Wish list

The NFL Draft-a-palooza gets underway Thursday night. The Patriots will be on the clock around-the-clock for most of the weekend, having nine picks over the seven rounds. Unless, as is his wont, Belichick trades away most of those picks.

If the Patriots do make some selections, there are a few areas of definite need. The Globe's Shalise Manza Young gave her excellent "State of the Patriots" report this week (if you want to see it as it is meant to be seen, go to page C10 of Wednesday's sports section) and from reading that it is clear where the Pats are strong, and where they need more help.

Positions of strength: Quarterback, tight end, special teams, and cornerback. Oh, and coach.

Positions in need of help: D line, O line, safety, wide receiver, running back, linebackers.

The Patriots have nine picks this weekend. I figure, at best, the most Belichick will use is seven of those picks. Here's what I expect the positional breakdown to be:

2 defensive linemen

2 offensive linemen

1 defensive back (probably a safety)
1 wide receiver
1 running back

CAMERON #2

CAMERON #1

So that leaves one issue to be addressed. Who should fill those spots?

The Globe has the Pats taking California DE Cameron Jordan with the 17th pick. Mark and I favor the other Cameron... Cameron Heyward from Ohio St. My friend Mark's a Buckeye so he's biased, and I think it's good to get a guy who played for a coach who knows how to cheat better than anyone else. Other defensive line candidates include JJ Watt from Wisconsin, Da'Quan Bowers of Clemson, and Adrian Clayborn of Iowa. Any one of those guys would look good next to Big Vince on the line.

On the offensive side, the best lineman that could slide to #17 is Mike Pouncey from the Pats' Florida farm team. Pouncey would be an impact starter on an offensive line suddenly in transition. He would be a steal at #17. Other O line guys that would fit the Pats is Stefan Wisniewski of Penn St. and Nate Solder of Colorado.

As for running back, a position that was surprisingly strong with BenJarvis and Woodhead making a good one-two punch... well, you can always use more running backs. Especially if that back is Alabama's Mark Ingram. The stud back keeps on sliding down in mock drafts... hopefully right into Belichick's hands with the team's second pick at #28.

I would love to see the Pats package their two picks and move up to grab wide receiver A.J. Green of Georgia. I know, wide receivers in the first round are often disasters (Hart Lee Dykes anyone?). But Green would be a monster, not a disaster. Put him with Brady and the rest of the offense for the rest of #12s career and stand back and watch Rex Ryan try to stop that. Randall Cobb of Kentucky would be a good receiver to grab later in the draft.

But as we all know, it's best to never get too attached to potential draft picks with Belichick making the call. He'll either pull a cornerback from Rutgers out of his draft bag or he'll just keep the bag shut and send the picks off to another team and live to draft another day,

As Mark messaged me today.. "Why do I keep thinking that tomorrow we will begin another year of looking forward to having two first-round picks in the next draft?"