The Patriots will hold a top-5 selection in next year’s draft, and are likely looking at picking a quarterback.

At 4-12, the New England Patriots are currently in position to own the third overall selection in the 2024 NFL Draft. It would be their highest pick in three decades and, given that they are in the market for a quarterback, a valuable asset to help rebuild one of the worst offenses in the league.

Of course, with one game left in this year’s regular season, there are plenty of moving parts still. The Patriots, depending on their Week 18 game against the New York Jets, might pick as high as second or drop as low as fifth — which in turn might impact their ability to draft one of the top two QBs available, USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye.

As things currently stand, however, there might be a chance the Patriots are in position for one of those two players even if they end up winning their season finale and dropping down to the fourth and maybe even fifth spot. After all, there is no guarantee some of the other teams in their current vicinity will go after a quarterback this spring.

Take the Arizona Cardinals, who are currently 4-12 as well and only behind the Patriots at No. 4 due to the strength of schedule tiebreaker. If head coach Jonathan Gannon is to be believed, they will continue to roll with current starter Kyler Murray.

“There is no doubt,” Gannon said on a local radio station on Tuesday. “‘Number 1’ is our franchise quarterback.”

Obviously, any statements like this need to be taken with a grain of salt at this point in time. The Cardinals holding onto Murray, however, is not an unrealistic outcome; he missed half the season coming off a torn ACL and helped the Cardinals earn three of their four losses while going 3-4 overall.

Arizona might not be the only team near the top of the draft to pass on a QB. The Chicago Bears, for example, might decide to give Justin Fields another shot while simultaneously bolstering the depth around him. Them adding wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. — arguably the top overall prospect in the draft this year — and one of the top offensive tackles available with their two top-10 picks might be the way to go for the organization.

The Bears might be willing to trade down from No. 1 overall, a pick they acquired in a trade with the Carolina Panthers last offseason, but it seems like they are looking for a king’s ransom to do so. According to a report by ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, multiple first-round selections might be acquired to make the jump to the top pick:

If the Bears traded the first pick, the return could be immense. Several executives agree Chicago could net more than it did in the Panthers trade, and from a prospective trade partner already picking in the top five. Those execs believe the price to get to No. 1 could be two future first-rounders on top of this year’s pick, along with a variation of a Day 2 pick and/or a premium veteran player on a manageable contract.

Then, there are the New York Giants, another candidate to leap-frog New England over the final weekend. They very much have tied themselves to Daniel Jones for the foreseeable future; even if designated a post-July 1 cut he would carry a $47.1 million dead salary cap number in 2024, and no team is going to trade for his contract.

As can be seen, there is a scenario where three of the top five teams in the draft are not actively looking to draft a quarterback. In that case, the third-ranked Patriots and second-ranked Washington Commanders would be the likely landing spots for Williams and Maye, in whichever order they come off the board.

Of course, the trade market can change the picture entirely. If the Bears get their mega-package and move down, the team trading up likely would do so with a quarterback in mind — leaving the Patriots in a possibly challenging position.

That being said, Chicago or any other team moving out just for the sake of doing so will also not happen. If the consolation price is a blue-chip non-quarterback such as the aforementioned Mavin Harrison Jr., fellow wide receiver Malik Nabers, tight end Brock Bowers, or offensive tackles Olu Fashanu and Joe Alt, staying put is not a bad play either.

There will be uncertainty atop the top of the draft, and the situation will remain unclear until the first chips start falling either through trade or when the first pick is announced on April 25. However, the Patriots might just end up as benefactors of that situation: one of the top quarterbacks might still end up falling into their lap, even if they do not end up as the second pick in the draft or trade up themselves.

But, again, there is a lot that can and likely will happen over the next four months.