B+
New England Patriots
Odunze should have been long gone. The Patriots pounced, and earned a B+.
by Rob ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 8 picks
· 5 steals
· 2 reaches
The Patriots did not reach, did not trade up, did not blink. They just waited, and Rome Odunze fell into Round 2, Pick 23.
They robbed the room blind at the table, and it lifts the grade on its own. They are betting Mahogany proves the room right and everyone else wrong.
The edge rusher hole is the one line item this class does not answer. The Patriots clearly valued win-now help, adding bodies who have done it before.
Good work on the whole, with edge rusher the one box left unchecked.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a difference-maker at receiver at fair value. Exactly the need they had to hit.
They went early on J.J. McCarthy in pick No. 34, and the value did not follow. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Somehow Rome Odunze was still sitting there in the 55th pick, and they pounced on premier wide receiver value. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A real head-scratcher, Christian Mahogany in pick 68 is miles ahead of his ranking. The roster fit checks out.
Steal is underselling it; Patrick Paul at Round 4, Pick 4 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A need, and now a little less of one.
They read the board right and Johnny Wilson was the payoff at slot 136. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Luke McCaffrey slipping to the 182nd overall pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Elijah Jones in No. 229 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.