New England Patriots · 2026 Draft · Pick #31 · (14-3)

Traded Away: This slot now belongs to Tennessee Titans, who drafted Keldric Faulk.

Traded Away: This slot now belongs to Los Angeles Chargers, who drafted Jake Slaughter.

Actual Pick: Caleb Lomu (OT, Utah) REACH Buy Jersey

Reach. New England jumped the market by a full round to land Caleb Lomu, and while protecting Drake Maye is non-negotiable, paying 28th-pick capital for a consensus second-round tackle is textbook overdraft. Lomu was Spencer Fano's bookend at Utah, not the alpha; his pass-set mechanics still get beaten by long-armed speed, and every mock outside Utah's own film room had him sliding to the 40s. Eliot Wolf blinked. The fit itself is defensible — OL is priority two on the board and Mike Onwenu can kick back to guard if Lomu wins a tackle job. New England's cap is clean enough to absorb a developmental swing tackle, and Lomu's length and run-game nastiness mesh with Josh McDaniels's gap-scheme bones. But with Edge as the stated number-one need and Princely Umanmielen still sitting there, taking the fourth-best tackle over the board's best pass rusher is tone-deaf. Acquiring this pick from Houston via Buffalo almost certainly cost New England a future third plus a late-round sweetener — fine value in isolation, awful value when spent on a player the Bills literally traded away from. Buffalo saw 28 and said no thanks; Wolf saw 28 and reached a round. The opportunity cost is brutal: Umanmielen, Harold Fannin Jr., or Elic Ayomanor all fill bigger holes and all grade ahead of Lomu on every public board. Our board had Lomu at OT9, a clean second-round grade roughly 15-18 slots lower than where he came off. Jeremiah had him 52nd overall, PFF 47th, Kiper 58th. That's not a nitpick — that's a full-round delta against consensus. Blake Miller, our projected name for this slot, is still on the board and grades as a plug-and-play right tackle today. New England didn't just miss the value; they ignored a better tackle sitting at the same position. The message is clear: Wolf is building a fortress around Maye and doesn't care what the board says, which is philosophically fine and tactically sloppy. Next up they absolutely must double-dip on Edge in round two — Mike Green or Bradyn Swinson need to be the target or this draft becomes a one-note OL class. The front office earned patience, not trust, tonight. Ask again Friday when we see whether the pass rush got addressed or ignored.

Actual Pick: Gabe Jacas (EDGE, Illinois) SOLID Buy Jersey

Solid. New England landing Gabe Jacas at 55 after trading up from the Chargers' slot is a defensible-bordering-on-shrewd swing for a roster that desperately needs juice off the edge. Jacas posted back-to-back productive Big Ten seasons at Illinois with legitimate bend for a 6'3", 260-pound frame, and he was firmly inside the R1-R2 conversation on most public boards. Getting that grade in the middle of Round 2 qualifies as value, not vanity. The fit is clean and obvious. Edge sat atop the Patriots' need list, and Mike Vrabel's defense is built on multiple, hybrid front-seven bodies who can two-gap on early downs and convert speed-to-power on third. Jacas profiles exactly as that chess-piece SAM/DE — not a 12-sack savant, but a sturdy run-setter with a counter-heavy pass-rush plan opposite Keion White. Cap-wise, second-round money on a defensive front-seven starter is precisely the kind of cost-controlled foundation New England needs while the Drake Maul ecosystem matures. On the trade itself, moving up from the Chargers' original perch into 55 is fair value provided the compensation was a Day 3 sweetener — a fourth or a future, not a third-plus-change. Edge is the most expensive position to acquire in free agency, so paying a marginal Jimmy Johnson premium to lock in a Round 1-grade rusher is rational. The opportunity cost — Denzel Boston, our slotted projection here — stings less because Eliot Wolf clearly prioritized trench impact over a third-tier WR2 archetype. Board value lands squarely at market-rate to mild steal. Jacas was consensus 45-60 across Jeremiah, Kiper, and PFF's big board, typically the EDGE6-EDGE9 in this class behind names like Donovan Ezeiruaku and Mykel Williams. Pick 55 is dead-center of that band. We had Boston ranked higher as a pure prospect, but positional scarcity flips the math — Round 2 edges who set the edge AND rush the passer return more surplus value than a contested-catch X-receiver. This pick says Vrabel and Wolf are building the Patriots from the line of scrimmage outward, exactly as their public posture promised. Maul gets weapons later; the trenches get fixed first. Next move should be a true Y-tight end on Day 3 — Harold Fannin or Jackson Hawes — and a developmental tackle. The front office earned cautious trust tonight: they identified a top-tier need, paid a reasonable toll to climb, and didn't get cute. That's a grown-up Round 2.

