A-
New England Patriots
Best value of the weekend goes to the Patriots for Restrepo: A-.
by Rob ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 21 picks
· 16 steals
· 3 reaches
The board owed the Patriots one, and it paid up: Xavier Restrepo, the No. 13 name on the board, sitting there at the 235th overall pick like a gift left on the doorstep. Just about everything broke right, and the A- follows.
The cost of the Warren reach is exactly the players who went right after him. The dealing alone would carry a lesser class. The Patriots clearly valued win-now help, adding bodies who have done it before.
In the end it comes back to Travis Hunter, and a haul good enough to build on right away.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 26 they get an island corner at a price that makes it sweeter. More want than need.
In the 27th overall pick they get a bell-cow for the offense, and a steal at that. A clean fit for the roster.
Malaki Starks in No. 58 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Nothing to complain about; Colston Loveland went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Tyler Warren in the 67th pick is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. It fills a real need, too.
Harold Fannin Jr. at pick No. 74 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. The roster fit checks out.
They will replay Tyler Booker at the Round 3 slot for years; that is how good the value is. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They robbed the room for Tre Harris here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Circle this one: Kenneth Grant at Round 3, Pick 24 is a fall that decides a draft. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Taking Jahdae Barron in the Round 3 slot is close to grand larceny; a safety that good had no business lasting this long. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Wyatt Milum at the 103rd overall pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. A need, and now a little less of one.
Derrick Harmon in No. 104 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
The board fumbled Aireontae Ersery all the way to pick 125, and they scooped it up. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They talked themselves into LT Overton at pick No. 135, and the board did not agree. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Somehow Walter Nolen was still sitting there in slot 139, and they pounced on premier interior defensive lineman value. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Steal is underselling it; Josaiah Stewart at the 169th pick is a heist with the alarm still ringing. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Anthony Belton in the 217th overall pick. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
You do not let a quarterback like Cam Ward reach the 220th pick and blink. They did not. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Xavier Restrepo at slot 235 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A offensive lineman of that caliber at Round 7, Pick 22 is the definition of value, full stop. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
They barely believed it either: Dont'e Thornton Jr. still on the board at the Round 7 slot. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.