B+
New England Patriots
The Patriots cashed the board's mistake on Mullings: B+.
by Rob ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 25 picks
· 19 steals
· 2 reaches
The rest of the league will want that one back. Kalel Mullings tumbling to the Patriots in Round 7, Pick 4 is a gift they did not have to think twice about. Solid and sensible more than spectacular: a B+.
They are betting Belton proves the room right and everyone else wrong. They won the margins on every swap, and it adds up fast. The imported veterans give this class a floor the draft picks could not on their own.
The roster is better shaped than it was, with edge rusher chief among the fixes.
All told, a draft that does its job without fuss, and there is real value in that.
Pick-by-Pick
Somehow Travis Hunter was still sitting there in Round 1, Pick 26, and they pounced on premier cornerback value. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Ashton Jeanty in No. 38 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It fills a real need, too.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Colston Loveland in slot 57. The roster fit checks out.
They robbed the room for Tyler Booker here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They will replay Kenneth Grant at pick 98 for years; that is how good the value is. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board had Harold Fannin Jr. higher than the Round 4 slot, and the tight end fell to them anyway. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
You do not let an interior defensive lineman like Derrick Harmon reach the 108th overall pick and blink. They did not. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Circle this one: Jahdae Barron at the 118th pick is a fall that decides a draft. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Wyatt Milum in slot 119 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
LT Overton at the Round 4 slot is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They barely believed it either: Aireontae Ersery still on the board at pick 121. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A clean, defensible pick in the 122nd overall pick with a little surplus value in Jihaad Campbell. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Steal is underselling it; Tre Harris at the 123rd pick is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A interior defensive lineman of that caliber at No. 124 is the definition of value, full stop. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Taking Josaiah Stewart in pick No. 128 is close to grand larceny; an edge rusher that good had no business lasting this long. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A top-tier quarterback at a bargain, Cam Ward in Round 5, Pick 2, plain and simple. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Xavier Restrepo at the 144th overall pick is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Anthony Belton in the Round 5 slot is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. A need, and now a little less of one.
Tez Johnson at No. 157 is a sensible buy, a touch better than market for the wide receiver. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They paid sticker price for Dont'e Thornton Jr. in Round 6, Pick 10, and that is fine. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Kalel Mullings at pick 218 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Ashton Gillotte in the 220th pick is a gift, value that borders on unfair. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
The board fumbled Kyle Kennard all the way to pick No. 236, and they scooped it up. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Bryce Foster at slot 244 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Steal is underselling it; Alfred Collins at No. 256 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.