I remember a quote, anecdote, etc, from somewhere, maybe someone posted it here many moons ago, maybe someone said it on EEI or 98.5 a long time ago. But this was back when everyone was tongue bathing Belichick and Krafty Bob for the "Patriot Way" of personnel management. During the Brady glory years.
The gist of said quite, claim, whatever, was that the Patriots draft strategy is to draft players in the early rounds at positions that project to cost less over the length their contracts. so basically, taking majority of "low stat impact" defensive players early, interior linemen. like drafting nickel corners, safeties, middle linebackers, dline, oline...guys that can't quantifiably justify big $ based on sacks, interceptions, etc.
And I think if you go back through their drafts from say, 04 once Brady established himself as the QB for the foreseeable next 10-15 years, most picks in 1-3 rounds were exactly that - safeties, nickel corners, inside backers, project edge rushers, linemen, and running backs.
that was modified a bit post Brady, with Drafting Jones and Gonzalez.
It will be quite interesting to see how Krafty Bob managed this third pick, the most important draft pick since 1993.