If the NFL regular season were to end today, the New England Patriots would end up with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. And on Sunday, FS1’s Nick Wright shared an incredibly controversial scenario for how the Patriots could use that pick, which would include drafting a quarterback in the first round for the second straight year.
Wright, who has certainly had his fair share of hot takes over the years, outlined a “not totally insane” scenario that most football fans and media pundits alike believe would indeed qualify as “totally insane.”
Rookie quarterback Drake Maye has had a pretty traditional rookie season, flashing some impressive upside while also struggling with costly turnovers. Overall, it’s likely too early to tell what Maye will end up being as an NFL quarterback. But he does impressively rank second in QBR among rookie quarterbacks behind Jayden Daniels.
With a quarterback already on the roster like Maye, most would assume that if the Patriots did end up with the No. 1 overall pick, they would try their best to find a trade partner and accumulate talent with more draft picks for the future. After all, trading down in the draft was largely the formula to all of the success the Patriots had in the Tom Brady era.
However, Nick Wright shared a far more outside the box possibility for the Patriots, outlining that they could hypothetically select Shedeur Sanders with the No. 1 overall pick, trade Drake Maye for a top-five pick, select Travis Hunter with said top-five pick, and bring in Deion Sanders as their new head coach to replace Jerod Mayo.
“A not totally insane scenario: The Patriots fall in love with Shedeur, and instead of trading the #1 pick, they trade Drake for a Top 5 pick. They could then potentially draft Shedeur AND Travis. And then, for the hell of it, fire Mayo & hire Deion,” wrote Wright.
Obviously, there are a lot of flaws with this plan. Even if the Patriots did trade into the top-five and attempt to pick Hunter with the pick, there is no guarantee he would even be there to pair with Shedeur. Unless you were to take Hunter with the No. 1 pick, which could then create a scenario where Sanders may not be there with the other pick and the Patriots are left without a franchise quarterback entirely.
Also, the consensus among most draft experts is that this is a weaker quarterback class compared to the 2024 NFL Draft that Maye was in. After knowing what we know about Maye, it sure seems plausible that Maye would be the top quarterback prospect in this year’s class if he happened to be in the 2025 draft.
That is at least debatable. What isn’t debatable is that most NFL GMs would almost assuredly prefer to have Drake Maye and a bundle of future picks instead of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, which isn’t even a full-proof guarantee in Wright’s scenario.
Yes, we have seen scenarios where teams draft a quarterback after taking one the year prior. The Arizona Cardinals famously drafted Kyler Murray after drafting Josh Rosen the previous year.
But that was also a scenario where Rosen looked completely lost in his rookie season, which has not been the case with Maye despite the lack of team success.
No disrespect to what Deion Sanders has built in Colorado considering where that program was before Coach Prime’s arrival. But is that really something that Robert Kraft would want leading a Patriots organization that isn’t too far removed from two decades of strict guidelines from Bill Belichick?
Naturally, sports media took notice of this scenario that Wright laid out as “not insane” in his eyes and ripped it apart.
“A totally insane scenario,” wrote Daniel Harms of The Draft Network on X.
“Insanity is a fine line between brilliance and madness. This leans heavily towards the latter,” wrote Patriots beat reporter Taylor Kyles.
“That combination couldn’t even make the 12-team playoff out of the weak Big 12 conference,” wrote Mark Dondero of 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston.
“Eh I’d say this is totally insane,” wrote Sean McGuire of NESN.