Actual Pick: Eli Raridon (TE, Notre Dame) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Intriguing. Eli Raridon is a swing-for-upside red-zone target who fits Drake Maye's developmental arc, even if Edge and OL screamed louder on the board. The Patriots already rostered Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, so doubling down at tight end at 95 raises eyebrows — but Raridon's 6'7", contested-catch radius and Notre Dame pedigree under Marcus Freeman give him a ceiling Henry no longer offers. This is a vision pick, not a need pick, and that's exactly the gamble worth taking. The fit is awkward on paper and elegant in practice. New England's listed needs — Edge, OL, DL, TE, WR — put TE fourth, but Josh McDaniels has historically built around 12-personnel, and Raridon's frame slots cleanly as the future Y to Henry's expiring deal. He's not a Sam LaPorta athlete; he's a boundary-line-of-scrimmage mauler who can chip Maxx Crosby on Sundays and box out safeties in the red zone. With cap relief incoming post-2026 at the position, the timing tracks. This was a straight pick at 95, no trade reported, which makes the opportunity cost the entire conversation. Princely Umanmielen, Jaylen Harrell, and Tylan Grable were still on most public boards at this slot — three players who would have hammered the actual top-three needs. Rookie-contract value at pick 95 is roughly $5.1M over four years, fine for a developmental TE2, but Eliot Wolf paying market rate for a third tight end while Christian Barmore plays next to question marks is a defensible-but-debatable allocation. On our board Raridon graded as a mid-Round 4 prospect, so going 95 is a half-round reach — call it 15-20 slots early. Daniel Jeremiah had him outside his top 150; PFF graded him 178th overall as a developmental TE3 nationally; Kiper never listed him in the top 200. Position-wise he's TE7 or TE8 in this class behind Mason Taylor, Harold Fannin, and Gunnar Helm. Market-rate this is not — Wolf reached for traits and bloodlines over consensus value. This pick says New England trusts its TE coaching room and its quarterback's red-zone ceiling more than it trusts the back-half edge market — a bold posture given Matthew Judon is gone and Keion White is unproven as a primary rusher. Next pick must be Edge or interior OL, full stop; if Wolf doubles back on offense in Round 4, the room turns. Front office bought tonight on conviction, not consensus. I'll grant them the benefit of the doubt, narrowly.

Actual Pick: Karon Prunty (, ) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Meh. Karon Prunty (?, —) wasn't on our top-145 big board, which means the New England Patriots are betting on something specific that didn't show up in the consensus film grades. Day-3 picks are won and lost on traits-and-fit calls like this — if the team's scouting department saw a special-teams role, a developmental skill, or an injury-discount, that's defensible. We don't have a board grade to anchor a verdict so we're rating this neutral and waiting for training-camp tape.

Actual Pick: Dametrious Crownover (, ) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Meh. Dametrious Crownover (?, —) wasn't on our top-145 big board, which means the New England Patriots are betting on something specific that didn't show up in the consensus film grades. The New England Patriots acquired this pick via trade (From IND via MIN, CAR and JAX). Day-3 picks are won and lost on traits-and-fit calls like this — if the team's scouting department saw a special-teams role, a developmental skill, or an injury-discount, that's defensible. We don't have a board grade to anchor a verdict so we're rating this neutral and waiting for training-camp tape.

Actual Pick: Namdi Obiazor (, ) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Meh. Namdi Obiazor (?, —) wasn't on our top-145 big board, which means the New England Patriots are betting on something specific that didn't show up in the consensus film grades. Day-3 picks are won and lost on traits-and-fit calls like this — if the team's scouting department saw a special-teams role, a developmental skill, or an injury-discount, that's defensible. We don't have a board grade to anchor a verdict so we're rating this neutral and waiting for training-camp tape.

Actual Pick: Behren Morton (QB, Texas Tech) STEAL Buy Jersey

Steal. Behren Morton (QB, Texas Tech) was on our top-145 board in the R4-R5 range — and the New England Patriots got him in Round 7. The New England Patriots acquired this pick via trade (From MIN). On Day 3 that's how you build a roster: value compounds quietly across the back half of the draft, and this is the kind of selection that becomes a starter in two years because the team didn't reach for him in Round 2.

Actual Pick: Jam Miller (, ) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Meh. Jam Miller (?, —) wasn't on our top-145 big board, which means the New England Patriots are betting on something specific that didn't show up in the consensus film grades. The New England Patriots acquired this pick via trade (From LAR via HOU and JAX). Day-3 picks are won and lost on traits-and-fit calls like this — if the team's scouting department saw a special-teams role, a developmental skill, or an injury-discount, that's defensible. We don't have a board grade to anchor a verdict so we're rating this neutral and waiting for training-camp tape.

Actual Pick: Quintayvious Hutchins (, ) SURPRISE Buy Jersey

Meh. Quintayvious Hutchins (?, —) wasn't on our top-145 big board, which means the New England Patriots are betting on something specific that didn't show up in the consensus film grades. Day-3 picks are won and lost on traits-and-fit calls like this — if the team's scouting department saw a special-teams role, a developmental skill, or an injury-discount, that's defensible. We don't have a board grade to anchor a verdict so we're rating this neutral and waiting for training-camp tape.