocket when he's just trying to avoid a little bit of pressure. He'll break the pocket when he's just trying to avoid a little bit of pressure. He'll break the pocket when he doesn't mean to.

He'll drift when he's trying to look for a throwing lane and bring pressure upon himself. And when you pair that with a, with a supporting cast that's struggling in its own right, you're just stacking problems on top of problems. And to get a good play, you need to just happen to get everybody to do their thing and not mess up all at the same time. And it's really hard to do the more inconsistencies you add. So I guess the question becomes, is there merit to the idea that the New England Patriots aren't ready to develop a quarterback yet? If you get that rookie contract with Drake May, but it takes two years to be serious at all as a

team, not only do you risk just stunting his development and going full Justin Fields on him, which is what happened in Chicago, but also you got like one year left of him being cheap by the time you're actually good. So is this even the right time for the Patriots? Or is this an angle where you get, you know, Jacoby Brissett, you get maybe one of the later tier quarterbacks to compete with Jacoby Brissett, see if you can't keep the ship mostly afloat in the meantime, but then take a bunch of a bunch of first round, a bunch of first round picks and try to, you know, reinvigorate the talent of a roster that's like totally atrophied down to nothing. Absolutely. And you know what? I'm looking forward to that because in a moment, folks, we're going to find out how deep Luke's going to go into that bag for the minnesota vikings and try to buy off a pick in new england it's going

to be a lot of fun stick around folks you're not going to want to miss that but i think you make a lot of interesting points and look new england does have their share of holes there's a huge hole to fill at left tackle the new england Patriots now are not going to be with the services of Trent Brown. He's headed to Cincinnati and going to protect Joe Burrow's blind side. If you're not going to find that player on the free agent pool right now, and the Patriots missed out on guys like Jonah Williams and Teron Smith, who were the big names out there, obviously Trent Brown going elsewhere. It didn't look like that was going to happen anyway there was some acrimony at the end of last season and everyone almost assumed that Trent was going to be moving on who do you have protecting that blind side do you move down in the draft

to get someone like a Joe Alt or to get you know a Fashano or someone that is able to come in and be that anchor or a potential future quarterback, that's an option there as well. The New England Patriots also are devoid of big-time receiver talent. You know, they're not a team right now that's fielding an absolute true number one receiver on this team, a true X that's going to be able to be your cornerstone, your rock on which you build your wide receiver core for a number of years do the patriots prioritize those types of players in advance of getting the quarterback on the other hand luke you also look at the fact that the patriots are sitting at the number three pick and you're never guaranteed this

type of pick this type of draft capital again the patriots may need to maximize that because as we all know it's a quarterback league and you need to draft a quarterback you need to maximize that because, as we all know, it's a quarterback league, and you need to draft a quarterback. You need to have a solid quarterback in place. Do the Patriots believe in their infrastructure to build around the quarterback? The last time they were in this position to take a quarterback this high, they did so with Drew Bledsoe in 1993, and they did not have a great infrastructure around him. It took a while to build. The Patriots were patient at that point.

The question is, do they still have that patience? The Patriots know, and this fan base knows, they want to keep winning. They have an owner that says winning is the most important thing. How patient can you be with this new regime? That's going to be a question for Gerard Mayo and Elliot Wolfe, and they have to make the right decision. Let's next try to actually negotiate this thing out, all right? We'll see if we can't come to a deal that both of us would be happy with, yeah?

Absolutely, Luke. I'm looking forward to it. Folks, we're about to play a game of Let's Make a Deal. Luke Braun of Locked On Vikings, Mike DeBate of Locked On Patriots are going to try to swing a deal for that number three pick. Can it be done? And will the Patriots agree to it? We know the Vikings want to make it happen. Folks, stick around. We're about

to do so when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast and the Locked On Vikings podcast continues. Proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Locked On, listeners. The sports calendar is loaded, and FanDuel is making it even more exciting to get in

