From Maye to Harrison, what Red Sox would do with Patriots’ No. 3 pick originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
If baseball players have a second sport, it’s generally football. That’s partly because so many of them hail from areas of the country where pigskin is king – Texas, Florida, anywhere in the SEC – and also because the skills overlap, but the seasons don’t.
It should come as no surprise, then, that a good chunk of the Red Sox clubhouse follows college football as religiously as New Englanders drink Dunkin’. They’re glued to their TVs on fall Saturdays, and they know their Troy Fautanus from their Taliese Fuagas in the battle of Pacific Northwest tackles.
As such, a number of Red Sox players are enjoying the same pastime as the rest of us, wondering what the Patriots might do with the No. 3 pick in next week’s draft. And they don’t lack for opinions.
From the debate of Jayden Daniels vs. Drake Maye vs. J.J. McCarthy at quarterback, to advocates for Marvin Harrison Jr., to one Georgia boy going off the board in favor of Bulldogs tight end Brock Bowers, they have thoughts on what the Patriots should do, and they don’t mind throwing on their NFL GM hats for a minute and pretending they have all the answers.
“If you get a top-five pick, you’ve got to get a guy that’s going to change the game,” said shortstop Trevor Story last month.
Here is how a few of the Red Sox would approach the draft if they were the Patriots.
Justin Slaten: J.J. McCarthy, QB, Michigan
The Rule 5 right-hander who’s off to an excellent start is a Texas native but a Packers fan with strong feelings about how the Patriots should draft and develop a QB. His first order of business would be sitting the pick behind veteran Jacoby Brissett.
“These quarterbacks at the top, Caleb Williams is the only one where you feel like he could come in on Day 1 and go,” he said. “The other guys, I feel like they’re going to have to sit and learn for a little bit. I’m a Packers fan, so I’m biased to that…
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