NFL Draft Trade Report Doesn’t Inspire Confidence For Patriots

The 2025 NFL Draft is seen as a top-heavy class by many evaluators, which means it’s very viable for the Patriots to trade out of the No. 4 pick.

However, that idea sounds easy on paper. In practice, New England might find that scenario tough to execute. According to multiple reports, Mike Vrabel’s side was fielding calls for the fourth overall pick. But according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini on Wednesday, the majority of teams looking to trade up have Travis Hunter in mind.

The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner isn’t expected to fall to No. 4 by the majority of NFL insiders, so it’s really the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants entertaining calls. Also, if Hunter actually did fall to the Patriots, it would take a king’s ransom for Vrabel and Eliot Wolf not to draft the Colorado product.

Shedeur Sanders and Ashton Jeanty are other players teams could trade up for. However, that might be a fool’s errand as they could just fall to them since the Patriots won’t have any interest in them.

That makes it likely New England won’t trade out of the No. 4 pick, not because it doesn’t want to, but due to the lack of realistic buyers. Russini added in her Wednesday column that the expectation is the Patriots will draft Will Campbell in the first round and use the rest of the draft to address their needs.