Patriots Mock Draft 5.0: Predicting Entire 2025 Class

What are the New England Patriots going to do with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft? We will try and answer that question in this five-part mock draft series — with our final installment (hopefully) serving as a spoiler.

Mock Draft 1.0 | Mock Draft 2.0 | Mock Draft 3.0 | Mock Draft 4.0

The Patriots have been connected to a wealth of different scenarios before the 2025 NFL Draft, and if you don’t believe us, just click those links up above.

It’s not rocket science, though.

New England will probably just take LSU’s Will Campbell, and though that might seem like a disappointment after hearing other names floated, it’s the smartest thing to do given the club’s needs. NESN asked us to explore all options, and we did exactly that, but with just a few days remaining before the draft, it’s time to lock in.

Let’s lay out what now feels like the likeliest outcome, shall we?

The New England Patriots select offensive tackle Will Campbell with the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Miami’s Cam Ward, Colorado’s Travis Hunter and Penn State’s Abdul Carter will almost certainly be off the board by the time this selection needs to be made, and while there are plenty of other names who could be in consideration, we’ve always leaned toward this guy.

Campbell might not be the sexy pick, and he definitely has flaws, but he is far from a bad consolation prize now that we know there aren’t any “generational talents” headed to One Patriots Place.

The Patriots’ top priority is finding a blindside protector for Drake Maye, and they can’t pass one over when it will be staring them in the face. Missouri’s Armand Membou, Ohio State’s Josh Simmons and Minnesota’s Aireontae Ersery are other names who have been floated as potential answers, but you’re playing for fire if you trade back or reach with any of those guys. Campbell has the highest floor of any player in that group, so add him to the room and look for supplemental pieces elsewhere if/when you need them.

We didn’t just stop at one selection, either, so check out our picks and trades across all seven rounds. You can find the full results via PFF’s Mock Draft Simulator and our reasoning below:

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter had an interesting report earlier this week. He said some teams believe there will be a race to select quarterbacks at the top of the second round.

New England picks near the top of the second round, and very well could take advantage of that scenario.

The PFF simulator presented us with some trades, and we finagled a few to load up on premium picks in this draft while shipping away some lottery tickets for later. The Patriots end up making two trades in our final trial run, receiving picks No. 50, No. 82 and No. 172 from the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for No. 38 and No. 220, and pick No. 148 from the Chicago Bears for picks No. 171 and No. 172.

Put another way:

Picks coming in: Nos. 50, 82, 148
Picks going out: Nos. 38, 171, 172, 220

Get it? Got it? Good.

Higgins and Noel both fell into our laps, so it was an easy decision to select the college teammates and hope you hit on at least one. New England has three solid veterans in the receiving room (Stefon Diggs, Kendrick Bourne, DeMario Douglas) who should be good enough to allow these guys to develop at their own pace. However, selecting these two guys would essentially pull the plug on Javon Baker and Kayshon Boutte — if not Ja’Lynn Polk, as well — but that’s the cost of doing business when you’re looking to improve a team.

Taylor and Harvey would have immediate roles on this offense, with the former likely stepping in and becoming the primary backup to Hunter Henry. Harvey, meanwhile, was built to take on the passing-down role in the backfield.

Oladejo took a pre-draft visit to New England. He has the perfect amount of raw talent to be taken in that spot and developed into potentially being a disruptive player on passing downs. Bowman would provide a different look in the secondary, while McLaughlin could eventually slide into a full-time role along the offensive interior. Travis is one of the lone offensive tackles who actually fits the length requirements of those down at One Patriot Place, so he’s our contingency plan.

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