B
New England Patriots
The Patriots robbed the room for Collins. Final grade: B.
by yepp ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 11 steals
· 0 reaches
The board owed the Patriots one, and it paid up: Alfred Collins, the No. 56 name on the board, sitting there at the 238th overall pick like a gift left on the doorstep. It nets out to a B, which feels about right.
It is not that Barron is a bad player; it is that the Patriots had louder needs to answer first. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped edge rusher, which is a strange place to end up.
On the needs board they went 5 of 8, with wide receiver the one that mattered most.
A competent weekend that does not make headlines and does not need to.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 23 they get a lockdown presence outside at a price that makes it sweeter. More want than need.
In the 28th pick they get a centerpiece for the ground game, outstanding value to boot. A real need, handled.
Matthew Golden at slot 38 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The needs board was loud and they turned it down, spending pick 54 on Jahdae Barron with edge rusher, safety and other spots unsolved.
A top-tier offensive lineman at a bargain, Armand Membou in Round 3, Pick 5, plain and simple. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Colston Loveland in pick No. 77 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Somehow Walter Nolen was still sitting there in the 106th overall pick, and they pounced on premier interior defensive lineman value. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Taking Wyatt Milum in the Round 5 slot is close to grand larceny; an offensive lineman that good had no business lasting this long. The roster fit checks out.
The board fumbled Xavier Restrepo all the way to the Round 7 slot, and they scooped it up. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
T.J. Sanders in No. 220 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Alfred Collins at pick No. 238 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.