Makai Lemon ranks second in FBS in receiving yards so far this season.Makai Lemon ranks second in the FBS in receiving yards. (AP Photo\/Jessie Alcheh)<\/p>\n
2 minutes to read<\/p>\n
The days spent scouring over various mock drafts to see who the Patriots might select with a top-five pick might be a thing of the past.<\/p>\n
New England appears to be ahead of schedule with their rebuild, with Mike Vrabel\u2019s team currently first in the AFC East with a 4-2 record.<\/p>\n
A lot can change over the span of a full NFL season, but New England doesn\u2019t appear to be a team in line for another top-10 selection during the 2026 NFL Draft in April.<\/p>\n
With New England still staring at several deficiencies across their depth chart, Eliot Wolf, Ryan Cowden, and the rest of the Patriots\u2019 top brass need to still hit on several of their high-value draft picks in the next few years if they want to properly supplement what looks like a winning core of young talent.<\/p>\n
And given the Patriots\u2019 need of another impact wideout to pair alongside Drake Maye, it should come as little surprise that ESPN\u2019s Jordan Reid has New England targeting a pass-catcher<\/a> with their first-round pick in the 2026 Draft.<\/p>\n With the 22nd pick in the next year\u2019s draft, Reid has the Patriots taking wide receiver Makai Lemon out of USC. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cEven with the emergence of Kayshon Boutte, and free agent signing Stefon Diggs recapturing his pre-injury form, there\u2019s no such thing as too many receivers for quarterback Drake Maye, especially with Diggs turning 32 in November,\u201d Reid wrote. \u201cLemon is a do-it-all target who can play the slot and outside. <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s highly productive (44 receptions for 682 yards and six touchdowns this season), and his body control and catch radius help him make miraculous catches look routine.\u201d<\/p>\n A dangerous route-runner who could fit in a variety of roles in Josh McDaniels\u2019s offense, Lemon\u2019s 682 receiving yards so far this year ranks second in FBS, even if the California product isn\u2019t the most imposing figure at 5-foot-11 and 195 pounds.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s been plenty of variance in these early mock drafts as to where New England will pick, the recurring theme has been the Patriots picking a wideout in the first round.<\/p>\n USA Today\u2019s Ayrton Ostly<\/a> has New England taking Tennessee WR Chris Brazzell II with the 25th overall pick, while CBS Sports\u2019 Josh Edwards<\/a> has the Patriots dropping to pick No. 16 \u2014 where they take Washington WR Denzel Boston. <\/p>\n Despite New England\u2019s clear need for more firepower on offense, the Patriots haven\u2019t fared all that well when it comes to using premium draft capital on wideouts. <\/p>\n The last time New England used a first-round pick on a receiver came in 2019 \u2014 when the team picked N\u2019Keal Harry out of Arizona State with the 32nd pick. <\/p>\n A few of the wideouts taken in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft include Deebo Samuel (No. 36 overall), A.J. Brown (No. 51 overall), and DK Metcalf (No. 64 overall).<\/p>\n Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Makai Lemon ranks second in FBS in receiving yards so far this season.Makai Lemon ranks second in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[433,787,7,4247,75974,1167,249,2326,2094,9666,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-452777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-boston","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-new-2026-nfl-mock-draft-has-patriots-selecting-usc-receiver-with-1st-round-pick","13":"tag-new-england","14":"tag-new-england-patriots","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-newsbreak","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115387627595083959","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}