FOXBORO – If the Patriots’ goal was to find the next Tom Brady in the 2018 NFL Draft, then they’re looking to hit lightning in a bottle for the second time in franchise history.


For the tenth time under Bill Belichick, the Patriots drafted a quarterback on Saturday, selecting LSU’s Danny Etling with the first pick in the seventh round, 219 overall. The 6-foot-3 quarterback threw 2,463 yards, 16 TDs and two interceptions while completing 60 percent of his [...]

Mark Daniels

FOXBORO – If the Patriots’ goal was to find the next Tom Brady in the 2018 NFL Draft, then they’re looking to hit lightning in a bottle for the second time in franchise history.

For the tenth time under Bill Belichick, the Patriots drafted a quarterback on Saturday, selecting LSU’s Danny Etling with the first pick in the seventh round, 219 overall. The 6-foot-3 quarterback threw 2,463 yards, 16 TDs and two interceptions while completing 60 percent of his passes last season.

Etling will join Brady and Brian Hoyer in the Patriots depth chart. The selection ends months of speculation about the Patriots finding Brady’s heir apparent. It remains to be seen if Etling will make the 53-man roster never mind become a future starter, but this quarterback is excited about joining the Patriots.

“It’s enticing. It’s an opportunity to learn from the greatest quarterback,” Etling said. “You don’t expect anything. You have no expectations going in. you’re just going in to learn, prepare and take in as much as you can, absorb as much information as you can and continue to keep improving. Prepare for you opportunity when it comes. You want to watch a great who is so great and has been so great and you want to know how he does it.

“Not only with Tom, but with Brian Hoyer – someone else who has been around the league and continues to have great success. It’s such a great quarterback room and I’m so excited to be a part of it. I can’t wait to continue to learn and grow as a quarterback and a person.”

Etling transferred to LSU from Purdue. In two seasons at LSU, he threw 4,586 yards, 27 touchdowns and seven interceptions. In four seasons, he had to learn four different offenses under four different offensive coordinators. The Patriots actually started scouting him last year and picked up that process this offseason inviting the quarterback to Gillette Stadium for a pre-draft visit.

Growing up in Terre Haute, Indiana, Etling grew up as a Colts fan, but as he watched the Patriots-Colts rivalry up close, he says he began to admire Brady.

“I always grew up loving watching good quarterbacks plays and Tom is one of the people I love to watch and dissect the tape and watch how his mind thinks,” Etling said. “His different footwork here and there is just incredible to watch, how precise he is and how great he is. I’m really excited to be a part of that room with two great quarterbacks."

Etling already got a head start when it comes to following Brady’s lead. This offseason, he started working with Tom House at 3D QB in Southern California. House has been Brady’s long-time throwing coach.

“They’ve been teaching me a lot of things – fixing a lot of mechanics that you don’t necessary have time to do while you’re in college because you don’t have time because of classes and things like that,” Etling said.” So, it was cool to focus on creating better fundamentals, creating better mechanics and helping me really focus down on those things going into the draft and into this process.”

The Patriots passed on selecting a quarterback in the first six rounds of the draft. In the first round, they passed over Louisville’s Lamar Jackson twice and watched as only one quarterback (Mason Rudolph) came off the board between the second and third rounds.

The Pats were in prime position to take Richmond’s Kyle Lauletta in the fourth round, but the traded back out of the round. They passed on Mike White in the fifth and Washington’s Luke Falk and Nebraska’s Tanner Lee in the sixth. After 10 quarterbacks were off the board, the Patriots struck with Etling.

“We knew we were going to add a quarterback to our team at some point,” Nick Caserio, Patriots director of player personnel, said. “So, it’s relative to what other options we have, relative to what other positions. There’s no template – ‘we’re going to take one here. We’re going to take on there.’ Look, we think Danny has some decent traits and decent qualities to work with. We’ll put him in our program and see how he does.”