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. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference East Division. Founded in 1959 as the Boston Patriots, they were a charter member of the American Football League (AFL) and joined the NFL in 1970 following the AFL–NFL merger.^[4][5][6] The Patriots played their home games at various stadiums throughout Boston, including Fenway Park from 1963 to 1969, until the franchise moved to Foxborough in 1971.^[7][8] As part of the move, the team changed its name to the New England Patriots.^[7][8] Home games were played at Foxboro Stadium until 2002 when the stadium was demolished alongside the opening of Gillette Stadium. The team began utilizing Gillette Stadium for home games the same year.^[7][9]

The NFL draft, officially known as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting",^[10][11][12] is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment.^[13] The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings; the teams with the worst win–loss records receive the earliest picks. Teams that qualified for the NFL playoffs select after non-qualifiers, and their order depends on how far they advanced, using their regular season record as a tie-breaker. The final two selections in the first round are reserved for the Super Bowl runner-up and champion. Draft picks are tradable and players or other picks can be acquired with them.^[14]

Before the merger agreements in 1966, the AFL directly competed with the NFL and held a separate draft. This led to a massive bidding war over top prospects between the two leagues, along with the subsequent drafting of the same player in each draft. As part of the merger agreement on June 8, 1966, the two leagues held a multiple round "common draft". Once the AFL officially merged with the NFL in 1970, the "common draft" simply became the NFL draft.^[15][16][17] The first AFL draft was held prior to the start of the 1960 season. The first round of the 1960 AFL draft was territorial selections. Each team received a "territorial pick" which allowed them to select a single player within a pre-agreed upon designated region (the team's "territory"). Teams then agreed on the top eight players at each position, who were subsequently assigned to teams by random draw, with each of the eight teams receiving one of those players. This process was repeated until all 53 roster spots were filled.^[18] Beginning in the 1961 draft, the AFL, using the same system as the NFL, began to assign picks based on the previous season's standings.^[19]

Since the team's first draft, the Patriots have selected 71 players in the first round.^[1] The team's first-round pick in the inaugural AFL draft was Gerhard Schwedes, a halfback out of Syracuse; he was the team's territorial selection.^[18][20] The Patriots have selected first overall five times, drafting Jack Concannon in 1964, Jim Plunkett in 1971, Kenneth Sims in 1982, Irving Fryar in 1984, and Drew Bledsoe in 1993.^[1] In the most recent draft, held in 2024, the Patriots selected North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.^[21]

The Patriots did not draft a player in the first round on eight occasions.^[1] Four of the team's first-round picks—John Hannah, Mike Haynes, Ty Law, and Richard Seymour—have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.^[22] The Patriots used four first-round picks in the 1960s to select players—Gary Collins, Jack Concannon, Tommy Mason, and Jerry Rush—who chose to sign with the NFL instead.^{[23][24][25][26]}