C+
New England Patriots
The Patriots let Smith fall into their laps, and walked away with a C+.
by Pats Hopeful ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 14 picks
· 8 steals
· 1 reaches
Call it larceny. Brashard Smith sat on the board until Round 7, Pick 22, and the Patriots did not need to be asked twice. The good and the questionable cancel out to a C+.
The Jackson reach is the anchor dragging on the value grade. They handed away value on the phones that the picks cannot earn back.
A whole weekend of picks and edge rusher is somehow still a want. It is a bet on later, and a defensible one for a team playing the long game.
If Tetairoa McMillan and a couple of the gambles land, hindsight will be kinder than this grade.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 7 they get a go-to option on the outside at fair value. Exactly the need they had to hit.
By-the-book stuff, Tyler Booker at slot 36 squarely in line with his ranking. The roster fit checks out.
Donovan Jackson at Round 2, Pick 6 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Tyleik Williams in the 67th overall pick is a bargain the rest of the room will envy. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Alfred Collins at pick No. 79 is money in the bank, a interior defensive lineman taken below his worth. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A clean, defensible pick in the Round 3 slot with a little surplus value in Jermari Harris. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
Evan Stewart in the 103rd pick lands just on the right side of the ledger. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Deontae Lawson at pick 110 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
Taking Maxwell Hairston in slot 138 is close to grand larceny; a cornerback that good had no business lasting this long. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
Circle this one: Mason Taylor at the Round 5 slot is a fall that decides a draft. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Nicholas Singleton at the 182nd overall pick is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It fills a real need, too.
Fair-plus on Jonah Monheim, a quiet win that adds up over a draft. A need, and now a little less of one.
They robbed the room for Chris Paul Jr. here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.
You do not let a running back like Brashard Smith reach Round 7, Pick 22 and blink. They did not. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.