D+
New England Patriots
The Patriots bled value on every deal, hence the D+.
by BBB ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 20 picks
· 3 steals
· 4 reaches
The Patriots spent real capital to be 30 picks early on Sam Hartman, and the board is going to hold them to it.
They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped interior defensive lineman, which is a strange place to end up. On value alone, Jones makes the weekend a net positive.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and interior defensive lineman is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 8 they get a weapon on the perimeter at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Graham Barton is a better player than the Round 2 slot suggests; smart patience, rewarded. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Patrick Paul in Round 3, Pick 4 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
No drama and no debate, Calen Bullock went about where he belonged in pick No. 83. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
No edge and no loss on Braelon Allen in No. 100; it is a wash and a sensible one. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Zak Zinter in the 103rd pick is fair value, right on his grade. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
They paid sticker price for Cole Bishop in the 105th pick, and that is fine. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A market-rate quarterback, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Spencer Rattler. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Justin Eboigbe at pick No. 126 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A quiet steal in Round 4, Pick 31: Elijah Jones for less than the market said. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
A reach for Luke McCaffrey in pick 137; a little patience would have been rewarded. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Jalyx Hunt at No. 148 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A premium they did not need to pay, Marist Liufau a notch or two before his time. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They let Dwight McGlothern come to them and pounced at the Round 6 slot. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
By-the-book stuff, Tip Reiman at No. 180 squarely in line with his ranking. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A straight-up fair deal on Cornelius Johnson at the Round 6 slot, value and slot in agreement. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Myles Cole at pick No. 193 is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They took Julian Pearl at par in slot 196, which is nothing to complain about. The roster fit checks out.
A reasonable price with a little left over, JD Bertrand in Round 7, Pick 3. A luxury on a unit that was already in good shape.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Sam Hartman. A need, and now a little less of one.