Joshua Uche was the Patriots<\/a>\u2019 desired linebacker prospect with the No. 60 overall pick. Uche agreed to a one-year deal with the Miami Dolphins on March 11.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old has enjoyed a six-year career in the NFL. He went for 11.5 sacks in 2022 as a member of the Patriots. Outside of that one season, Uche was never able to maintain that level of play, despite multiple years in New England. He followed that career-high season up with only three sacks in 2023 and two sacks in 2024 before being traded.<\/p>\n Having started in only four of the 76 games that he\u2019s played in the league, New England had the chance to select a player with accolades to show for over Uche back in 2020.<\/p>\n New selection: LB Zack Baun (Philadelphia Eagles)<\/p>\n No. 74 overall pick in 2020 – New Orleans Saints<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Baun has established himself as one of the best linebackers in the NFL. He was named First-Team All-Pro in 2024 as a member of the Eagles. Baun won that season\u2019s Super Bowl with Philadelphia. The Wisconsin product ranked No. 2 in the NFL in forced fumbles in 2025 with five. He\u2019s collected four interceptions and 22 tackles for loss in the last three seasons.<\/p>\n The Patriots clearly missed out on a player who could have been a cornerstone piece on their defense for years to come. Baun’s 83.0 overall Pro Football Focus<\/a> grade ranked fifth out of 88 qualifying linebackers for the 2025 NFL season.<\/p>\n Follow Patriots Wire on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 27, 2026, 8:23 p.m. ET The New England Patriots had the chance to select former Super Bowl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[95878,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,96851,96852,95882,101887,95896,97160,96854,95888,95906,95883,102101,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-838333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-england","11":"tag-new-england-patriots","12":"tag-newengland","13":"tag-newenglandpatriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-sstssportsnflpatriots","17":"tag-sstsnpatriots","18":"tag-tagamerican-football","19":"tag-tagjosh-uche","20":"tag-tagnational-sports","21":"tag-tagnew-england","22":"tag-tagnew-england-patriots","23":"tag-tagnfl","24":"tag-tagoverall-positive","25":"tag-tagsports-news","26":"tag-tagzack-baun","27":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116304843228516614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838333","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=838333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774670960_43_86371878007-cardis-1.jpg\")