B-
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Paul Jr. from sliding. Grade: B-.
by Temple ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 7 steals
· 1 reaches
The board owed the Patriots one, and it paid up: Chris Paul Jr., the No. 119 name on the board, sitting there at slot 246 like a gift left on the doorstep. More right than wrong, and a B- to match.
They are betting Smith proves the room right and everyone else wrong. The Perkins Jr. pick is fine in a vacuum, less so with edge rusher, safety and other spots still on the board.
If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through edge rusher.
In sum, a sturdy weekend with one asterisk, the edge rusher spot they never got to.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 3rd pick they get a sticky cover corner. More want than need.
Taking Luther Burden III in Round 2, Pick 8 is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Tyler Booker slipping to the Round 2 slot is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A top-tier linebacker at a bargain, Deontae Lawson in pick No. 107, plain and simple. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
Of all the spots to shop, they chose linebacker. Harold Perkins Jr. in No. 138 leaves edge rusher, safety and other spots for later.
Quinshon Judkins at slot 142 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. The roster fit checks out.
Value said wait; Tim Smith in pick 219 says they were not listening. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They robbed the room for Ollie Gordon II here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Somehow Chris Paul Jr. was still sitting there in slot 246, and they pounced on premier linebacker value. Stacking talent where they were already deep.