Few items of NFL business are more over-scrutinized than pre-draft visits.
Teams can have up to 30 prospects into their facility to meet with team officials, but most teams have around seven draft picks. So the majority of guys teams are linked with the next few weeks will never pass through those doors again.
But every now and then, names tend to jump out at you.
According to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald, the Patriots have scheduled visits with Dion Jordan, Tank Carradine, Desmond Trufant, D.J. Fluker and Tyrann Mathieu.
Jordan’s inclusion on that list is odd, if only because the Oregon defensive end might be a top-five pick. The Patriots don’t pick until 29th, and they don’t have the kind of ammunition to make trades unless they’re borrowing again from future drafts.
The Patriots have five total selections, with one each in the first three rounds, and a pair of sevenths. Their fourth went to the Buccaneers for the Aqib Talib rental, the fifth to the Redskins for Albert Haynesworth and the sixth to the Bengals for Chad Johnson.
So the Patriots are either using the visit as a chance to mess with other teams, or simply for future scouting purposes.
Because picking where they’re picking (for now), there seems little other reason to spend on the plane fare.