It has been more than two years since Deflategate started, and guess what, everyone? It’s still technically not over!

The long-running controversy won’t be officially wrapped up until the Patriots are hit with their final punishment, which will come when they make their first pick of the fourth round on the final day of the 2017 NFL Draft (April 29).

As part of their punishment for Deflategate, the Patriots were docked two draft picks -- a 2016 first-round pick and a 2017 fourth-round pick. When the 2017 draft order was released on Feb. 25, it looked like the Patriots were going to have to forfeit the 132nd pick.

However, there has been a slight change thanks to New England’s trade with the Saints on Friday. In the deal that brought Brandin Cooks to the Patriots, New England also received a fourth-round pick from the Saints (118th overall). Unfortunately, the Patriots won’t have that pick for long because they now have to forfeit it.

An NFL spokesman confirmed to the Boston Globe that the Patriots will lose their highest fourth-round pick in the draft, meaning that New England will now forfeit the 118th pick and get the 132nd pick returned to them.

This also means that if the Patriots should pull off any other trades before draft day -- for instance, say they landed the first pick of the fourth round (108th overall) in a hypothetical trade with the Browns -- then New England would have to forfeit that pick, and they would get the 118th pick back, along with the 132nd pick.

Still with me? Good.

If the Patriots don’t make any more trades before draft day, they would also have another intriguing option. Since they know they have to forfeit their highest fourth-round pick, they could try to trade the 118th pick (the one they are currently forfeiting) for a pick between No. 119 and No. 131.

For instance, the Texans, who have the 131st overall pick, might be willing to move up from 131 to 118 and they might be willing to give the Patriots a seventh-rounder to do it. In that case, the Patriots would forfeit pick No. 131, but they would get another pick -- the seventh-rounder -- in return.

The most important thing to remember here is that the Patriots will be forfeiting their first pick in the fourth round, which, as of now, will be pick No. 118 as soon as the Cooks trade becomes official. At that point, pick No. 132 will be returned to the Patriots.