Patriots draft preview - Round 1
It’s finally here.
The day that can change the course of a franchise, for better or for worse — the 2025 NFL draft.
For the fans, the next few days represent hope. Hope that your team won’t fuck it up and will actually give you something to look forward to on Sunday.
For the players, it’s sort of like a fraternity pledge day but where the shittiest fraternities get first pick of the sickest bros and then the bros become insta-millionaires they second they pledge.
Now as a Patriots fan, draft day never used to mean much. You see, there was a time not too long ago when we were competent, dare I say…good at football. *Gestures smugly at someone else’s championship rings*
With Tom Brady, it didn’t really matter that much who we picked. Odds were, we were going to be good that season no matter what.
So for me, the draft was always about sitting around for three hours loosely paying attention, before we either traded back for no reason, drafted a position we didn’t need from a school that doesn’t exist, or selected a receiver who was bad at running and call it a day.
But now that the Patriots STINK, the draft has taken on greater meaning.
For the second year in a row, we have a top five pick. Last year, that pick yielded my beautiful boy, Drake Maye.
This year, given a general lack of exciting players and Joe Milton deciding his last name was Montana in week 18, we will likely not be picking a can’t-miss prospect with the #4 overall pick.
Having said that, there’s still plenty of players to like in this draft and a few different options to consider. Here’s my preview of round one of the Patriots draft, different possible scenarios, and my preferred outcome:
The most likely scenario — Stick at #4 and pick Will Campbell
This seems to be the general consensus among the so-called draft experts. With the top two talents in Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter off the board, the Patriots fill their biggest position of need by selecting LSU offensive tackle Will Campbell.
Would I be over the moon about this pick? No. I like the player and love the person. Gritty, humble, hardest worker in the building who brings a nasty edge on the field. Also we currently have a traffic cone started at LT so I’ll take what I can get.
The arm length thing doesn’t concern me as much as others. I refuse to believe a fraction of an inch on your middle finger makes that much difference in whether you can block dudes or not. As every girlfriend I’ve ever had has told me while patting my head condescendingly, “Those extra inches really don’t matter.”
Now if this was a Joe Thomas level tackle prospect, I would be thrilled.
Campbell is a great player and likely the best OL in this draft, but not the surefire Hall of Fame stud that you’d like to take with a premium pick.
However, it’s not THAT much of a reach given the lack of overall talent after the third pick. If there were a stud receiver or defensive lineman or even someone who was clearly the consensus 4th player in the draft, but not at a position of need, I would likely prefer them.
But that’s not the reality of this draft — the best receiver is Tet McMillan and he gives off the vibe of one of those guys in high school with zero personality or life skills but girls still flock to him cause he’s mad tall.
So let’s just take Campbell, keep Drake upright and kick Vederian Lowe into the sun. Another southern boy would also give me someone new to DM when I’m drunk and hosting southern cookouts:
My ideal scenario — Two trades, two picks
My ACTUAL preference would be Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter at #4 then trade back into the twenties for a lineman like Simmons or Conerly. But we fucked ourselves out of that in Week 18.
Now I’m of the opinion that we need to find a way to come out of this first day with starters at LT and WR. We have royally sucked at both of those positions for so long and I just can’t stand to see it anymore.
However, as just stated, Campbell is a bit of a reach at four. What I would love to do is trade back within the top 10 to a team desperate to select Ashton Jeanty. In my mind, that’s either the Raiders at #6 or the Bears at #10.
That way we could grab their top 10 pick, as well as a second round pick in exchange for #4 overall. It would hypothetically look something like this:
As you can see, I’ve still landed Campbell with the 10th pick, while securing additional draft capital. Whether or not Campbell makes it to 10 is another question, but it’s certainly within the realm of possibility.
Regardless, there will be a LT there to select. But our night isn’t over. With our newfound second rounder, we can do something like this:
This exact trade wouldn’t happen as Golden will almost certainly be off the board at this point and the Chargers would just take him themselves as they need a WR and are smarter than us (see: Ladd McConkey).
But along these same lines, if we could trade up with a more established team with less holes to fill to secure a wide receiver, it would be a slam dunk first round. My preference:
Emeka Egbuka. Sometimes overshadowed because of the presence of MHJ and then Jeremiah Smith, Egbuka is an extremely reliable and talented receiver in his own right. He would FINALLY give this offense a legitimate stable wide receiver who can be a valuable resource for Drake. He’s never going to be a dominant WR1 but a very low end WR1 or very high end WR2 is certainly in play. And for us that’s essentially Randy Moss.
So in summation, I think we take Will Campbell. My preferences would be, in order:
Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter at #4 by some miracle, package a 2nd and 3rd rounder to come back in and get an OT (probably Josh Simmons or Conerly Jr.)
Trade back from #4 to #6 or #10, draft Campbell or whoever the best remaining tackle is, trade back in and get a wideout (Golden ideally then Egbuka then Burden if it’s in the back end of the 20s)
Stick and pick Campbell at #4, trade back in with the aforementioned pick package and get a receiver in the 20s
Let’s see how we fuck this up — stay tuned tomorrow for my reaction and preview of rounds 2 & 3!
