B
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped McCoy from sliding. Grade: B.
by pj_doucette ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 7 steals
· 1 reaches
When a board-topper like Jermod McCoy slides to No. 95, you do not overthink it, and the Patriots did not. A sturdy weekend that grades out a B.
They punted on safety, and it is the miss that keeps the grade honest. If Crownover pans out, nobody remembers the price. If not, this is the pick they hear about.
All told, a solid class that does its job everywhere but safety.
Pick-by-Pick
Somehow Arvell Reese was still sitting there in slot 31, and they pounced on premier linebacker value. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Peter Woods at No. 63 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board fumbled Jermod McCoy all the way to Round 3, Pick 31, and they scooped it up. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Steal is underselling it; Jake Golday at the 125th pick is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A conviction pick on Dametrious Crownover at the 131st overall pick that the board grades a round light. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A top-tier tight end at a bargain, Joe Royer in pick No. 171, plain and simple. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A market-rate wide receiver, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Jeff Caldwell. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Taylen Green at pick 198 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Zxavian Harris in pick 202 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Beau Stephens at the 212th pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A straight-up fair deal on Eli Heidenreich at the 247th overall pick, value and slot in agreement. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.