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Locked On Patriots Locked On Vikings I always break them up when I say that but the old Ghostbusters 84 fan in me just will not die Luke I can't help it the first time I heard crossover that was the first thing I thought of and my listeners know I'm beyond help so I apologize to all you Locked On Vikings fans out there, but I'll take your word for that. My friend, we're having a blast here on this crossover episode, talking Patriots needs Vikings needs when it comes to the NFL draft. But Luke, you know, as well as I, if the Patriots are going to think about taking that bag that Gerard Mayle talked about earlier this week when meeting with the media at the NFL annual meetings

Vikings are going to have to sweeten the pot you're as dialed into this organization as anybody when you look at what it may take to pry that number three pick away from the hands of the New England Patriots what are your thoughts on this subject? And what do you think the Vikings are willing to do to get that three from the Pats? So I think when it comes to draft capital, everything is for sale, right? Like they are willing to throw a lot in there and I'll get into specifics in a minute, but I think what they're not willing to do is offensive players. I know I've seen some people daydreaming about like Justin Jefferson being part of it, no shot. And in fact, Justin Jefferson is part of the

conversation in terms of which quarterback you'd take at three or four or wherever you end up. They're building around him and they're, they're, they're keeping him in the loop on who he's going to be playing with. There is, they've said it out loud for whatever that's worth to you, but it's also been reported from like credentialed and sourced reporters that they're not doing anything like that or Addison or Christian Daris or any of those guys, because part of the logic is we have an infrastructure to keep up with or to develop this quarterback.

So to acquire the quarterback undermining that infrastructure kind of defeats the whole purpose. Defensive players, I'm sure there are, maybe those conversations are a little bit more open, but I'll be honest with you. I don't know who you'd be really interested in on the defense. There's a lot of one-year deals, a lot of role players, not a lot of superstar power in other than your hunters out. So I would say players probably an unlikely include here, but in terms of draft picks, I would say starting, uh, the, the like base level here is picks 1123 and the first round or next year.

And there's a couple of things that I can, I guess, pitch to you about that for one 11 and 23. This is a draft. That's probably about 25 high level players deep. And the blue chip at the top is not as outside of like specifically Marvin Harrison jr. That, that blue chip at the top doesn't seem to be like, there is not like the edge rusher of, you know, there's not the miles Garrett of this class, those kinds of guys.

So the guys you get at 23 and the guys you get at say, you know, eight are, I don't know if they're going to be that different in this particular class, just not where the talent cliff is in this class, in this class. So 11 and 23 is part of it. Unfortunately to get pick number 23, we gave up second round pick this year and next year. So you're essentially getting, you can think of it as two firsts and two seconds, but we just converted those two seconds into a third first round pick. And then the 2025 first, I think is the one that you can really bet on the Patriots for because, and bet against the Vikings here, because if you're right and you're passing on a quarterback,

right. And that quarterback turns out to be not good in his first year, which is sort of the bet that the Patriots would be making here. That pick goes way up and you're right there at three again next year. Look at exactly what the bears did with the Panthers here. That first round, that first overall pick ain't theirs. It's the one that they gave to another team to set them up to take their

QB of the future. And it didn't work out. So you're shorting the Vikings here and you're, you're shorting a, you know, third year head coach with no experience. They're a GM that has very unorthodox experience from an analytics department who other teams absolutely see as somebody that can be exploited in this, who has had a big giant neon sign

hanging around his neck that says, please take all of my draft picks. That is, I believe, where we would start. So my question then, would those three get it done here? That's the question that everyone is wondering right now in New England. The sense that I'm getting from those that I talk to close to the organization say that they're ready and willing to go quarterback at number three. So for Vikings fans right now, I would say this is a shot. I think it has a chance, but I don't think it's a slam dunk. I think there's probably a 60, 40 chance that it doesn't happen. That's just my opinion right now,

based on what I'm hearing. It's honestly better than I thought you were going to say. Yeah. No, because there is, again, I think the, I think Mayo and I think Wolf, and I think the football operations people in New England are looking at this and saying, we really need to be sure here. This is going to be a pick. That's going to define our legacies and trying to build our foundation here in new England. After 24 years of bill Belichick, we fall flat here. It's really going to resonate throughout the fan base. They want to make sure that if they're picking a guy at three, it's the guy they want, the guy they need, and the guy that can handle it. And do they see that in Drake May or Jaden Daniels or JJ McCarthy? That to me is going to be it. And you mentioned Washington earlier. I think that's such a good point because whatever

