B+
New England Patriots
The Patriots won the night they stopped Ward from sliding. Grade: B+.
by Rob ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 20 picks
· 14 steals
· 4 reaches
This is the pick they will still be bragging about in July: Cam Ward, the No. 4 name on the board, stolen at pick No. 235. A sturdy weekend that grades out a B+.
The Overton pick is the one the value grade keeps tripping over. They won the margins on every swap, and it adds up fast.
Nothing here to lose sleep over, and plenty to feel decent about.
Pick-by-Pick
They barely believed it either: Travis Hunter still on the board at Round 2, Pick 1. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
The board fumbled Ashton Jeanty all the way to the Round 2 slot, and they scooped it up. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Malaki Starks in pick No. 52 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
No edge and no loss on Colston Loveland in the 55th pick; it is a wash and a sensible one. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Tyler Booker at the 56th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A real head-scratcher, Tyler Warren in No. 67 is miles ahead of his ranking. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
They reached into another round for Harold Fannin Jr., and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. It fills a real need, too.
Kenneth Grant at pick 93 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They robbed the room for Jahdae Barron here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Jihaad Campbell at No. 105 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
A big swing on LT Overton at the 106th pick, well ahead of any board in the building. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Donovan Ezeiruaku in slot 107 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Josaiah Stewart at the Round 4 slot is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Steal is underselling it; Walter Nolen at pick No. 115 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Wyatt Milum reach pick 128 and blink. They did not. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A offensive lineman of that caliber at Round 4, Pick 35 is the definition of value, full stop. A need, and now a little less of one.
Somehow Tre Harris was still sitting there in pick No. 139, and they pounced on premier wide receiver value. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Taking Xavier Restrepo in the 217th pick is close to grand larceny; a wide receiver that good had no business lasting this long. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Anthony Belton in the 220th overall pick lands just on the right side of the ledger. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Circle this one: Cam Ward at pick 235 is a fall that decides a draft. The roster fit checks out.