National Football League

Patriots pick up a lineman with a long NFL resume

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:44 p.m. ET

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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) The Patriots picked up two new targets for Tom Brady - or whoever is playing quarterback for New England when the season starts - while also adding a couple of linebackers on Day 3 of the NFL draft on Saturday and a lineman with a long football pedigree.

Illinois guard Ted Karras is the grand-nephew of Pro Bowl defensive lineman Alex Karras and also the son and grandson of NFL players. In all, seven members of the Karras family played football in the Big Ten and four went on to NFL careers.

Karras was the Patriots' sixth-round pick (No. 221 overall) on Day 3, when the team also added two receivers and two linebackers. New England lost its first-round pick in the ''Deflategate'' punishment, then on Day 2 picked up a defensive back, an offensive and defensive lineman and quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who could serve as a backup to Jimmy Garoppolo when Brady serves his suspension for the ball-deflation scandal.

The Patriots started off the day by taking Georgia receiver Malcolm Mitchell, who also returned punts for the Bulldogs.

Then they began dealing.

They gave up a pair of sixth-round picks (Nos. 196 and 204) and a seventh (No. 250) to Miami for a fifth-rounder (No. 147). Then they traded the Dolphins pick and a seventh-rounder (No. 243) to Seattle to move up in the seventh-round (No. 225) and acquire the Seahawks' fourth-round pick next year.

The Patriots had lost a 2017 fourth-rounder in the Deflategate punishment that also cost them their first-rounder this year.

With the No. 208 pick, New England took Eastern Illinois safety Kamu Grugier-Hill. At No. 214, the team picked up Houston linebacker Elandon Roberts. The Patriots grabbed Karras with the last of their three sixth-round picks and then got Arizona State receiver Devin Lucien in the seventh.

The Patriots entered the final day with eight picks, including five in the sixth round, but wound up picking five players. Player personnel boss Nick Caserio said on Friday night that the team might not even have space on the roster for all the selections.

Having lost their first-round pick as part of their ''Deflategate'' punishment, the Patriots picked up four players on the second day.

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AP NFL websites: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL

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