Talent and fit: Patriots take important step forward with productive draft originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
Everybody loves, loves, LOVES the Patriots’ 2025 draft class.
A sampling of knee-jerk national draft grades shows New England didn’t just have the most-loved draft by a little. It was kind of a landslide.
Are these grades accurate predictors of success? Not entirely.
Experts liked the Patriots’ draft last year because of Drake Maye and the seeming value of Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker.
When real football was played, Polk and Baker were nowhere to be found. Some of that was related to the disarray of the 2024 Patriots as a whole. New guys didn’t develop. Veterans actually backslid.
But these grades aren’t forecasts. They are evaluations of real-time decisions made. Was a player taken way too early? On time? Or did the team get value by taking a player well after he should have been gone? Did the pick fill a roster need? Will there be an impact?
The 2022 draft deservedly got killed in real time because of reach after reach after reach, beginning with first-round pick Cole Strange.
The Patriots didn’t reach in this draft. They let picks come to them, took them in the right neighborhood of where they were valued and took them at positions of need.
They needed a tackle. They got the top-rated tackle (Will Campbell). They needed more juice in their running back room with an explosive runner who can catch and pass protect. They got one of those (TreVeyon Henderson). They needed a fast wideout who can produce and run past people. Got one (Kyle Williams).
They needed center depth behind Garrett Bradbury. They got the highest-rated center in the draft (Jared Wilson). They needed interior defensive line depth. Got it (Joshua Farmer). They needed edge depth. Got it (Bradyn Swinson).
They prioritized on-field and off-field fits, according to VP of Player Personnel Ryan Cowden.
“From free agency and now through the draft, (acquired players are) not always going to be perfect and fit exactly to the criteria,” Cowden said Saturday. “The most that we can sit there and talk about that we’re adding, guys who love playing football, guys who are great teammates.
“We all want talented players, we do,” he continued. “There’s an idea here that can’t be overstated enough is that if you don’t get the person right, then a lot of that other stuff can go by the wayside. I think we’ve been trying to be very intentional about the people, about some of the people to build the foundation that Coach Vrabel and his vision has here for this football team.
“That started in free agency and that’s been a major emphasis for us as we’ve gotten into this draft process.”
At the end of last season, the Patriots had very few players you could point to as being definitive foundational pieces. Even their best young players like Christian Barmore and Keion White had qualifiers attached. Barmore is dealing with last year’s health scare. White intimated uncertainty about his future here at the end of last season.
Meanwhile, players signed to big second contracts like Rhamondre Stevenson, Kyle Dugger and Mike Onwenu had disappointing seasons that didn’t measure up.
The Patriots needed to build a core in free agency and — more importantly — through the draft. Due to their heinous draft yield from the past half-decade (or more), they need multiple hits. And they need to salvage some of the players who were disillusioned last season. Because there is usable talent among those players, and that includes utter disappointments like Polk.
The Patriots had the worst offensive line in the league last year. That line now consists (left to right) of Will Campbell, Cole Strange/Layden Robinson, Bradbury, Onwenu and Morgan Moses. And there’s depth added with Caedan Wallace and newly-drafted center Jared Wilson.
They had the worst wide receiver room in the league. They’ve added Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins, third-rounder Kyle Williams and an interesting, 5-foot-10, 200-pound UDFA named Efton Chism III from Eastern Washington.
They were the worst team in the league at generating sacks and pressure. They brought in Milton Williams, Harold Landry and Bradyn Swinson, a huge value pick in the fifth round.
They’re going to put all those players in the hands of an experienced coaching staff with a cogent plan for how they want the team to prepare, develop and play. They wanted to change the culture and the talent level.
They’ve taken significant steps toward doing exactly that.
from NFL News, Scores, Fantasy Games and Highlights 2020 | Yahoo Sports https://ift.tt/AhxprcX
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