B-
New England Patriots
A sensible, unshowy class lands the Patriots a B-.
by Cdwoods87 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 3 steals
· 3 reaches
You can fall in love with a player. You are not supposed to marry him in the wrong round. The Patriots did exactly that with Cooper Mays in No. 220. A dependable weekend that grades out a B-.
Judkins falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. That edge rusher hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall. The roster is better shaped than it was, with wide receiver chief among the fixes.
Solid rather than spectacular, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 4 they get a run-stuffing presence up front. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Tyler Booker at slot 38 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. It fills a real need, too.
Jayden Higgins in pick No. 69 is fair value, right on his grade. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A big swing on Anthony Belton at the 77th pick, well ahead of any board in the building. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Somehow Quinshon Judkins was still sitting there in pick 106, and they pounced on premier running back value. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
They robbed the room for Hollin Pierce here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A wild overpay on Cooper Mays in slot 220, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Jordan Hancock at the 225th pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Xavier Truss at No. 238 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.