D
New England Patriots
The Patriots got the worse of every deal, and it shows in the D.
by I.Q. ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 3 steals
· 6 reaches
Call it belief, call it a gut call, but Garrett Dellinger at the Round 5 slot is 109 spots clear of consensus, and that is the headline.
Henderson falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere.
They covered a lot of ground and still skipped interior defensive lineman, which is a strange place to end up.
In the end, a class the front office will want to grow past quickly.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 2 they get an island corner. Need was not the driver here.
Somehow Malaki Starks was still sitting there in slot 42, and they pounced on premier safety value. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A linebacker of that caliber at the 72nd overall pick is the definition of value, full stop. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They paid up for Jake Majors at Round 3, Pick 19 when waiting would have done the job. A need, and now a little less of one.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Miles Frazier well ahead of where he belonged. The roster fit checks out.
They reached a country mile for Que Robinson at pick No. 113, and the board is aghast. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They barely believed it either: TreVeyon Henderson still on the board at the 138th pick. It fills a real need, too.
A real head-scratcher, Garrett Dellinger in No. 140 is miles ahead of his ranking. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They talked themselves into Trey Wedig at pick 219, and the board did not agree. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A big swing on Will Sheppard at Round 7, Pick 8, well ahead of any board in the building. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Shilo Sanders at the Round 7 slot nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.