The Patriots' goal to find their next franchise quarterback will hit a stumbling block tonight ... because of their TV crew.
That's right. The NFL stripped the Patriots of their third-round pick in this year's draft, which begins tonight, because it was deemed the team's television crew illegally filmed the field and sidelines during a Bengals vs. Browns game on Dec. 8, 2019.
Why is that a big deal? The Patriots have the 15th pick in the first round. Their second-round pick is 46th overall. Without the third-round pick, the Patriots will have to wait until the 90th pick - 50 picks - before making their third selection.
Bill Belichick won't want to wait 50 picks so he'll need to find a way to get a late second or early third rounder. He'll do that by trading back from No. 15 overall, not trading up, as everyone is speculating.
The Patriots will still get a highly regarded young quarterback this weekend. But he won't be named Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Mac Jones, Justin Fields or Trey Lance.
He'll be named Davis Mills, a promising quarterback from Stanford. If the Patriots had more draft capital, I could see the team moving up from No. 15 to, say, No. 11 to draft Jones, Fields or Lance.
But Belichick won't want to sit out a fertile portion of the draft. He likely hates having just two picks in the top 95 spots. So forget about all those reports of the Patriots trading up. They're going to trade down.
All because of their TV crew's actions inside a press box in Cincinnati a year and a half ago.
Stanford quarterback Davis Mills
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