The New England Patriots, winners of seven Super Bowl titles, made a dream a reality on Thursday, April 28th for Cole Strange. The Patriots and Bill Belichick selected the class of 2016 Admiral as their top pick in the 2022 NFL Draft. Cole has ascended up the draft radar this spring after his composition of work at the Reese’s Senior Bowl and NFL Draft Combine. A projected 2nd-to-3rd round pick, the Patriots surprised most “experts” when they selected Strange 29th overall in the 1st round Thursday night.
“He would not still be around much longer”, said coach Bill Belichick at the Patriots’ media presser following their pick Thursday night.
Coach Belichick went on to add that Strange was “pretty athletic guy with good size, smart, so he does a lot of things well … a lot of good tools to work with.”
It’s hard to argue with the seven-time Super Bowl winning coach in what we’ve known about Cole Strange for a while now.
Following a stellar career at UT-Chattanooga where he started 44 games on the offensive line, Cole proved to be a relentless worker, intelligent, and physical player that embodies the “Team” aspect over individual accolades. The accolades still continued to reign in for Cole each year at UTC. Following an All-State career at Farragut in 2016, Cole was named 1st-Team Freshmen All-American, twice named All-American, All-SoCon three times, and twice the recipient of the Jacobs Blocking Award given to the top Offensive Linemen in the SoCon. He was also a member of the Honor Roll and All-SoCon Academic Team each year.
Cole is the sixth Admiral to sign an NFL contract but the first to be drafted in the NFL Draft. Neil Clabo (1975 Vikings), Bill Bates (1983 Cowboys), Tyson Clabo (2004 Broncos), Nick Reveiz (2011 Buccaneers), and current Pittsburgh Steeler Nate Gilliam (2020 Chargers) all went undrafted. Cole is the first player from Knoxville to be drafted in the 1st Round of the NFL Draft since Harrison Smith in 2012.
You can revisit the moment that Cole was drafted here by courtesy of the Patriots team website.