Washington does is going to have a ripple effect here if that quarterback deal yeah absolutely if they take drake may and drake may was the only guy paid the patriots were in love with that they call it the vikings and say okay let's do this absolutely and here's the funny thing like with quacey at least my understanding of where he's at is that those three firsts is a starting point that's the first offer and if you say nah i think we're gonna just take our qb let's not mess around with this he's going okay what about that 2026 first round pick what about maybe like a third we've got in 2025 right like what about something else and suddenly you can stack quite a bit up and if you remember that trey lance trade from with from from the 49ers

with the dolphins three first round picks to move up from 12 to three. Kweisi might look at that and say, child's play. Let's let's, I'll give you something serious. Right. Um, and at what point does it become something that Elliot Wolf can't refuse? And, and let me, um, at least try to pitch that in that, Hey, look, if you take the quarterback and you ruin him, cause you put him behind an old line, that isn't right. Uh, you're, you're probably all getting fired on that. But if you wait two years and Chris Ballard this a little bit, and then wait for a minute you ruin him because you put him behind an O-line that isn't right. You're probably all getting fired on that.

But if you wait two years and Chris Ballard this a little bit and then wait for a minute where you can get your Anthony Richardson, but now you've built a team around him. Now you get to keep your job. So you can, the Vikings can be the team that enables you along that path and gives you that. Four first round picks and some mid-round capital, whatever we got. Does that, do you think that that juicing it up that much would have an impact or is that too far down the line when we're talking about 2026?

I don't think it's necessarily too far down the line because at the point that the Patriots are at right now, they have nowhere to go but up. The question is how quickly do they believe they can reassemble the team in Foxborough to try to start making headway and become a contending team again. Once the Patriots look at what their holes are on the roster, I think they look at a package like the one that you just described and say to themselves, this is an opportunity for us to maximize for so long and really be able to still dip into the draft in 2025 and even in 2026 and

allow us to be able to stockpile talent that we're going to have under our control for a number of years on rookie deals that are staggered that gives us the opportunity to keep these guys in house even though robert craft earlier this week said that he as a fan would love to see a quarterback and that's what he would love to see a top flight quarterback a top level quarterback are the terms that he used he also mentioned that the key to success in the NFL is to get guys in the draft that are part of your long-term plans and make sure to not have them reach that end of that rookie deal you want to make sure that while they're on their rookie deal,

you extend these guys, you keep them in-house. The more players like that that you can draft and make a part of your future plans, it makes for a much better roster build. And I think Elliott Wolfe knows that as well as anyone watching what his dad Ron did with the Green Bay Packers and even chipping in and showing what he did with the Raiders in a couple of those years, trying to build teams that can sustain talent and sustain

success for a long period of time not necessarily going for the moment of instant gratification so I think that would go a long way with convincing the Patriots brass if I'm the Patriots GM I think you've done a great job of convincing me Luke I. I'm ready to pull the trigger on this. Let's do it. The question is whether or not New England is going to be willing to do that. I think you're going to learn a lot about New England's intentions over the course of the next couple of weeks when you start hearing things from the Patriots scouts about what they felt about the pro days.

What are these Patriots scouts seeing in those three that leads them to believe this is the guy we have to have. This is our Drew Bledsoe. This is the guy we can build around. Or do they look at it and say, we have too many holes to fill. We don't have time to wait around. What we're going to do is we're going to build the foundation first and then move into that quarterback later.

That's ultimately what the Patriots have to decide. Yeah. And maybe one last thing to consider here is how the patriots have to decide yeah and maybe one last thing to consider here is how the patriots feel about the rest of the quarterbacks in college the quinures the shadur sanders even the guys like arch manning who will come out maybe in 2026 and if you have two first round picks in 2026 even if those picks aren't in the top five then maybe you can be the team that trades up. But now you're ready for it. You know, you don't just have to kind of hope that you get the first overall pick and hope you get lucky here.

