Nick Caserio Gushes Over Patriots’ Draft Choices, Looking To Move Day 3 Picks

FOXBORO, Mass. — Director of player personnel Nick Caserio made it loud and clear during his news conference after Day 2 of the 2016 NFL Draft had concluded: The New England Patriots are looking to move some picks on Day 3.

Whether the Patriots will be able to trade up in the draft or out into 2017 depends on the other 31 NFL teams, but for now, New England has used four selections, owns eight more on Day 3 and came into the draft with just 14 open spots on its 90-man roster.

So, if the Patriots use all 12 selections, they’ll have just two remaining spots to sign undrafted free agents. The Patriots usually have a high success rate on those undrafted signees, so it’s important to keep those spots open.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Caserio said Friday night at Gillette Stadium. “We’re actually at 80 players on the roster if you include the players we drafted, so somewhere along the line, something’s going to have to give. We’re going to have to give some picks up, or we just can’t keep that many — you’ve got 90 players you can actually have on your roster at one time. We’ll have to see how it all fits together. That’s kind of where we are at the time being.”

The Patriots can trade just five of their eight selections on Day 3 of the draft: 112th overall, 196th overall, 204th overall, 243rd overall and 250th overall. Their three compensatory selections in the sixth round cannot be dealt. They currently don’t have a fifth-round pick.

Caserio understandably seemed happy with New England’s four selections on Day 2: cornerback Cyrus Jones, offensive lineman Joe Thuney, quarterback Jacoby Brissett and defensive tackle Vincent Valentine. Caserio started his news conference reacting to the picks.

On Jones: “Cyrus, a versatile player. Played on the perimeter, mostly, at Alabama. He was a very effective punt returner — I think he had four punt returns for touchdowns this season. Real good ball skills. Real good with the ball in his hands as a returner. Kind of has position versatility and additional value on fourth down.”

On Thuney: “The thing about Thuney is just his overall versatility. He’s started at guard. He started at left tackle this past season. When Dante (Scarnecchia, the Patriots’ offensive line coach) went to go work him out, we actually snapped him and worked him out at center, whether or not he can play center, we’ll have to see, but the overall value he brings in terms of his overall versatility is hard to find. Typically you have guys, they can play one position, just a tackle, just a guard, center, but here’s a player who played two different positions, actually three if you want to include right guard, left guard, but he played guard and tackle. Very productive, very durable, very bright — probably as intelligent as anybody at that position.”

On Brissett: “We only had two (quarterbacks) on the team. We were definitely going to add a third quarterback, no question about it, at some point, whether it was in the draft or however we did it. Jacoby was a guy we spent a lot of time with, brought him in, kind of went through the whole exercise with him. He started his career at Florida, then transferred to North Carolina State, two-year starter in the ACC. Big guy, good size, athletic, strong, did a better job of taking care of the football this year, decent touchdown-interception ratio. He’s played in a couple of quality programs.”

On Valentine: “This guy’s a big guy, he’s long, he’s 6-4, 6-5, 315, 320 pounds. The thing about (him), when you watch Nebraska, when you’re actually watching, he and Maliek Collins, who the Cowboys took at the top of the third round, you’re talking about two NFL defensive tackles. They’re a little bit different. Collins is a little bit more undersized, a little bit more of a traditional three-technique. Valentine actually played anywhere from 0- all the way out to 5-technique. He’s primarily an inside, interior defensive tackle. Very strong. Very physical. Good run player. Well coached, playing for Coach (Bo) Pelini. That program, we have a lot of respect for Coach Pelini, his program, what he did there.”

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