According to ESPN\u2019s Matt Miller,<\/a> the Patriots<\/a>\u2019 need at defensive end is a job opening well suited for Jacas, who New England has the option to select in the draft.<\/p>\n \u201dGabe Jacas, Edge, Illinois. A key area of need for New England is finding speed off the edge,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAt 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds, Jacas is well-built but also has the first-step twitch that’s missing in Vrabel’s defense.\u201d<\/p>\n The need for talent on the edge is evident for the Patriots.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n They signed Dre’Mont Jones in free agency, but they lost K’Lavon Chaisson and released Anfernee Jennings. Harold Landry III, who is expected to play across from Jones, was banged up for most of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n Jacas turned in 11 sacks in 2025. He also produced 13.5 tackles for loss, as well as three forced fumbles last year. The Patriots have room for an edge rusher in 2026. At No. 31, Jacas figures to be one of the best prospects that will potentially be remaining on the board for New England to select.<\/p>\n Follow Patriots Wire on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 28, 2026, 7:40 p.m. ET Does the name Gabe Jacas ring a bell? The 2026 NFL Draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[95878,7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208,96851,96852,97116,95882,95930,95892,95893,96756,96853,96854,95906,95883,95894,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-840414","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-tag2026-nfl-draft","19":"tag-tagamerican-football","20":"tag-tagbig-ten-conference-football","21":"tag-tagespn-inc","22":"tag-tagfacebook","23":"tag-tagillinois","24":"tag-tagmike-vrabel","25":"tag-tagnew-england-patriots","26":"tag-tagoverall-positive","27":"tag-tagsports-news","28":"tag-tagtwitter","29":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116310925973794647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840414","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=840414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1774763777_527_86371878007-cardis-1.jpg\")