🚨 Hot Take: 4 way too early targets for Patriots in 2025 NFL Draft

Here’s who the Patriots should be looking at near the top of the 2025 NFL Draft.

There’s good news and bad news for the New England Patriots as they start to turn their attention to the 2025 NFL Draft. The negative is that they’ve played just a little too well of late to get the top of even a top-three pick. However, the positive is twofold. The team absolutely has its franchise quarterback in Drake Maye and even though the Patriots might pick fourth or fifth, there doesn’t seem to be a no-doubt superstar at the top of this year’s draft board, so New England’s pick is as likely as any to hit big.

So, the Patriots have a chance to bring in a real difference-maker in this draft, and the front office has one mandate: Get players to support Maye.

Forget the pass rush, front seven, and the defensive back end. You can work on that in free agency and later on draft weekend. With the top pick, the team must get a pass-catcher or a protector for the signal caller of the future.

With those as the only two options and the Patriots likely picking somewhere between No. 3 and No. 8 in the first round, here are four way too early targets for the Patriots in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Offensive tackle: Will Campbell, LSU or Kelvin Banks Jr., Texas

4 way too early targets for Patriots in 2025 NFL Draft — Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images.

Picking in the top 10 will allow the Patriots to get one of the rarest commodities in the NFL Draft: A true franchise left tackle.

This season, New England’s two tackles, Vederian Lowe and Demontry Jacobs rank 63rd and 77th out of 77 qualified offensive tackles in PFF grades. To help protect Maye, the Patriots will need to replace both players moving forward.

Will Campbell and Kelvin Banks Jr. are both phenomenal talents with the potential to lock down their QB’s blindside for the next decade or more. Campbell has given up just two sacks in the last two seasons and Banks has allowed three in his entire career. Either one of these Ots would be a great pick for the Pats and the NFL Scouting Combine will push one of these players to NE.

For now, Campbell is the more versatile player, with the ability to play either tackle spots or even guard, while Banks projects as a pure LT. For that, the LSU blocker gets the slight nod.

Wide receiver: Tetairoa McMillan, Arizona

Drake Maye is staking his claim as the Patriots franchise QB with wide receivers Demario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, and Kendrick Bourne catching his passes. Second-round rookie Ja’Lynn Polk out of Washington has been a non-factor this season with just 12 catches for 87 yards.
The Patriots need to get Maye a No. 1 WR, and Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan looks like he could be that in the NFL.

McMillan is 6-foot-5 and has plenty of speed to separate from defensive backs on deep balls. On a relatively weak Wildcats squad this season, the big-bodied wideout put up 84 catches, 1,319 receiving yards, and eight receiving touchdowns.

Alongside Boutte and Polk, if he eventually comes good, a player of McMillan’s size and strength could be a great top target in any wide receiver room.

Tight end: Colston Loveland, Michigan

To set Tom Brady up for his second set of three Super Bowls in New England, the Patriots invested two 2010 draft picks in tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. This pair — before Hernandez’s tragic off-field demise — created nightmare matchups all over the field and allowed the offense to flourish.

In Michigan’s Colston Loveland, Drake Maye could get the same kind of matchup problem that Brady had in Gronk. Loveland didn’t put up great numbers this season with Michigan’s terrible QB play, but the 6-foot-5, 245-pound field stretcher could be dominant at the next level with his size and speed.