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Barring extremely unforeseen circumstances, the New England Patriots will enter the 2018-2019 NFL season with their starting quarterback, Tom Brady, entering his age 41 season. Brady continues to pad his Hall of Fame resume as one of the league’s top quarterbacks. However, at age 40, the end is in sight for Tom Brady, and the Patriots would be crazy to not make picking their quarterback of the future a #1 priority in the 2018 draft.
Quarterback is the marquee position in today’s NFL. Without a QB, you can’t really contend in the NFL (as the Cleveland Browns have painfully discovered). Therefore, every successful NFL team has to ensure it has a plan at the quarterback position. If Tom Brady weren’t the current starter, the Patriots and any other team with a 41-year-old quarterback would be scrambling to find a successor. Brady’s greatness gives Patriots Nation a sense of security, but eventually the clock will strike midnight. For the sake of job security, the Patriots’ front office needs to avoid being caught without a real NFL QB.
Picking New England’s future QB is both a risk and a tradeoff. It’s a risk because they have to get the pick right for the strategy to work, and it’s a tradeoff because in order to pick the guy, the Patriots may have to surrender the opportunity to pick win-now pieces, sacrificing the possibility of securing a Super Bowl next season. In addition, it may be an actual trade-off because in order to pick their guy, the Patriots may have to give up significant draft capital to move up to an earlier selection. Ultimately, picking a quarterback is worth it if the Patriots get a franchise player for the next decade plus.
A particular reason to pursue a quarterback of the future this year is that there are multiple promising QB prospects available in this year’s class. If they trade up, the Patriots may be able to pick a high-potential guy like Baker Mayfield or even Josh Rosen (if his draft stock falls). Trading up would likely take at least a first- and a second-round pick (and perhaps more), but that's a fair price to pay to obtain Brady’s successor. Even later in the first round and into the second, the Patriots will have the opportunity to take decorated QB Lamar Jackson or the other promising quarterback from the state of Oklahoma, Mason Rudolph. I won’t speculate on who is the best QB pick for the Patriots (I honestly have no idea), but regardless of who their guy is, the Pats should make getting him their number one draft-day goal. After all, any price in draft picks is worth paying to avoid a Cleveland Browns-eque quarterback conundrum.
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