The Patriots selected UCF wide receiver Javon Baker 110th overall in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

Baker, 22, is the second wide receiver the Patriots have taken in this draft. They also selected Washington wideout Ja’Lynn Polk 37th overall.

Baker, who’s 6-foot-1, 202 pounds, can compete for snaps at the Patriots’ “X” and “Z” roles in the offense. He was very productive as a senior in 2023, racking up 1,139 yards on 52 receptions with seven touchdowns.

From a scout, Baker is a “really good route runner. Not explosive but is deceptive and changes speeds well. Highly competitive for the ball with a big catch radius.”

The four-star recruit transferred from Alabama after the 2021 season. One scout called him a fun but inconsistent player who has some special traits.

He dropped 14 passes over his last two college seasons.

Baker ran a 4.54-second 40-yard dash at the NFL Scouting Combine with a 37-inch vertical leap and 10-foot, 1-inch broad jump.

His 3.21 yards per route run ranked ninth among FBS wide receivers in 2023. He ranked second in yards per reception with 21.9.

He earned a 99.9 PFF grade on deep balls, catching 15-of-30 targets of 20-plus yards for 574 yards with four touchdowns.

Baker was coming off of a 56-catch, 796-yard, five-touchdown season in 2022 at UCF.

The big wideout also has some experience playing in the slot, where 27.1% of his snaps came last season.

He’s a potential steal if he can put everything together at the NFL level.

Baker joins Polk, Kendrick Bourne, K.J. Osborn, DeMario Douglas, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thornton, Kayshon Boutte, Kawaan Baker and T.J. Luther in the Patriots’ wide receiver room.

Right now, Donald Trump is his own running mate. Meaning that he is not going to share the national spotlight with anyone if he can dominate it on his own.

And that is what he is doing as he stands trial in Manhattan on dubious and politicized so-called hush money payment charges that never should have never been brought and were squashed years ago.

It is an ego thing for Trump, and more. It is a desperation thing for Joe Biden.

The Democrats have to knock Trump out of the race, one way or another.

Trump needs no vice-presidential candidate to speak for him. He speaks for himself, despite proposals that he be gagged and fined or jailed during his Democrat-sponsored show trial which is aimed at sabotaging his
campaign for president.

All things being equal, a fading President Joe Biden, 81, cannot stand up on a debate stage—or anywhere else—with an energized 77-year-old Donald Trump.

One only has to compare and match their almost simultaneous campaign appearances last week.

In one, Biden, escorted by Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, as though he were out for a walk from the nursing home, showed up at a Wawa to get ice cream. There were no people around the pair, no one rushing to shake hands. Biden had a lost look on his face as he was led to the ice cream counter by Parker. He did not talk to anybody or issue any remarks.

In the other, Trump, in a break for the Manhattan court, made a surprise appearance at the Harlem bodega where Jose Alba, the clerk, acting in self-defense, killed a violent ex-convict who was attempting to rob him.

Soft on crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg quickly came to the aid of the robber and not the victim. Bragg, like he is doing to Trump, put Alba through hell. He charged Alba with murder and sent him to Riker’s Island before was forced to drop all charges against him.

Unlike a wobbly Biden in Philadelphia, Trump needed no one to take him by the hand to show him around the bodega. He was warmly greeted by black and Hispanic residents who crowded around him as he spoke about his love of New York and how he was going to fight crime.

He sounded like he was running for district attorney against Bragg who, in a way, he is.

“We’re going to straighten New York out,” he told the crowd, which responded by chanting, “Four more years, four more years.”

It was no contest. Trump handily won the day, just as he did Thursday meeting with construction workers before heading to court, and it was all free television campaign coverage.

The same was true of the pairs’ earlier response to the college anti-Israel, antisemitic demonstrations. Biden mumbled some sort of equivocation, while Trump said they were “a disgrace.”

Trump would also handily win the election too if Joe Biden and the Democrats did not twist the country’s justice system into something Vladimir Putin would be proud of.

So, it is understandable why Bragg, the court and the Democrats would like nothing better than to gag Trump throughout the length of the trial.

It would be a mistake for Trump to name a running mate to campaign for him while he is tied up for weeks in Bragg’s bagged courthouse trial. Were he to do so, much of the media attention, which Trump thrives on, would be diverted from him to the running mate, whoever he or she was.

Besides, all the hopeful running mates are already out there on television defending Trump and attacking the Democrat produced and directed show trial.

The Democrats are playing with fire as they seek to destroy Trump. What goes around tends to come around.

It is not too far-fetched to think that if Trump becomes president, it will be Joe Biden on trial, not Donald Trump. That is what we have come to.

In their hounding of Trump, they are turning one of the most aggressive and, at times, obnoxious man on the planet into a sympathetic martyr.

Meanwhile, it is all out war between the Wawas and the Bodegas.

Take your pick.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at peter.lucas@bostonherald.com.

The Arizona Cardinals took Boston College cornerback Elijah Jones with the No. 90 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

Jones heads to Arizona after spending the past six years at Boston College.

Across nine games in 2023, Jones set career highs with five interceptions and eight passes defensed to go along with 25 tackles and a forced fumble.

Jones marks the second cornerback taken by the Cardinals this NFL Draft. In the second round, Arizona opted for CB Max Melton out of Rutgers.

Cornerback marked a big position of need that had to be addressed this offseason, especially after the defense ended up 31st in the league with an opposing passer rating of 102.9 and was 30th in receiving touchdowns allowed with 32.

With Antonio Hamilton departing in free agency to Atlanta, Arizona went out and boosted the position with veteran free agent addition Sean Murphy-Bunting. He now fits in alongside the trio of second-year pros Garrett Williams, Starling Thomas V and Kei’Trel Clark and Melton.

Murphy-Bunting is near the top of the list to secure one of the starting roles in coordinator Nick Rallis’ defense.

Each of the three youngsters meanwhile flashed as rookies, with Williams taking over nickel corner after returning from a torn ACL suffered the year prior. Thomas and Clark both operated on the outside when on the field.

Who else have the Arizona Cardinals picked in the 2024 NFL Draft?

The Cardinals got after it in the first round with the additions of Ohio State wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. at No. 4 overall and Missouri defensive lineman Darius Robinson at No. 27 overall.

Harrison should be in line to take over as the team’s WR1. Robinson should also be in the mix for a meaningful role right away.

The Cardinals then flipped Nos. 35 and 186 to the Atlanta Falcons in exchange for Nos. 43 and 79.

Twenty-three picks later, Florida State running back Trey Benson would get the phone call from Ossenfort at 66th overall.

Arizona used its next pick at No. 71 on offensive lineman Isaiah Adams out of Illinois.

Ossenfort again got on the phone, trading the 79th pick in the third round to the Indianapolis Colts for Nos. 82 and 191.

He used the 82nd pick on Illinois tight end Tip Reiman

Where else are the Cardinals picking this NFL Draft?

Arizona’s remaining picks:

– Round 4, pick No. 104 overall
– Round 5, pick No. 138 overall
– Round 5, pick No. 162 overall (from Houston Texans)
– Round 6, pick No. 191 overall (from Indianapolis Colts)
– Round 7, pick No. 226 overall (from New York Giants)

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