It was a productive first week for the Patriots

in free agency, but how's it going to affect their draft plans?

That's what we're going to break down here on Patriots Draft Countdown.

Welcome everybody to Patriots Draft Countdown, presented by Bud Light.

Easy to drink, easy to enjoy.

Bud Light is the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots, and this is our first in-studio show of the new season guys. Exciting. We're back on the

draft mode, I guess you would call it. So first things we're going to start off with is we talked,

you know, after the Super Bowl, all kinds of needs that the team might have. Now they've gone out

in free agency and really they've kind of swab one for one. Guys left, they brought another guy in to fill that. So, you know, not a whole lot of movement upwards, but it feels like they've kind of built a dam, I guess. They're not hemorrhging any players. But, Ev, I want to start with you. Just overall, what's your big takeaway of how this free agency period is going to affect the draft? What's the headline for you? Yeah, I think you kind of

nailed it there as it sort of was, you know, let's tread water in free agency and set up a big

draft. And I think specifically at a lot of different positions, they didn't resign any of their

in-house free agents, which I find pretty fascinating coming off as team that won 14 games and made the Super Bowl.

But when I look at it, at the spots of players that they let walk, you know,

Austin Hooper at tight end, Jelani Devine and Jack Gibbons out at linebacker,

Anthony Jennings and Caleb on Chase on out at edge rusher.

These are all positions that I kind of expect to be on their radar in the draft.

You're just adding one more with Vidarian Lowe at offensive tackle. So the idea to me it looks

like is let's create opportunity and let's create potential roles for us to go out and draft players

at tight end, at offensive tackle, at edge rusher, at linebacker, that you have pathways

for these guys to contribute and make the roster.

Because if you just bring everybody back, it's going to be hard to find competition in spots

for 11 draft picks.

...