Patriots taking over No. 1 pick has Nick Wright creating the most outrageous outcome

The New England Patriots stumbled into the No. 1 pick on Sunday when the New York Giants upset the Indianapolis Colts. Drew Lock, just when the Giants were set to benefit from his unfettered incompetence, threw for 309 yards and four touchdowns, the best performance of his muted career.

That moved New York out of pole position for the top pick, and left New England to control its own destiny. There's still a week of football left — the Patriots could, in theory, beat first-place Buffalo in Week 18 and screw this up — but Jerod Mayo knows what the deal is. The Patriots are going to do everything short of explicitly throwing the game next Sunday.

If New England does land first overall, there are a couple sane options available to Eliot Wolf and the front office. The Patriots can draft two-way Colorado superstar and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, or the Patriots can trade back with a QB-hungry team looking to draft Shedeur Sanders. Both options would profoundly benefit New England in its quest to build a winner around Drake Maye.

Ask Fox Sports hot take artist Nick Wright, however, and the Patriots should consider a third, far more ludicrous option that completely upends the organization. He believes New England should draft Shedeur Sanders at No. 1, trade Drake Maye for a top-five pick, draft Travis Hunter, then hire Deion Sanders at the expense of longtime Bill Belichick understudy and franchise legend Jerod Mayo.

Nick Wright believes the Patriots should risk it all for Shedeur Sanders-Travis Hunter reunion in Foxboro

Look, credit where it's due — Wright's pitch is easily the most entertaining option available to New England for those of watching at home and typing words on our computer. We'd all love to see the Colorado brigade level up and try its hand at winning in New England, one of the most illustrious organizations in football.

Just imagine the takes when Deion Sanders inevitably throws a professional footballer under the bus and tries to get Ja'Lynn Polk to enter the transfer portal.

Of course, in reality, this is just not something the Patriots would consider. With all due respect for Shedeur Sanders, he is not on Maye's level as a prospect. That Maye looked so good this season despite the dire circumstances around him only confirms that. New England threw the 22-year-old to the wolves behind a patchwork O-line and without anything resembling a competent WR room, but Maye has mostly thrived. He looks the part of a franchise quarterback.

Most teams don't trade 22-year-old franchise quarterbacks for a complete wild card. Not every top prospect pans out. Sanders is a real talent, but he doesn't share Maye's athleticism or improvisation skills outside the pocket.

The far more rational approach would be drafting Hunter to catch passes from Maye. It's fun to theorize about college teammates reuniting in the NFL — "just look at Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase," Wright would surely say — but folks, that does not always work out. Just ask Derek Carr and Davante Adams in Las Vegas.

Blowing up the entire offensive ecosystem after half a season with Maye and trying to recapture the magic of the 9-4 Colorado Buffaloes just feels ill-fated. We must remind ourselves that NFL and college football are not the same.

That applies most of all to the Deion Sanders leg of this hypothetical. Even if you want to advocate for punting on Maye and building around the Sanders-Hunter duo, the Patriots cannot justify hiring Coach Prime. That is a college coach if I've ever seen one. Prime's personality is perfectly engineered to dominating the transfer portal and building a buzzy brand around a niche program like Colorado. Put him in the NFL, where he can't kick half his team out the door at season's end, and disaster will follow. There's no reason to believe Prime can actually encourage player development and continuity. That is not his bread-and-butter in Boulder. He's not built for it.

The Patriots are most likely going to trade the No. 1 pick to New York (or another QB-needy team) for a boatload of picks before drafting Hunter, or another offensive weapon to bolster Maye's supporting cast. That is the way.