The Patriots get more talent in the trenches while adding two likely starters at wide receiver and tight end."WhitePatriots News Opinion and Analysis Contribute! FanPostsFanShotsAbout the Site List of Patriots Twitter AccountsWrite For Pats Pulpit!New User Welcome and Commenting GuideCommunity GuidelinesMastheadTopics Patriots Off-Season CoveragePatriots Opinion/AnalysisPatriots NewsPatriots Draft CoverageSportfolio ManagementNFL DraftPatriots Opinion/AnalysisPatriots 2019 NFL Draft CoverageMichael McDermott’s Mock Draft: Patriots bolster defensive line White Eric Rowe Jerseys , offensive line, and pass catching corpsNew,41commentsThe Patriots get more talent in the trenches while adding two likely starters at wide receiver and tight end. EDTShareTweetShareShareMichael McDermott’s Mock Draft: Patriots bolster defensive line, offensive line, and pass catching corpsMark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY SportsThe Patriots enter the draft with 12 picks, six of which will be in the first three rounds. This mock draft will cover the first four rounds and mostly consists of my own speculation of how the board will go tonight. The biggest needs I considered were DT, EGDE, OT, WR, TE, and QB for the draft although there aren’t any positions outside of maybe CB where you can say the team is set for the next 3 years with their current personnel. With the 32nd Pick, the New England Patriots select Clelin Ferrell, EGDE, ClemsonI anticipate that Christian Wilkins, Dexter Lawrence, Jeffery Simmons, and Greedy Williams will all be off the board by the time the Patriots pick at 32. So here the Patriots are choosing between edge rusher Clelin Ferrell, interior DL Jerry Tillery, WR A.J. Brown, and TE Irv Smith Jr. Considering the value of the players available, Ferrell has the highest chance of starting on Day 1 of those picks with Brown being the next highest value of the picks. Given that the Patriots can get a player with 90% the talent in the second round in J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, I decided to go for Ferrell since he profiles pretty well for what the Patriots like in a hand-in-the-dirt defensive end. He sets the edge and is a strong run defender with moderate pass rush upside (8-10 sacks) and has been very consistent each year. Ferrell would be contribute to start right away even though the Patriots have Michael Bennett and Deatrich Wise Jr. penciled in as their top 2 defensive ends in the rotation with John Simon, Derek Rivers, and Keionta Davis getting playing time with the Patriots in 2018. Ferrell also comes with NCAA postseason experience, as he helped Clemson win two national titles in the past three seasons.With the 56th Pick, the New England Patriots select J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, WR, StanfordWhen looking at potential plug and play guys at the WR position, I expect A.J. Brown, Riley Ridley, and Deebo Samuel to go between picks 32 and 56. As I see it, the Patriots could either vote to optimize the OL depth with a player like Scharping, who I mocked to the Patriots with their next second round pick, go with a plug and play outside WR in Arcega-Whiteside, or add to their defensive front 7. Arcega-Whiteside is a big-bodied with a big catch radius with 33 1/2” arms and a background in basketball, which would allow for Tom Brady and the next QB to hit him on back-shoulder passes away from the defender in the red zone. He’s not an explosive vertical threat Eric Rowe Jerseys 2019 , but is a very fluid route runner and knows the nuances of the skill fairly well. Belichick has tapped the Stanford program under David Shaw twice in the last five seasons with the selections of Cameron Fleming, who went on to be a quality swing tackle, and Jordan Richards, who I will not talk about further. Arcega-Whiteside has a pretty moderate ceiling but also a high floor as a WR2 in a high-powered offense.With the 64th Pick, the New England Patriots select Max Scharping, OT, Northern IllinoisThe Patriots have had bad luck at developing tackles with their last two major selections at the positions combining for zero snaps played. Wynn is recovering from a preseason Achilles rupture last season and the team doesn’t have much depth at the position behind Wynn and Cannon on the OL. The Patriots will likely find a way to solve this issue in addition to selecting Scharping, a 4-year starter on the OL. Competition level is a concern since Scharping played in a mid major program, but that’s otherwise the only major flag as a draftable player. Experience at both tackle spots in college makes for an interesting dynamic on the OL and whether or not Scharping ends up at LT or RT depends on if Wynn can recover from his injury and assume the LT spot. With the 73rd Pick, the New England Patriots select Jace Sternberger, TE, Texas A&MThis year’s TE class is very shallow if you’re looking for draftable players before the 4th round. Hockenson is the closest to a complete TE