Don’t go looking for the next Dont’a Hightower in the 2022 NFL draft. You won’t find him. For that matter, you’d be wasting your time looking for another Jamie Collins or Tedy Bruschi or Jerod Mayo.
There are draft prospects whose playing styles resemble those former Patriots linebackers. It’s just that those prospects weigh roughly 25 pounds less than the previous greats in New England. For years, the Patriots would put a 6-foot-1 and 250-pound athlete at inside linebacker. And often, they’d flank those inside backers with edge players who are 6-foot-3 and 260 pounds.
“There’s not as many of those big linebackers. They just — they don’t exist,” Patriots director of player personnel Matt Groh said last week during a pre-draft videoconference.
