Will the Patriots Trade a First Round Pick in the NFL Draft? 

The New England Patriots are known for trading draft picks and doing it well. With three picks in the first 33 of the draft the Patriots are extremely likely to move one of those picks to add more choices in the later rounds. 

With the No. 17 overall pick courtesy of the Oakland Raiders the Patriots are going to take a defender. Pat Kirwan of NFL.com disagrees with me and has the Patriots taking Tyron Smith from USC. That is a possibility, but with so many great defenders available in the first round the Patriots will be upgrading their defensive front. 

Kirwan also has Brandon Harris in the first round and Mark Ingram falling to the last pick in the first round. So yeah, take what you will from that.

Pro Football Weekly’s Nolan Nawrocki’s mock draft 3.0 has Mark Ingram slipping to the Patriots, which if he is available then lock that one up. However, I think there’s no way Miami passes on Ingram. 

With so much talent on the defensive line in this daft class New England will upgrade a line that struggled to pressure the quarterback. J.J. Watt, Cameron Jordan, or Ryan Kerrigan are the three guys they would consider with this pick.

Jordan has experience at the 3-4 and the other two are sack machines. New England would be thrilled to have any of them.

As far as the 28th pick in the draft I could see the Patriots trading that to a team looking to jump back in the first round to take a Ryan Mallett or Jake Locker if those guys are still on the board. 

If not then expect the Patriots to keep it and draft a a skill player or a offensive lineman.

New England has a lot of options in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Be sure to check out Bleacher Report’s NFL Draft Page for all your draft needs.