C+
New England Patriots
The Patriots cashed the board's mistake on West: C+.
by jordans ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 11 picks
· 7 steals
· 3 reaches
The board owed the Patriots one, and it paid up: CJ West, the No. 184 name on the board, sitting there at slot 218 like a gift left on the doorstep. Some smart calls, some head-scratchers, and a C+ in the wash.
Reaching for Oladejo left real value on the table behind him. Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere.
They will regret leaving quarterback for another day if the season turns on it. The veteran additions, Puka Nacua chief among them, give the class a floor the rookies alone would not.
Bottom line, the swing picks will decide whether this ages well.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 4 they get a press-man option on the boundary at fair value. More want than need.
Aireontae Ersery at the Round 2 slot is a conviction pick that outran the value. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Elic Ayomanor at the 69th overall pick is the proof. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A reach for David Walker in No. 90; a little patience would have been rewarded. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They reached into another round for Oluwafemi Oladejo, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They barely believed it either: Jacob Parrish still on the board at slot 144. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
A interior defensive lineman of that caliber at pick 218 is the definition of value, full stop. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
The board fumbled Upton Stout all the way to the 220th pick, and they scooped it up. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Donovan Edwards at pick 228 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It fills a real need, too.
A top-tier safety at a bargain, R.J. Mickens in Round 7, Pick 22, plain and simple. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They will replay Robert Longerbeam at No. 244 for years; that is how good the value is. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.