B+
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Nix from sliding. Grade: B+.
by SD ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 6 steals
· 0 reaches
Give the war room a raise for the dealing alone. The Patriots came out ahead on every exchange that mattered, and it was not close. A sturdy weekend that grades out a B+.
Nix falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. They will regret leaving edge rusher for another day if the season turns on it.
A tidy weekend of work that should hold up just fine.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 20 they get a building block for the line. A real need, handled.
They robbed the room for Bo Nix here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Ja'Lynn Polk in pick 52 is fair value, right on his grade. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They barely believed it either: Junior Colson still on the board at No. 94. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They did well to land Tyler Davis in the Round 3 slot, just ahead of his grade. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Zak Zinter reach slot 121 and blink. They did not. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A clean, defensible pick in the Round 5 slot with a little surplus value in Cedric Gray. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
Taking Johnny Dixon in the 146th pick is close to grand larceny; a cornerback that good had no business lasting this long. A minor itch, scratched.
A top-tier tight end at a bargain, McCallan Castles in Round 6, Pick 7, plain and simple. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They stopped a slide they were happy to see, landing Jalen Berger in slot 229. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.