B
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Paul Jr. from sliding. Grade: B.
by woodyv ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 9 picks
· 5 steals
· 2 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. Chris Paul Jr. had no business being available in slot 217, and the Patriots did the only sane thing and turned in the card.
Caldwell has a lot of ground to make up just to look fairly priced. They punted on edge rusher, and it is the miss that keeps the grade honest.
They left with wide receiver solved and the rest of the wish list mostly ticked off. They came away with juice, if not much beef up front.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 4 they get a difference-maker at receiver at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
Aireontae Ersery in the Round 2 slot is early enough to raise a brow, if not a full objection. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They robbed the room for Jalon Walker here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They barely believed it either: Kaleb Johnson still on the board at pick 77. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A slide stopped in the 105th overall pick, with Tez Johnson worth more than the price. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
You do not let a safety like Malachi Moore reach No. 143 and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Chris Paul Jr. in Round 7, Pick 1 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
Davison Igbinosun at the 220th pick is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Depth more than a fix, but depth they can use.
Jamaree Caldwell at pick 241 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.