List of New England Patriots first-round draft picks
The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston metropolitan area. They are a member of the American Football Conference East Division. The team began as the Boston Patriots in the American Football League, which merged with the National Football League in 1970. In 1971, the team relocated to Foxborough, where they became the New England Patriots. Since its establishment in 1960, the franchise has selected 64 players in the first round, five of these being the first overall pick. The NFL Draft, which is officially known as the "Player Selection Meeting", is held each April. The draft is used as the primary means to distribute newly available talent equitably amongst the teams. Selections are made in reverse order based on the previous season's record, i.e., the club with the worst record from the previous season selects first. Through 2009, only two exceptions were made to this order: the Super Bowl champion always selects last, and the Super Bowl loser second to last. Beginning in 2010, teams making the playoffs have been seeded in reverse order depending upon how far they advance. The draft consists of seven rounds. Teams have the option of trading selections for players, cash and/or other selections. Thus, it is not uncommon for a team's actual draft pick to differ from their assigned draft pick, or for a team to have extra or no draft picks in any round due to these trades. The Patriots traded their first-round pick six times. In 2016, their first-round pick was stripped as punishment for the Deflategate incident. Ron Burton, a running back from Northwestern, was the first player to be drafted to the Patriots team. He was selected third overall in the 1960 American Football League Draft. Jim Plunkett, a quarterback from Stanford, was the Patriots' first selection in the 1971 NFL Draft. The Patriots have selected first overall five times, drafting Jack Concannon in 1964, Plunkett in 1971, Kenneth Sims in 1982, Irving Fryar in 1984, and Drew Bledsoe in 1993. The team has selected third overall once and fourth overall three times. Through 2017, two Patriots first-round draft picks have been elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame: John Hannah and Mike Haynes. Twenty Patriots first-round draft picks have been selected for the Pro Bowl. The team's most recent first-round draft pick was N'Keal Harry, a wide receiver from Arizona State University.
