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Christopher L. Gasper

Another year, another eclectic Patriots draft

After spending time at Florida and North Carolina State, Jacoby Brissett’s next football home will be with the Patriots.Nell Redmond/Associated Press

What will forever be recalled indignantly in these parts as the Deflategate Draft is in the books for Bill Belichick and the Patriots. The NFL Draft is a football fan’s music festival, but the celebration was muted in New England this year.

This draft had a bitter flavor. Fort Foxborough was dark Thursday night, as the Patriots didn’t hold a first-round pick or a draft party. Fans were still on pins and needles waiting for the Patriots’ picks, but the air pressure punishment saga sucked the joy out of the 2016 selection meeting.

The Patriots were forced by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to forfeit their first-round pick because of Deflategate. The only thing reinstated wasn’t that pick, it was Tom Brady’s four-game suspension by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit three days before the draft.

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How did the burden of Deflategate play into Belichick’s draft philosophy? It didn’t. It was Do Your Job as usual.

Undoubtedly, the Patriots’ strategic options were limited by the loss of a first-round pick. But it didn’t affect their approach. The Patriots won’t let their picks be dictated by overzealous commissioners, convention, industry consensus, or TB12’s athletic biological clock. The Patriots are the Frank Sinatra of the NFL — they do it their way.

This was a typical Patriots draft. They traded down. They traded into next year’s draft. They drafted an offensive lineman (Joe Thuney) and a defensive back (Cyrus Jones). They drafted a guy most folks have never heard of (Eastern Illinois linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hall, in the sixth round). They eschewed a skill-position need (running back). They didn’t select a guy who smoked marijuana survivalist style. We won’t know how well they fared for a while.

“You control what you can control. So, what we had we tried to do the best we could with,” said Belichick. “That’s how we approach it, whether it’s picking guys, moving positions, or trading into next year. Whatever it was we just tried to make the most of it. We traded up. We traded down. We traded into 2017, so I’m not saying it was great or anything. We just tried to do the best we could.”

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One of Belichick’s favorite phrases is, “That’s not what we’re looking for.” But the coach knows exactly what he’s looking for in the draft. He doesn’t care if it fails to align with fan expectations or media prognostications, like taking a quarterback in the third round of a draft where your draft capital is compromised.

The polarizing pick for the Patriots was selecting North Carolina State quarterback Jacoby Brissett in the third round.

Using precious draft equity during Brady’s career on a quarterback is always controversial. It’s even more so in a year where the team doesn’t have a first-round pick. Perhaps, the Patriots believe Brissett is the heir apparent to TB12. But it’s more likely he is the heir apparent to Jimmy Garoppolo.

Jimmy G’s contract has two years left on it. Brady is signed through 2019. Given the paucity of quarterbacks in the NFL, Garoppolo could be poised to cash in after the 2017 season like Brock Osweiler did this offseason.

Having Brissett ready to serve as Brady’s backup makes it easier to trade Garoppolo after this season. Otherwise, the Patriots could simply find a retread to serve as the designated Brady suspension backup, backup QB.

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Brissett had the right football references. He played for Charlie Weis at Florida and was befriended by Bill Parcells in high school. We’ll see if he has the right stuff. The other quarterbacks the Patriots drafted in the third round during Belichick’s tenure — Kevin O’Connell and Ryan Mallett — did not.

The Patriots did get Brady some help for the 2016 season, whenever he sees the field.

After Brady spent more time on the turf than a lawnmower during the AFC Championship game in Denver, the Patriots used their first third-rounder on Thuney, who didn’t allow a sack in 589 snaps last season for North Carolina State. Former Patriot Kevin Faulk made this pick and a pigskin political statement, wearing a Brady jersey, at the draft in Chicago.

The team used its first pick Saturday, a fourth-rounder (No. 112), to select Georgia wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell, a gregarious young man who has written a children’s book and played in a pro-style offense at Georgia.

Thuney and Mitchell are the primary return for trading defensive end Chandler Jones to the Cardinals in March for a second-round pick and guard Jon Cooper. The Patriots flipped that second-round pick (No. 61) overall to the Saints on Friday for the picks used to tab Thuney (No. 78) and Mitchell.

Let’s hope Mitchell, who was in line to be one college football’s elite receivers before he tore his ACL celebrating a touchdown in the 2013 season opener, breaks the Patriots’ wide receiver pox.

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The only drafted wide receiver who has worked out post-2002 is Julian Edelman, a college QB.

After loading up on veteran talent this offseason, the Patriots were interested in divesting some of their 11 draft picks. The Patriots adore undrafted free agents and roster spots are imperative for enticing UDFAs.

The Patriots traded picks No. 196 (sixth round), 204 (sixth round), and 250 (seventh round) to the Dolphins for pick No. 147 (fifth round). They flipped that pick and a seventh (No. 243) to Pumped and Jacked Pete Carroll and the Seahawks for a 2017 fourth-round pick and a 2016 seventh-rounder.

The 2017 fourth-round pick had the fingerprints of Deflategate on it; it replaces the 2017 fourth that the NFL stripped as part of the Deflategate sanctions.

While Deflategate was the backdrop to the Patriots draft, their backfield was not at the forefront.

Two of the running backs the Patriots were purportedly interested in, Kenneth Dixon and Devontae Booker, went to rival teams late in the fourth round. Dixon was drafted by the Ravens and Booker went to the Broncos.

Put Booker down for a backbreaking touchdown run against the Patriots this year.

The Deflategate draft is done. It’s too bad we can’t say the same for Deflategate’s repercussions.


Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.