Analysis: A Pick-By-Pick Breakdown of the Patriots 2024 NFL Draft Class

The 2024 NFL Draft is officially in the books, with the Patriots making eight selections over three days.

For the first time since 1969, New England selected offensive players with their first five picks, starting with quarterback Drake Maye, followed by day-two picks WR Ja'Lynn Polk and OT Caedan Wallace. Although we all agree on the positions personnel chief Eliot Wolf and company addressed, it's debatable whether or not they took the right players.

Fair or not, Polk's career will be compared to Chargers draft selection Ladd McConkey. After trading out of their original draft slot with LA, the Chargers took McConkey, while the Pats waited till the 37th overall pick to draft Polk. Ultimately, it came down to stylistic preference at wide receiver. Polk offers more play strength and better hands than McConkey or others in that tier (Roman Wilson, Jalen McMillan, Troy Franklin), who are more explosive route runners. New England took their guys and stuck to their board. We'll find out if they were right in a few years.

As much as the debates are interesting, the bottom line is the 2024 NFL Draft hinges on Maye's development. We can nitpick all we want about Polk vs. McConkey, Wallace, or whatever: if Maye is a franchise quarterback, this draft is a resounding success. The last two days were a moot point as long as the Patriots hit on the quarterback, with any "hits" being the cherry on top to hopefully the home run pick in Maye, who was the number-one rated player for New England before the draft on my big board (Polk was No. 24, Baker was No. 40, and Bell was No. 50).

Patriots fans have something to be excited about with Maye, while history will hopefully be kind to Wolf's coin-flip decisions they made elsewhere in the draft. Let's make one thing clear: Maye wasn't a coin flip for the top decision-makers. He was the pick for weeks.