A-
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Gillotte from sliding. Grade: A-.
by Rob ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 7 picks
· 7 steals
· 0 reaches
Call it larceny. Ashton Gillotte sat on the board until pick 169, and the Patriots did not need to be asked twice.
The phones were where this weekend was really won. The wide receiver spot stays a question, and it was the one they most needed an answer at. The Patriots clearly valued win-now help, adding bodies who have done it before.
The roster is better shaped than it was, with edge rusher chief among the fixes.
The kind of weekend a front office frames and hangs on the wall.
Pick-by-Pick
Malaki Starks at No. 40 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Emery Jones Jr. at the 66th pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A interior defensive lineman of that caliber at Round 4, Pick 2 is the definition of value, full stop. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They will replay Sonny Styles at pick No. 104 for years; that is how good the value is. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
A top-tier tight end at a bargain, Oscar Delp in the Round 5 slot, plain and simple. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Earnest Greene III reach pick 168 and blink. They did not. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Somehow Ashton Gillotte was still sitting there in slot 169, and they pounced on premier edge rusher value. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.