B+
New England Patriots
The Patriots worked the phones like thieves and earned a B+.
by Yves ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 4 steals
· 6 reaches
There is conviction, and then there is this. The Patriots took Traeshon Holden a full 127 picks ahead of where the board had him, an overdraft steep enough that it colors the whole weekend. It does the job without flash, and the B+ reflects it.
Arroyo falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. The trade ledger is the best part of the whole weekend.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. The Schwesinger pick is fine in a vacuum, less so with edge rusher, safety and other spots still on the board.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
Nice patience on Kenneth Grant, who had no business lasting to pick 36. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Steal is underselling it; Tyler Warren at Round 3, Pick 3 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A wild overpay on Emery Jones Jr. in the Round 3 slot, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. It fills a real need, too.
Danny Stutsman at the 103rd overall pick is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
A surprising call. With edge rusher, safety and other spots still to address, they spent No. 121 on Carson Schwesinger, a linebacker they were not short of.
They reached into another round for Davison Igbinosun, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Nick Nash at slot 196 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Nohl Williams in pick No. 219 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Elijah Arroyo in No. 220 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Traeshon Holden. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.