We've given you the tools to sort of make your own luck when it comes to that. And it's just a matter of do they feel as though Drake may or Jaden Daniels, whichever one Washington doesn't take. Do they feel as though that guy is the best opportunity they're going to have in the next three or four years? And I don't watch enough college football to have a great answer to that question, but that I think is going to influence this maybe more than we give attention to. Absolutely. And again, that's why these pro day workouts and the workouts that are scheduled in private workouts are so important. The knock on Jaden Daniels is that he doesn't want to play in cold weather if that's indeed the case. And those are unconfirmed reports, folks.

I don't want to put those words in Jaden's mouth. No, Jaden, let me get a dome. Come on now. But there are some people that say that, you know what, the New England winners might be a little bit too harsh, even though D.C. winners can be a little harsh as well. New England winners are worse. And I understand that. If that's the case,

New England's got something to consider there. Obviously, the knock on Drake May is that gunslinger mentality. You mentioned that rolling out of the pocket, going off script, not necessarily following what a first-year offensive coordinator and a rookie head coach may need you to do in terms of providing leadership to what is going to be young and maybe potentially inexperienced group of key positional players that are going to need that type of leadership. They're going to need that guy that can bring everything together, especially at the offensive skill position. So once again, yeah, the Patriots have some decisions to make, but at the same time, do they feel that the guy that they want is there? Are they willing to go with Drake May or Jaden Daniels?

That's going to be interesting to see. And whatever their decision is, is going to have a ripple effect on the Vikings. And I think that's one of the great things about us coming together and kind of talking this out today. Maybe we've given some headway. Who knows? Maybe there are executives out there from both teams that are watching us and saying, yeah, you know what?

Yeah, I think that's pretty good. I think we may do that. So folks. Oh no. Then I gave, I gave up the game then. Don't listen. Don't listen,

Elliot. Absolutely. Yep. That's right. Yep. Now you just may have armed Elliot Wolf with a little more ammunition. I did it. No folks,

all kidding aside. It always is fun to cross the streams here on Locked On Patriots and Locked On Vikings. One of the great joys of being a host on the Locked On Podcast Network is getting a chance, like I said, to open the segments here today to talk to some of the great experts. And Luke is by far one of the best in the business. Have we given you a little something to think about, Vikings fans and Patriots fans today? Let us know in the comments section below. We'd love to hear what you think, but Luke, any parting thoughts on this, any last minute thoughts on what the Vikings or the Patriots may do for all of our adoring public across the

lockdown podcast network. If we find out it might be soon. If we don't find out soon, I would guess that we find out when, when out when everyone's on the clock. We're kind of at that moment in the calendar where pro days have happened, private workouts have happened. Everybody's got their evals finalized. So if that ends and a deal doesn't get made, then I'm going to guess that everybody's saying, okay, let's see what Washington does. And then that's the next piece of information that tells us where this will happen. And then maybe, yeah, we see a blockbuster right there on the night. And it's the story of the day would be pretty cool, man. Mike, it's always a big pleasure to talk to you. I wish we got to do this more, but alas, AFC NFC. Absolutely. And you know, folks, hopefully that next time these two divisions, the AFC East and the NFC North have a little bit of

a clash during this regular season, Luke and I will get a chance to cross the streams, but you never know. If we swing a trade, let's do this all over again and talk about how right we were or how wrong we were. Even if they don't, I still think it's worth it to revisit this after the draft is over. Luke, always a blast, my friend. Thanks so much for joining me here today. Locked On Patriots fans, once again, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots and making Locked On Patriots fans, once again, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule for joining us here today on Locked On Patriots and making Locked On Patriots a daily part

of your New England Patriots coverage. On behalf of my good friend Luke Braun joining me here from Locked On Vikings, I'm Mike DeBate reminding you to stay safe and to stay well and be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked On Patriots.