Nick Wright Proffers Galaxy Brain Take on How Patriots Could Handle NFL Draft

The FS1 take artist suggests New England take two Colorado stars before hiring Deion Sanders.

Nick Wright cooks / First Things First

The New England Patriots are on the verge of earning the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Sitting at 3-13 entering the last week of the season, the Pats will secure the top overall selection should they lose their last game of the year against the Buffalo Bills.

And if that future came to be, it would make for quite an intruiging NFL draft cycle. New England, unlike many teams who pick at the top of the draft, does not need a quarterback. Drake Maye has shown enough flashes that he's earned a future with the organization, and the Pats will use their picks to build out the roster around him instead. But in a draft lacking in true blue-chip prospects outside of Travis Hunter (an incredible, but unprecedented talent), there aren't a lot of obvious choices for the franchise to make.

Which means everything should be on the table for the Patriots' decision-makers. To Nick Wright, co-host of First Things First on FS1, that should mean everything. On Monday's show Wright followed up on a tweet from the weekend and laid out a galaxy brain-level plan for the Patriots to completely overhaul their organization in one fell swoop.

The short version? Make Foxborough Colorado North by picking Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, then drafting Deion Sanders. Here's the long version:

"Here's the deal: Every option needs to be on the table with the No. 1 pick," Wright stated as he revved up his monologue. "Every option. If they love a left tackle, even if the whole media is like, it's gotta be Travis Hunter, you do it. If they love Travis Hunter, you gotta do it. If they want to do what the Bears did two years ago and trade the pick for a bounty of stuff if that's available to them, and it's not available every year, you gotta do it.

"You also have to, deeply and thoroughly, investigate or figure out how much you like Shedeur Sanders and/or Cam Ward. If you feel like this year's QB1, that you can pick, you can decide who it is, you like more than last year's QB3, who you have, then you must shop Drake Maye. And if, as an added bonus because I know (co-host Kevin) Wildes thinks Drake Maye's awesome, if the Titans agree with you— who have the No. 2 pick— and the Titans are like, listen, we would take Shedeur, but if you guys take him, we like Drake Maye more than we like Cam Ward. As an added bonus, you have a chance to truly revamp the New England Patriots by going Shedeur Sanders No. 1, Travis Hunter No. 2, Deion Sanders head coach, and say, you turned the worst college program around in two years, have a shot at the worst pro program, that has to be something you investigate."

.@getnickwright explains what the Patriots should do with the #1 pick:

“You have a chance to truly revamp the New England Patriots by going Shedeur Sanders 1, Travis Hunter 2, Deion Sanders head coach.” pic.twitter.com/1iL7cvCm8x

— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) December 30, 2024

As Wright hints at above and then later clarified, this isn't what he believes the Patriots should do. But merely something they have to consider because they have an obligation to leave absolutely no stone unturned if they end up with the first pick.

It would certainly make for quite the news cycle. A lot of dominoes have to fall in a very particular order for this wild scenario to come close to fruition, of course. The holder of the No. 2 pick would have to play ball, Patriots owner Robert Kraft would have to accept his hand-chosen successor to Bill Belichick was a failure and fire him for Deion Sanders, Deion Sanders would have to agree to leave Colorado, the list goes on.

But it's a fun thought exercise and a glimpse at what direction conversations will take if the Patriots end their season on the sort of disastrous note that has rung loudly throughout the 2024 campaign.

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