with the other players in the draft class more glorified receivers. After the first round, the only 2 TEs I liked are Irv Smith Jr. and Jace Sternberger as fits. Smith will likely go in the Top 50, leaving the Patriots with just Sternberger as an option on Day 2. Sternberger doesn’t have ideal size or speed measurables and certainly isn’t a great run blocker either, but he is an excellent route runner from the TE position with TE1 production potential down the road after he bulks up over 260. Sternberger isn’t going to likely end up as an inline blocker due to his smaller frame relative to the position, but could develop into a decent blocker on the move and a quality pass receiver.With the 97th Pick, the New England Patriots select Will Harris, Safety, Boston CollegeHarris offers great versatility to a New England secondary that has aging starters at the safety position. Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung will be 32 when the season starts, so they're closer to the end of their respective careers. Duron Harmon is a quality 3rd safety in the rotation, but his lack of top-end speed caused him to be phased out of the gameplan against KC and played sparingly in the Super Bowl as the Patriots employed the Four Corners defense. Harris can play any role you can ask a safety to do: deep, box, man coverage, robber, or even the slot. His CB level athleticism combined with an ideal build for a safety makes him a great fit for covering TEs and RBs in the slot or wide. Throw in the fact he's also likely to develop into a core special teamer, there's too much value here to pass up.With the 101st Pick, the New England Patriots select Brett Rypien, QB, Boise StateThe backup QB spot is a position that gets neglected by teams, but in certain cases having a quality backup can be a season-saver. Rypien is the son of former Super Bowl winning QB Mark Rypien and has been around the game his whole life. His arm talent is pretty average but does have 4 years starting experience with quality production and sees the field well. The Patriots offense requires the QB to be able to process the defense pre and post snap, although the Patriots do a great job at forcing the defense to tell. Worst case scenario Rypien develops into a quality backup for 4 years behind Tom Brady and best case scenario he is able to be a solid starter down the road.With the 134th pick, the New England Patriots select Renell Wren, DT, Arizona StateWren is an interesting player from a fit perspective. He has ideal size and length to be both a 3-4 end and 4-3 interior DL, although he has a tendency to play out of control at times. However the upside as a potential 3-down starter if his feet and hands are coached up is undeniable and worth taking a mid-round gamble on. Early on he can start out as the #4 DT in the rotation while the coaching staff works hard on correcting his technique problems. The Cleveland Browns entered the 2019 season with considerable hype on their side, in large parts because of the projected development of their offense behind former first-round draft pick Baker Mayfield at quarterback and offseason trade acquisition Odell Beckham Jr. at the number one wide receiver position. Together White LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys , the two were expected to help lift a team that ended 2018 with a 7-8-1 record into the playoffs for the first time since 2002.Seven weeks into the season, however, the team has had its fair share of miscues on the offensive side of the ball: Cleveland, which enters the game against the New England Patriots with a 2-4 record, ranks just 23rd in scoring offense after averaging only 20 points per game. Furthermore, the unit has suffered with ball security and has already given possessions away 14 times in six games — the second most in all of football.As they often do, the team’s problems start at the quarterback position. Mayfield has not taken the expected second-year jump, and has been erratic at times: the 24-year-old leads the NFL in interceptions at this point in the season with 11, and has also completed just 56.6% of his pass attempts (112 of 198) while throwing a mere five touchdowns. His passer rating of 66.0 currently ranks just 30th out of 32 qualifying quarterbacks.“There have been several contributing factors to it, and Mayfield is one of those factors,” Chris Pokorny, managing editor at Dawgs By Nature, told Pats Pulpit earlier this week. “He has 11 interceptions through six games, which is an unacceptable turnover rate. About half of those interceptions are passes that hit his receivers in the hands, but instead of them ‘just being dropped passes,’ the receivers are tipping them in the air for the defense to grab.”