It looks like Johnny Football will have some company in Foxboro on Wednesday.
Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports that the Patriots will be hosting Louisville quarterback Teddy Bridgewater for a pre-draft visit. Bridgewater’s trip will come on the same day that Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel visits a team that isn’t expected to be in the market for a quarterback when they pick at the end of the first round. The Patriots also met with Central Florida quarterback Blake Bortles, who joins Bridgewater and Manziel atop most lists of draft-eligible quarterbacks, last week after his pro day.
Mike Florio suggested on Tuesday night that the Patriots could be using a meeting with Manziel to gauge his potential trade value if he should fall to the later parts of the first round, something that could also be true of Bridgewater and Bortles even if they’ve generated less heated responses on both sides of the fence than the former Heisman Trophy winner.
There are other possibilities for the rationale for using two of their 30 pre-draft visits to team headquarters on quarterbacks expected to be off the board before the Patriots select, including, of course, the possibility that the Patriots want to keep the door open to selecting one should things break a different way. Whatever the reason, Wednesday is looking like a busy day for quarterbacks in New England.