The New England Patriots are set to enter the 2025 Draft with the fourth-overall pick, making them an interesting team in the draft. While four is a premium pick, all the Patriots can do is wait around and see who will be available for them. There are scenarios where Travis Hunter or Abdul Carter, the two best players in the draft, could be available for them to draft. Those scenarios are unlikely but possible.
Those guys could also be off the board, and New England could decide to address some of its other needs. It’s also possible the team trades back to stock up on picks, and still be set up to pick an elite player in the first round. With the draft kicking off Thursday night, everything is on the table for the Patriots.
There is one option that a draft analyst would like for New England to scratch off its list of options. Brent Sobleski, in a recent piece for Bleacher Report, named one prospect each team should avoid. For the Patriots, the avoidable prospect was Tetairoa McMillan.
Bleacher Report says Patriots should avoid Tetairoa McMillan
This is a confusing option because New England needs wide receivers, and McMillan is one of the best wideouts in the class. However, Sobleski argues McMillan should be avoided because the Patriots’ first round selection will likely be a wide receiver or an offensive tackle. Since the wide receiver position is generally deeper in draft classes, Sobleski says it makes sense to get the tackle first and the wideout later.
"To be fair, LSU offensive lineman Will Campbell and Arizona wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan share identical grades from the Bleacher Report Scouting Department. McMillan gets the nod here as the prospect to "avoid," because wide receiver is always a deep position, definitely more so than offensive tackle in this particular class."Brent Sobleski (Bleacher Report)
This approach is often used by teams when they have two important needs. The franchise asks itself which position has the smallest drop off of talent from round one to round two. In this draft, the belief is that New England can find recivers closer to McMillan on day two, than they could tackles close to a player like Will Campbell.
Sobleski even lists a few day-two receiver targerts the Patriots could go after, naming guys like Tre Harris, Kyle Williams, Jaylin Noel, and Jack Bech. While “avoiding” Tetairoa McMillan is a weird way to put it, this rationale does make sense if New England believes the wide receiver class is deeper than the tackle class.