Re-drafting the Patriots: What if Belichick had taken Lamar Jackson?

In Bill Belichick's new book, The Art of Winning, he acknowledges that he made a mistake in passing on Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. Twice.

That was the year in which Belichick selected Georgia offensive lineman Isaiah Wynn (23rd overall) and later Georgia running back Sony Michel (31st overall) before the Ravens took Jackson with the 32nd overall pick.

Belichick's admission sparked an interesting question at this address, particularly with the reaction to this year's draft still fresh.

With questions hovering over New England's latest haul and what it could do for the team's long-term future, what if the Patriots could turn back the clock and re-do not only that 2018 draft but... every... draft... since?

It's a fantasy-land exercise, but it's one that helps illustrate just how drastically things can change for a team if they get their first few picks right on draft weekend. Or if they don't.

This exercise, of course, is an extreme illustration because these alternate-universe Patriots get their first few picks right for years.

Here we'll take a look at what the Patriots could have done differently in just the first and second rounds since that 2018 draft. We'll start with Jackson and go from there as though he's on the roster.

Therefore, though the Drake Maye pick looks like a good one from last year, we'll have the Patriots go elsewhere with their first pick in 2024 with Jackson in New England.

For each change, we tried to be reasonable with the new selections, keeping with names who landed within a round of the original Patriots pick. That means we won't swap out a second-round pick (Joejuan Williams, for example) for a player taken in the fifth round that same year who has proven to have drastically outperformed expectations (Andrew Van Ginkel).

Thirteen changes were made in all, and two draft classes -- you'll see which -- ended up being kept intact as they played out in reality.

We then filled out the 53-man roster with free-agent signings and lower-round draft choices without much regard for the salary cap, since it can be manipulated when an ownership group has a strong desire to keep its star players.

Here are the results...

2018 Draft

• Round 1, No. 23 overall: QB Lamar Jackson over OL Isaiah Wynn 
• Round 1, No. 31: OL Braden Smith over RB Sony Michel
• Round 2, No. 56: OL Brian O'Neill over CB Duke Dawson

2019 Draft

• Round 1, No. 32: CB Byron Murphy over WR N'Keal Harry
• Round 2, No. 45: WR AJ Brown over CB Joejuan Williams

2020 Draft

• Round 2, No. 37: RB Jonathan Taylor over S Kyle Dugger
• Round 2, No. 60: LB Logan Wilson over OLB Josh Uche

2021 Draft

• Round 1, No. 15: OL Christian Darrisaw over QB Mac Jones
• Round 2, No. 38: OL Creed Humphrey over DL Christian Barmore

2022 Draft

• Round 1, No. 29: CB Kyler Gordon over OL Cole Strange
• Round 2, No. 50: TE Trey McBride over WR Tyquan Thornton

2023 Draft 

• Round 1, No. 17: CB Christian Gonzalez
• Round 2, No. 46: DL Keion White

2024 Draft

• Round 1, No. 3: WR Malik Nabers over QB Drake Maye
• Round 2, No. 37: DL Braden Fiske over WR Ja'Lynn Polk

2025 Draft

• Round 1, No. 4: OL Will Campbell
• Round 2, No. 38: RB TreVeyon Henderson

And here's our alternate-reality Patriots 53-man roster, with those re-drafted players included: