Here’s what New England Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio said about every one of the team’s 2019 NFL Draft selections.
ROUND 1, NO, 32 OVERALL: N’KEAL HARRY, WR, ARIZONA STATE
“So we ended up sitting where we were, at 32, and making the pick with [N’Keal] Harry, the receiver from Arizona State,” Caserio said Thursday night after the first round of the draft. “[He’s been] a productive player over a three-year period. He played for a couple of different coaches. He played for coach [Todd] Graham for a couple of years and then coach [Herm] Edwards came in, but he’s been a pretty productive player in their systems. He’s a big, strong receiver with good hands, good with the ball after the catch and he had a chance to play against some decent people in the PAC 12 [Conference], so we’ll get him out here and try to get him the program and get him moving. The expectation will be no different than it is for any other player that comes in and get started, build a foundation and then go from there. So, I think that’s really the focus more than anything else.”
He added: “He’s been a productive player. He has some physical attributes that are important to that position. There’s some other good players that are up there, as well, so we just thought this was the player that made the most sense for us at the time.”
ROUND 2, NO. 45 OVERALL: JOEJUAN WILLIAMS, CB, VANDERBILT
“We traded up for Joejuan,” Caserio said Friday night after Day 2 of the draft. “You’ve probably talked to him already or may have talked to him, but he’s a tremendously impressive kid. I would say he’s very mature. He’s a great person which is important. It says a lot about him and the things he’s endured throughout his life. But as a player, he’s got some unique attributes that not a lot of players in that position have. How that necessarily translates into our system, we’ll find out. He primarily played in the perimeter at Vanderbilt. He was a perimeter corner and played against a lot of good people. He’s a player we spent time with on a couple of different occasions. I think Coach [Bill Belichick] has made his trips to Nashville worth it here over the past however number of years. He’s just an impressive kid. Where he’s going to play, it’s too early to determine that. What we do know is that he’s played in the secondary at a good level against a lot of good people and been productive. He’s a very smart kid. He [already] graduated.”
ROUND 3, NO. 77 OVERALL: CHASE WINOVICH, DE, MICHIGAN
“We were at [No.] 64 and shipped that back there a little bit, a few spots, kind of juggled some things around right and then we picked [Chase] Winovich there at [No.] 73 or whichever one that was,” Caserio said. “He was primarily an end-of-line scrimmage player at Michigan. He did a lot of things well in their system. [We] have a lot of respect for Coach [Jim] Harbaugh and the program that he runs and the defense that [Winovich] played in. He’s been productive rushing the passer. He’s got a good motor. He’s a pretty instinctive guy. He’s good with his hands. He’s got pretty good technique and he’s been productive over the course of a couple of years here now, and he’s got long hair which I’m sure everybody will enjoy – until we tell him to cut it. He has some value, hopefully not only defensively but in the kicking game as well with his size at six-two-and-a-half, six-three, 245, 250 [pounds]. He runs fairly well, I think he ran a 4.6 [40 yard dash] or somewhere in that vicinity, so it’s a pretty good combination of size and speed, toughness and instinctiveness.”
ROUND 3, NO. 87 OVERALL: DAMIEN HARRIS, RB, ALABAMA
“[Damien] Harris, the running back from Alabama, I would say that’s a situation relative to whatever else you’re looking at, he falls into the good football player category that’s been consistently productive over the course of however many years,” Caserio said. “Look, everybody knows what we think about the Alabama program and how highly regarded it is and the mutual respect that Bill and Nick [Saban] have for one another. But this is a player who over the course of the last three years basically has averaged 1,000 yards in the SEC and they have a lot of good backs. Similar to the Georgia situation with Nick Chubb and Sony [Michel], they have Harris, they have Josh Jacobs and they have a few more back in the pipeline. But this guy has been a pretty consistently productive player, so this is more of, I would say, falls into good football player category relative to the other options that we were looking at on the board, that’s where he kind of fell.”
ROUND 3, NO. 101 OVERALL: YODNY CAJUSTE, OT, WEST VIRGINIA
“Yodny Cajuste, the tackle from West Virginia, has primarily played left tackle,” Caserio said. ” He played in a passing system. He’s a fairly athletic kid. I think he’s a three-year starter. He’s a player we spent time with and a couple of different checkpoints here.”
