The Patriots drafted Duke Dawson with the 56th overall pick. They didn’t select again until choice No. 143.
New England, though, tried to trade into the third round.
The Patriots, who sent their third-round pick to the 49ers in the Trent Brown trade, called the Bengals as Cincinnati was getting ready to use the 78th pick.
“We were getting ready to take [linebacker] Malik Jefferson, and I think it was [Bill] Belichick that called and I’ve got the card in my hand -- I’m trying to call our guy down in -- and Belichick calls and he wants that pick,” Cincinnati’s director of player personnel Duke Tobin told Paul Dehner on the Bengals’ Beat podcast on the Cincinnati Enquirer, via WEEI. “And I’m like, ‘Well Bill, thanks; I appreciate it, you know, what do you want to give? I’ll listen. I’ll always listen.’ And he wants to give commensurate value for it, and the answer is no, I think we’re going to pick.”
Tobin said he fields 25 to 30 trade calls during the draft and makes about as many calls.
It is unclear who the Patriots had their eye on in the third round.