The New England Patriots somewhat surprisingly didn’t move around the draft board Friday night on Day 2 of the 2023 NFL Draft. Instead, they stayed put and selected two defensive contributors.

After the final pick of the third round, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick met with the media over Zoom and gave a quick synopsis of No. 46 overall pick Georgia Tech defensive lineman Keion White and No. 76 overall pick Sacramento State linebacker Marte Mapu.

“Keion’s a guy that really came on this year at Tech,” Belichick said. “You know, he was injured last year, had a pretty productive career at Old Dominion then transferred in and missed part of the season last year but had a really good year this year in '22, even though there was some head coaching change and all that in midseason.

“And then Marte was a good visit. Smaller school guy, really productive guy. Did a lot of different things in their defensive scheme, and so really good to have both players.”

The Patriots selected Oregon cornerback Christian Gonzalez in the first round after trading down from No. 14 overall to the 17th pick. They picked up an extra fourth-round pick in the deal, but they have yet to make an offensive pick.

Both White and Mapu are tweeners for their positions. White is 6-foot-5, 281 pounds and can play from defensive end to defensive tackle. Mapu is 6-foot-3, 221 pounds, was announced as a linebacker but was primarily used as a defensive back last season.

Belichick was non-committal about his position in New England.

“Yeah, hard to say,” Belichick said. “We'll have to see how it goes. That might change from week to week dependent on our opponent and what we're playing in the defense and so forth. He's shown versatility and his skillset. He's a smart kid. Definitely understands defensive concepts and what they did and how they were doing it. So when we get a chance to work with them, we'll start to figure that out.”

The Patriots’ safeties already play some position-less football with Kyle Dugger, Adrian Phillips and Jabrill Peppers being used as hybrid linebackers at times.

New England already had a top-flight defense last season, so it’s been surprising to see the Patriots decline to address needs at offensive tackle, wide receiver and tight end through the first three rounds of the draft.

"I think you always try to do what's best for your team," Belichick said about the lack of offensive additions. "There's a lot of different ways to build a team. This is one part of it. Free agency was part of it. Didn't sign a lot of defensive players in free agency. Signed [Chris] Board, he's kind of a combination defense-special teams player. Most of the signings were on offense — Juju [Smith-Schuester], Mike [Gesicki], Riley [Reiff], [Calvin] Anderson, so you could say the same thing about free agency. Maybe we should've signed more players in free agency. I don't know. But just kind of worked out that way. Sometimes it's balanced, sometimes it isn't. But I mean in the end, we'll field the best team we can to be competitive this year and where they come from, I don't know, trades, free agency, draft, undrafted, waiver wire. We'll just have to see how that all plays out."

The Patriots have nine picks on Day 3, however, so there’s plenty of time to add youth on offense.