B
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Haulcy from sliding. Grade: B.
by pj_doucette ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 13 picks
· 5 steals
· 1 reaches
Call it larceny. A.J. Haulcy sat on the board until the 95th pick, and the Patriots did not need to be asked twice. No fireworks, but a solid B.
They will need Kamara to outplay his draft slot in a hurry to justify it. Leaving running back unaddressed is the roster risk they will have to answer for in the fall.
On the needs board they went 7 of 8, with edge rusher the one that mattered most. Trading back for volume was the quiet throughline of their weekend.
A competent weekend that does not make headlines and does not need to.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 31st pick they get a pocket-collapsing interior rusher. The biggest hole, addressed.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Germie Bernard at the Round 3 slot. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Circle this one: A.J. Haulcy at No. 95 is a fall that decides a draft. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Connor Lew at slot 110 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A real head-scratcher, Mikail Kamara in pick No. 125 is miles ahead of his ranking. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They robbed the room for Sam Roush here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A need, and now a little less of one.
They paid sticker price for Aamil Wagner in Round 5, Pick 31, and that is fine. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A straight-up fair deal on Jeff Caldwell at the 191st overall pick, value and slot in agreement. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Nothing to complain about; Taylen Green went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
The board had Ephesians Prysock higher than No. 199, and the cornerback fell to them anyway. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They did well to land Cameron Ball in pick 202, just ahead of his grade. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Aaron Graves at Round 6, Pick 31 is a sensible buy, a touch better than market for the interior defensive lineman. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
No edge and no loss on Eli Heidenreich in the 247th pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.