A
New England Patriots
The steal of the weekend belongs to the Patriots and Melton: A.
by Pat4082 ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 17 picks
· 14 steals
· 0 reaches
This is the pick they will still be bragging about in July: Max Melton, the No. 111 name on the board, stolen at the 153rd overall pick. A near-flawless weekend of work, and a A to cap it.
The trade ledger is the best part of the whole weekend. If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through edge rusher. The Patriots clearly valued win-now help, adding bodies who have done it before.
It is a bet on later, and a defensible one for a team playing the long game.
In short, they turned a good board into a better roster, and it shows.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 21 they get an anchor for the offensive line. A real need, handled.
In slot 32 they get a cornerstone up front at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Brian Thomas Jr. at the 43rd overall pick. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Troy Franklin in pick No. 51 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Xavier Legette in pick 68 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Graham Barton reach the 69th pick and blink. They did not. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
They will replay Tyler Guyton at the Round 3 slot for years; that is how good the value is. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Bucky Irving at No. 114 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. The roster fit checks out.
They let Javon Foster come to them and pounced at the 136th pick. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
They robbed the room for Max Melton here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
A tidy bit of business in Round 6, Pick 7, where Joe Milton III graded well above the range. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
The board fumbled Trey Knox all the way to No. 204, and they scooped it up. A need, and now a little less of one.
They barely believed it either: AJ Barner still on the board at the Round 7 slot. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Somehow Kenny Logan Jr. was still sitting there in slot 236, and they pounced on premier safety value. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Taking Jase McClellan in the 244th overall pick is close to grand larceny; a running back that good had no business lasting this long. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Brevyn Spann-Ford slipping to pick No. 245 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It fills a real need, too.
Fair-plus on Kedon Slovis, a quiet win that adds up over a draft. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.