He added: “He’s primarily played on the left side. As you know with the offensive line, when they’re on the field, they’re going to play a lot of different spots. It’s like when we drafted Nate [Solder] in whatever year that was. He played left tackle at Colorado. Well, his first year [in New England], he basically was the third tackle, jumbo tight end and he was playing right tackle. [Sebastian] Vollmer, Vollmer played left tackle primarily at Houston, he ended up playing both sides [in New England]. Trent Brown didn’t play left tackle until he came into our program. So whatever their background is, that might be where their experience level is, so if we try them somewhere else, we’ll see if they can handle it. I mean, Matt Light’s another example going way back. Matt played left tackle. That was before I got here, but we moved him to right tackle or even talked about playing him at guard and then we eventually figured out that this guy’s a pretty good left tackle and now he’s in the Patriots Hall of Fame because he played however many years at a high level. Nothing’s going to be predetermined. Their experience is what you see, but how that projects, we’ll find out when he gets here.”
ROUND 4, NO. 118 OVERALL: HJALTE FROHOLDT, OG, ARKANSAS
“Interesting story, I’m not sure who had more enjoyment on that pick – Bret [Bielema] or the kid but Bret was pretty involved on the phone after the pick, so they can talk about their recruiting days when he brought him into the program. [He’s an] interesting player. He started his career as a defensive lineman and they he transitioned to the offensive line and then he ended up playing basically three years as a starter and never missed a game. He played against a number of good players and a number of good people. He’s smart, got good size,” Caserio said Saturday. “side there. He’s a good football player against good people so he kind of fits the mold of some of the other players that we talked about here a little bit over the past few days.”
ROUND 4, NO. 133 OVERALL: JARRETT STIDHAM, QB, AUBURN
“He’s another player who transferred, from Baylor,” Caserio said. “A lot of people probably know his background, leaving Baylor and then going to Auburn. He’s a pretty productive player. The system is probably a little bit different relative to what he’s going to play in offensively here, but he’s a really smart kid. We had a number of interactions with him along the way. He’s a smart player who takes care of the football with pretty good arms strength. He’s fairly athletic, though not a running quarterback but he has decent movement skills, so I’m sure he’ll be competitive with the rest of the players that we have at the position.”
ROUND 5, NO. 159 OVERALL: BYRON COWART, DT, MARYLAND
“He started his career at Auburn. There’s a lot of good football players on that team at Auburn, some of whom got drafted, some of whom are going to get drafted next year,” Caserio said Saturday. “He transferred to Maryland and played defensive end. He was a a five-technique in their kind of three-man front. They were really a 3-4 defense so he played a little bit more five-technique. He’s probably a little bit more of a run player. I mean, this guy is really thick when you see him. He’s well-built, he’s really strong and plays powerful at the point of attack. He did some decent things at Auburn and he did some decent things at Maryland as well.”
ROUND 5, NO. 163 OVERALL: JAKE BAILEY, P, STANFORD
“He’s a pretty athletic kid, a great kid, great traits, smart, mature – so it’s really nothing more than competition,” Caserio said. “We’ll see how it goes. Our thing is we really don’t make commitments to anybody how it’s going to go, the competition sorts itself out and we’ll let it play out.”
Caserio on what kind of stock to punt into the fact that Bailey is a right-footed punter, even though Bill Belichick favors lefties: “Not much. I mean, you’re just evaluating the player’s skills – I know that’s been a topic of discussion that we’ve had 56 left-footed punters since Bill’s been here, but punting, there’s a lot of different things that go into punting. So, I mean, it’s just the spin of the ball is going to be a little bit different and those types of things. So, I think you just look at the player on its own.”
ROUND 7, NO. 252 OVERALL: KEN WEBSTER, CB, OLE MISS
“He’s a really, really good player in 2016. He had some injuries that he sustained in ’17 – whatever year that was – then he kind of worked his way back. I’d say he’s similar to [Keion] Crosen just from the standpoint of [he has] outstanding testing numbers,” Caserio said. “I mean, [he’s] really explosive in terms of his speed and his explosiveness – I mean like eye-popping numbers. Now, there’s an element that has to translate over to the field, but from a physical, athletic trait standpoint, there’s a lot of good qualities and he played against some pretty good people on a weekly basis.”
