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With the 27th pick of Pride of Detroit's 2012 NFL mock draft, the New England Patriots select USC defensive end Nick Perry. Mavyrk is serving as the Patriots' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.
Despite making it to the Super Bowl this past season and being a playoff mainstay over the past decade, the New England Patriots have a deceptively high number of needs. Were I Bill Belichick and were this the real thing, I have no doubt I (Bill) would be aiming to either trade away this pick or my original first-round pick for future value. That said, since there were no trades allowed in this draft I had to ask myself: value or need?
Thankfully I happened to fall into both here. My greatest need at this time is for some more pass rush, and Nick Perry should be a dominant starter on the edge in the years to come. Not only do I get a great prospect in Perry, but I also get some coveted value in picking a guy that I feel probably shouldn't have fallen this far.
My other options were to either finally find a replacement for Randy Moss with either Stephen Hill or Kendall Wright still available, or to take the best interior lineman left on the board in Peter Konz. While I feel that either Konz or Wright may have been a slightly greater value choice at this selection, neither fills a need as great as pass rusher, and with as deep as the center class of 2012 is, I feel good about my odds of snagging a center (David Molk, Philip Blake, Mike Brewster, etc.) and a field-stretching WR to develop in later picks.
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Check out the 2012 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.
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