I think the Pats are at least two years away. They have absolutely nothing on the lines. I’d focus on improving the team two years from now, given the draft next year may be a little bit better. My focus on the draft this year is finding players to help Maye not get killed. I think we ‘won’ our QB search, that’s the battle that really matters.There are two guys who seem like a decent chance to play LT for you next year if you draft them. No guarantees of course but Conerly and Simmons are those guys. Simmons is coming off a knee injury rumored to be an ACL injury in early October of 24. There is a chance he should be ready to start practicing by camp or summer according to his agent (source is his agent so caution). Both guys have potential to be a top 10-15 LT.
Not science but in my Pff draft simulator we I dropped to 18 but picked up LV (Sanders) and Atlanta’s (Tet) first rounders next year. The LV one could be juicy, as ours likely will be. That would give us a midround pick this year when there isn’t much top end talent but we don’t lose any actual players. Just the first one would be ‘less better’.