2021 NFL Draft rumors: 5 first-round trades that could happen

2. New England Patriots trade up for Trey Lance

The Detroit Lions have been collecting future draft selections, and picking 7th overall, they could go a variety of different directions.

Besides the Atlanta Falcons, the Detroit Lions feel like perhaps the most likely team in the top 10 to trade down from their pick and let someone else have the chance to draft a quarterback.

The New England Patriots have long been rumored to be a team interested in moving up for a new quarterback, but it just hasn’t happened. This would go against what we’ve come to expect to be New England’s “style” but they’ve already gone against the grain by spending a boatload of cash in free agency.

With the way the Patriots just attacked free agency, is it possible they could be one of the most aggressive teams in the 2021 NFL Draft?

I would say yes.

The Patriots liked the foundation they set in 2020 with Cam Newton at the quarterback position. There might not be better options to run the same type of offense than Justin Fields and Trey Lance in this draft class given their ability as runners, and Lance is the better runner of the two.

As a matter of fact, while he was at North Dakota State, Lance averaged 18 pass attempts per game while the offense averaged over 40 rushing attempts per game. The Patriots are built for that kind of offensive attack with a high-percentage passing attack and two weapons at tight end in Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry.

Although Justin Fields would also make sense here, Lance’s ability as a runner would fit much more in line with what the Patriots established in 2020 and if they could get him in the building, he’d be in a great situation to learn behind Cam Newton and maybe even see the field in some packages along with him.