The reviews are in for the Patriots' 2025 Draft and have been overwhelmingly deemed the best class in the NFL. Not only were they able to add quality talent to their offense to surround Drake Maye with players to boost his second-season production, but they also selected game-changing defenders to put their defense over the top.
This comes after a mostly applaudable free agency with a lot of money spent on the top available defensive talent. That allowed Mike Vrabel and Co. to focus on the offense early and often in the draft and really address every lingering void from the 2024 roster.
Their seemingly successful offseason has already led analysts to project that the Patriots' three-year playoff drought will end during the 2025 season, a big declaration before we see how things will look under a new regime.
However, that doesn't mean they'll be where they hope to be by next year's draft, at least according to the earliest projections for the first round draft order on Pro Football Focus.
PFF's projection for the Patriots' 2026 first-round pick leaves a lot to be desired
The optimism surrounding the Patriots' 2026 season is far different than the post-draft feeling of the last five years. While there might have been hope that they'd win more games than they lost, the postseason seemed like a distant afterthought, as the rosters didn't seem capable of being good enough collectively to get there, even as a wild card.
Vrabel has made it clear he wants to change that as soon as this upcoming season, but is also aware that getting back to the promised land can be a timely process. And unfortunately, that might be the case for the 2026 season.
In the early projections for the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, PFF has New England with the 12th overall pick, a significant jump from where they have selected over the past two years. That implies they improve quite a bit from those seasons, but not necessarily enough to make the playoffs.
They last chose beyond the top-10 in 2023 when they initially had the 14th pick until they traded back to 17 to draft CB Christian Gonzalez. Even with pick 14, they didn't make the playoffs and finished the season with the worst record in the AFC East at 4-13. So seeing them pick at No. 12 would surely mean an equal or worse fate this season.
On one hand, it's at least better than what they've done over the last two seasons and shows they were able to improve from just one year ago. That's noteworthy, and progress is progress, after all.
But at the same time, it doesn't feel like enough movement in the right direction to satisfy fans or even the organization, which is disappointing to be already thinking about after such a seemingly positive offseason thus far.
Of course, this is just a projection and doesn't mean it will turn out to be accurate. A lot can change between now and the end of next season, so there's no reason to live and die by this prediction. Yet it is interesting to see how the Patriots are viewed at this point and how analysts imagine their season going, which is worth keeping in mind at the very least.