A-
New England Patriots
The Patriots let Sanders fall and pounced. Final grade: A-.
by JCarr724 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 10 steals
· 0 reaches
You build a draft on nights like this. T.J. Sanders had no business being available in the 220th pick, and the Patriots did the only sane thing and turned in the card. Very little went wrong, and the A- is earned.
The trade ledger is the best part of the whole weekend. The tight end 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.
Add it up and few war rooms did better this weekend, Travis Hunter and all.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 14 they get a disruptor off the edge, outstanding value to boot. Exactly the need they had to hit.
In pick 21 they get a press-man option on the boundary at a price that makes it sweeter.
They will replay Ashton Jeanty at slot 77 for years; that is how good the value is. A need, and now a little less of one.
They barely believed it either: Malaki Starks still on the board at the Round 3 slot. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Steal is underselling it; Wyatt Milum at No. 101 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. The roster fit checks out.
Walter Nolen in pick No. 115 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
The board fumbled Cam Ward all the way to the 143rd pick, and they scooped it up. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Anthony Belton at the 155th overall pick is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
You do not let a wide receiver like Tre Harris reach the 217th overall pick and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Somehow T.J. Sanders was still sitting there in the 220th pick, and they pounced on premier interior defensive lineman value. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.