The New England Patriots may be in the market for a wide receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft. Liberty receiver Antonio Gandy-Golden told Heavy that he had a 6 a.m. meeting with the Patriots on day two of the Senior Bowl.
“I think I’ve met with nearly every team, I am so serious,” Gandy-Golden noted to Heavy. “I met with the Patriots this morning at 6 o’clock.”
The Patriots are looking for more offensive weapons and are also hoping N’Keal Harry can take a giant step forward in his second season. New England used a first-round pick on Harry, but the receiver missed a good portion of the season as he recovered from an injury.
Gandy-Golden may not be a household name but has flashed during the first two days of Senior Bowl practice. The Liberty receiver is coming off a year in which he tallied 79 receptions for 1,396 yards and 10 touchdowns. Gandy-Golden had two-straight seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards. The physical wideout cited Larry Fitzgerald and Julio Jones as two NFL receivers he looks up to.
“I love Larry Fitzgerald,” Gandy-Golden said. “I love Julio Jones. Both bigger, physical guys. Julio is a little bit faster, but very physical. Attacks the ball, runs after the catch. Larry Fitzgerald is the same way just a little bit slower. He’s just sure-handed.”
We discussed Fitzgerald’s ability to start his career as an outside receiver and transition to the slot over the second half of his NFL tenure. Gandy-Golden noted he lined up as both an inside and outside receiver in his final season at Liberty. He measured at a little more than 6’3″ and 222 pounds at the Senior Bowl, per The Draft Network.
Liberty Head Coach Hugh Freeze Sees Elements of D.K. Metcalf & A.J. Brown in Gandy-Golden’s Game
Checking in with #SeniorBowl standout @LibertyFootball WR Antonio Gandy-Golden (@gandygolden11) on his outlook heading into the #NFLDraft.
Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze has coached a number of future NFL receivers including D.K. Metcalf and A.J. Brown during his tenure at Ole Miss. Earlier this season, Freeze noted that Gandy-Golden still has a ways to go to catch those two receivers, but he sees elements of each player in his game.
“I would say (AGG ranks) 3, 4, or 5, in my eyes, of those,” Freeze explained to ASeaofRed.com. “I think A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf, they’re pretty special, and they’re showing it in their rookie year of the NFL. I think AGG is a combination. He has the D.K. size. Speed-wise, he’s not quite what D.K. is, but he’s got the ball skills and the physicality. He’s an NFL player. He’s durable. I think he has a chance to have a long career doing this.”
Gandy-Golden Has a Chance to Be a Day 2 Pick
Gandy-Golden currently projects to be a day two pick, and it will be interesting to see how far he can rise during Senior Bowl week. He has shown great hands catching nearly every ball that comes his way.
The Liberty receiver particularly excels in the red zone where his physicality allows him to go up and high-point the football. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler has Gandy-Golden as his No. 90 ranked prospect and the 16th receiver on his latest NFL draft big board. During his final press conference before the offseason, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick discussed the team’s goals this summer.
“We have more time and we’ll try to use that time as productively as we can,” Belichick said, per the Boston Herald. “We’ll sit back, we’ll take a look at what the priorities are, what we can try to accomplish and then make the most efficient use of this time that we can. That’s what we’ll do. Has all of that been laid out yet? Absolutely not. That will be one of the first orders of business.”
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Patriots Have Early NFL Draft Meeting With Receiver at Senior Bowl