A-
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the weekend at the trade table. Grade: A-.
by 2 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 4 steals
· 2 reaches
The Cooper Mays pick is the one that will follow the Patriots into the fall. They took him 79 spots ahead of his grade, and the board is not shy about saying so. Add it all up and it grades out a clean A-.
That is a wide receiver worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly. The phones were where this weekend was really won.
The quarterback hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
Add it up and few war rooms did better this weekend, Josh Conerly Jr. and all.
Pick-by-Pick
A straight-up fair deal on Josh Conerly Jr. at No. 38, value and slot in agreement. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
By-the-book stuff, Kyle Kennard at the 69th pick squarely in line with his ranking. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They robbed the room for Alfred Collins here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Denzel Burke in Round 4, Pick 4 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They will replay Malachi Moore at the Round 5 slot for years; that is how good the value is. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Cooper Mays at pick No. 217 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Trevor Etienne at pick No. 220 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Moliki Matavao at the 238th overall pick is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Taking Roc Taylor in pick 247 is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.