B
New England Patriots
The Patriots let Winston Jr. fall and pounced. Final grade: B.
by Foorball123 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 5 steals
· 3 reaches
The board owed the Patriots one, and it paid up: Kevin Winston Jr., the No. 98 name on the board, sitting there at the Round 5 slot like a gift left on the doorstep. The bottom line is a respectable B.
They are betting Sanders proves the room right and everyone else wrong. They robbed the room blind at the table, and it lifts the grade on its own.
The edge rusher hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 4 they get a press-man option on the boundary. Need was not the driver here.
A reach on Tre Harris in slot 38; the board had better options right there. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
A tidy bit of business in Round 3, Pick 5, where TreVeyon Henderson graded well above the range. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Savion Williams in No. 102 is a bargain the rest of the room will envy. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Emery Jones Jr. at the 105th pick is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It fills a real need, too.
Steal is underselling it; Kevin Winston Jr. at pick No. 145 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They will replay Oronde Gadsden II at the Round 7 slot for years; that is how good the value is. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Jay Higgins in the 222nd overall pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
A big swing on Shilo Sanders at the 240th overall pick, well ahead of any board in the building. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.