Patriots head coach Bill Belichick likens the upcoming NFL draft to a jigsaw puzzle.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – It is, in many ways, a puzzling time at One Patriot Place.

“In the draft process, I look at it like a jigsaw puzzle,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said during Friday’s pre-draft press conference at Gillett Stadium. “It’s got like a hundred pieces and each piece has a little bit of a fit, but in the end there are a lot of pieces, so you have all the factors that come with a player, a lot of other circumstances, other opinions, medical opinions, there’s his ability as a teammate, leadership, work ethic, strength, quickness, level of improvement, rate of improvement, rate of decline, injury factors, versatility, how much has he done, how much could he do, maybe he hasn’t been asked to do it.

“I mean, there’s a thousand things that go into it,” Belichick continued, “and so you try to put it all together and figure it out. It’s hard. That’s why it’s a pretty imperfect process, but you do the best you can. I think this year probably, as we saw last year, somewhere between a half and two-thirds of the players in the first two rounds will be underclassmen. So it’s just less information on those guys. Every team in the league’s working with the same information, but it’s just less.”

Subject to change – Belichick’s made 61 draft-day trades since he took over in Foxboro in the year 2000 – the Patriots currently hold eight picks in the 83rd annual NFL Player Selection Meeting, which will be held April 26-28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The breakdown:

• First round (23rd overall) – acquired as part of the trade that sent wide receiver Brandin Cooks to the Los Angeles Rams;

• First round (31st overall) – assigned selection;

• Second round (43rd overall) – acquired from San Francisco in exchange for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo;

• Second round (63rd overall) – assigned selection;

• Third round (95th overall) – assigned selection;

• Sixth round (198th overall) – acquired as part of the Cooks trade;

• Sixth round (210th overall – acquired as part of the trade in which wide receiver-return man Cordarrelle Patterson was obtained from Oakland;

• Seventh round (219th overall) – acquired as part of the trade in which cornerback Jason McCourty was obtained from Cleveland.

Belichick alluded to the draft capital at his disposal – five picks in the top 95, including two first-rounders where they had none in 2016 (forfeited as part of the team’s punishment in the wake of Deflategate) and 2017 (traded to New Orleans in March as part of the deal that brought Cooks to New England) – which would allow the team to trade up if it so desires.

“This year’s a little bit different from the last couple of years,” said Belichick. “Going into those past two drafts I would say we were able to eliminate a number of players just based on where we were selecting. This year’s a little bit different than that.

“I think really we know the draft from top to bottom and potentially there’s a handful of players that are probably out of reach, but realistically just about everybody’s in play other than a handful of guys. So that’s a little bit different from what it’s been. It doesn’t change our process any. It just changes, I would say, the level of work that we do on some players that could be a factor that in other years we scouted them, but we really had no opportunity of drafting them.”

The draft is another piece in the offseason puzzle, one that’s seen the likes of defensive end Adrian Clayborn, running back Jeremy Hill, wide receivers Jordan Matthews and Patterson, defensive tackle Danny Shelton and McCourty come since the team’s 41-33 loss to Philadelphia in Super Bowl LII and offensive tackles Nate Solder and Cameron Fleming, wide receivers Danny Amendola and Cooks, running back Dion Lewis and cornerback Malcolm Butler go.

“It’s a constantly evolving situation,” said Belichick. “In the end, we give each player a value based on what we think he can do for us and then we ultimately do the best we can to improve the football team with the opportunities we have.”