“The counter argument to that would be that Mayfield needs to throw a better ball. Yes, NFL-level receivers should still be making any catches in their catch radius, but Mayfield can also make their lives a lot easier with improved ball placement,” Chris continued when talking about the first-overall pick of the 2018 draft, and the struggles that have followed him so far in his second year in the NFL.As Chris also pointed out, however, the Browns’ offensive play-calling from head coach Freddie Kitchens and coordinator Todd Monken has not exactly helped him during the early portions of the season. Furthermore, Mayfield himself has often relied too much on his own athletic abilities to make plays. Both issues have been somewhat resolved as the season went along, but the offense is still struggling to get going.“The issues since then have been poor execution, with the aforementioned untimely drops-leading-to-interceptions playing a big role,” said Chris. “Against the 49ers in Week 5, the Browns were about to make it a 14-10 deficit heading into the half, but wide receiverAntonio Callaway tipped a touchdown pass up into the air for an interception, which instead made it a 21-3 deficit.”“In Week 6 against the Seahawks, the Browns were in prime position to go up 27-12 just before halftime, but Cleveland inexplicably rushed to the line of scrimmage, tried forcing a pass to WR Jarvis Landry, and it was deflected into the air for an interception,” he continued. “The Browns then only led 20-18 at the half. Both situations are perfect examples of the frustration with this Cleveland team so far.”“They have been their own worst enemy, and after facing those adverse turning points in game that don’t go their way, the team is unable to rebound LaAdrian Waddle Jerseys 2019 ,” added Chris. Entering the game against the Patriots, ball security therefore needs to be on the top of the list of things to work on for the Browns: New England’s defense, after all, is the best in the NFL at forcing turnovers and has registered a whooping 18 interceptions in just seven games this year.While Cleveland has had its fair share of issues in the passing game, not all has been bad for the team offensively. After all, the Browns have gotten some impressive production out of second-year running back Nick Chubb: the 23-year-old has carried the football 114 times this year for 607 yards and six scores, while also catching 20 passes for an additional 128 yards — accounting for one third of the team’s offensive production.“The one consistent element the Browns have had in all six games is the running ability of Nick Chubb,” said Chris about the former second-round draft pick. “Even when the Browns have faced top-ranked run defenses, Chubb still comes out of the game averaging five yards per carry and close to a 100-yard performance. The Patriots have been so good in every facet defensively, so I’m curious how things will go especially since Cleveland is expected to make at least one change in the starting lineup of the offensive line.”The Patriots, of course, use a similar strategy each week when it comes to playing defense: make the opponent play left-handed by taking away what it does best. In Cleveland’s case, the running game seems like a logical choice as Chubb has been one of the league’s most productive backs seven weeks into the season, and the motor behind the little success the Browns have had on offense — all while the team’s aerial attack has struggled to find its rhythm.However, the Patriots could also opt to look elsewhere to find matchups to focus on as Chris pointed out: “Perhaps the Browns’ talented receiving tandem of Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry will continue to be the focal point of the Patriots’ game plan to eliminate — in other words, they might prefer to let Chubb have a decent day on the ground, as long as it means never letting Beckham and Landry beat them.”The two wide receivers, who have caught a combined 54 passes for 875 yards and a touchdown so far, are among the most talented one-two punches in the NFL. Patriots fans should also have another name on their radar, however, as Chris said: slot receiver Rashard Higgins. He has only two catches for 46 yards on his 2019 résumé after missing the previous five games, but might have the best chemistry among the Browns’ weapons with the team’s quarterback.“His return to action has been frustrating because the belief was that he was ready to go for the past two to three games, only to be scratched,” said Chris about the fourth-year man, who has not played since the season opener. “Higgins was vocal about his frustration too, but head coach Freddie Kitchens excused it by insinuating that they wanted Higgins to be 100% back instead of just 90% back (my words, not his).”“The best way to describe Higgins is that he’s just a solid player,” he continued when talking about a player that will likely go against Patriots slot cornerback Jonathan Jones. “He runs good routes, knows how to move with his quarterback, doesn’t drop passes, etc. He won’t light up the stat sheet, but if he finally returns to action, he will do a lot of the little things to be the security blanket that Mayfield has lacked much of the season.”