Needs? Does not compute.

New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick brushed off the idea that his team might select a player in the 2018 NFL Draft based upon needs.

“Well, again, the whole draft need thing is – I don’t really understand that,” he told reporters Friday. “You put a card up on the board. That doesn’t mean the guy is a good player. I think it’s important to acquire good players wherever they are. If you take a player at a position that you might so-called ‘need’ but he’s not good enough to fill that need, then it’s a wasted pick. So, I don’t understand the whole need thing. I understand player value, and that’s what we try to go by.”

Belichick said, however, that the idea of player value can get particularly complicated as he arranges his draft board.

“I won’t say it’s easy, but I’d say it’s relatively easy to take the guards and rank them one, two, three, four and five or take the corners and rank them one, two, three, four or five,” Belichick said. “When you start talking about the third guard and the second corner, the third guard and the eighth corner or however those grades line up, whether you’re talking about players that are specialty-type players that are role players that maybe are very good at a certain role but they’re not three-down players. What are their values relative to other players who maybe are three-down players but at a lesser skill set? That’s where it kind of gets tricky putting the whole board together.

“I’m not saying it’s easy to rank the players in position in order, but that’s a lot easier than trying to compare players at different positions, at different levels, guys who have played three or four years at high-level conferences against the best players in college football versus other players who have played at lesser levels but are ascending players that are very talented players and trying to project how those values match up. That’s the hard part, really.”

The Patriots seem to have needs at left tackle, backup quarterback and at linebacker. But at the same time, there isn’t a position where they couldn’t use a top-end young player. And with two picks each in the first and second rounds, they have the firepower to stock up on those.