It’s tough to handle a Super Bowl loss, but the bright side is that the New England Patriots made it this far. Of course, New England needs to make some upgrades, but they have a very good team across the board.
Despite not having a great Super Bowl, Drake Maye is clearly the Patriots’ franchise quarterback.
It’s tough to handle a Super Bowl loss, but the bright side is that the New England Patriots made it this far. Of course, New England needs to make some upgrades, but they have a very good team across the board.
Despite not having a great Super Bowl, Drake Maye is clearly the Patriots’ franchise quarterback.
When you look around the NFL at all these other teams in need of a quarterback, it’s easy to understand how crucial that is.
With that being said, if the Patriots dominate this offseason, they’ll be in a good spot to make it or even win the Super Bowl in 2026. Crushing the NFL Draft is going to be crucial to make that happen.
New England Patriots 3-Round NFL Mock Draft
For this mock draft, we’ll be going through the first three rounds using the PFF Mock Draft Simulator.
In that range, New England has picks 31, 63, and 95.
First-Round Pick (31st Overall): CJ Allen, LB, Georgia
Based on the board in this mock draft, the selection of CJ Allen seemed very obvious. Although linebacker doesn’t have a ton of positional value, taking one at pick No. 31 makes sense.
Both Robert Spillane and Christian Elliss are good players, but neither is necessarily elite. Not only that, but Spillane is 30 years old, and although he becomes a free agent in 2028, the Patriots have an out in 2027.
Allen is a bit smaller at 6’1” and 235 lbs than the top linebackers in this class, but he’s a great player regardless.
When looking at the PFF numbers for Allen, he struggled a bit in coverage with a grade of 55.6, but his run defense grade of 88.6 was phenomenal.
In terms of his stats, Allen had 88 tackles, eight tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks in 2025.
Second-Round Pick (63rd Overall): Joshua Josephs, Edge, Tennessee
Outside of linebacker, the Patriots could use some help getting after the quarterback. This past year, the Patriots ranked 18th in sacks per game (2.3), which is something they should look to improve.
In 2025, Harold Landry led the team in sacks (8.5), but he’s getting a bit older at 29 years old. Then you have K’Lavon Chaisson, who had a very good season (7.5 sack) as well, and he’s 26 years old.
Elijah Ponder played well as an undrafted free agent with four sacks, but Joshua Josephs looks to be a sizable upgrade over him.
This past year, Josephs excelled in terms of getting after the quarterback. Although Josephs had only four sacks in 11 games, he had an elite pass rush rate of 21.3% (per PFF).
Third-Round Pick (95th Overall): Justin Joly, TE, NC State
Some might disagree with this pick as Hunter Henry is a very reliable option. While that’s true, Henry is 31 years old, and he becomes a free agent in 2027.
For a team that could use some more young weapons, Justin Joly is a great receiving tight end. Joly caught 49 passes for 489 yards and seven touchdowns this past season, but his yards per game were even better in 2024.
That season, Joly caught 43 passes for 661 passing yards and four touchdowns. That comes out to 50.8 YPG in 2024 compared to 40.8 in 2025.
It’s not as if the New England Patriots have a ton of holes to fill, but this mock draft should give an idea of how they should approach the 2026 NFL Draft.
