{"id":871414,"date":"2026-04-21T20:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871414\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:36:24","slug":"mike-vrabel-sees-edge-rusher-talent-at-all-different-levels-of-2026-nfl-draft-98-5-the-sports-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871414\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Vrabel sees edge rusher talent ‘at all different levels’ of 2026 NFL Draft – 98.5 The Sports Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the NFL Draft later this week, edge rusher projects as one of the New England Patriots’ biggest roster needs<\/a>. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, head coach Mike Vrabel shared his thoughts on the collective edge rusher class in this year’s draft. <\/p>\n

“Good, I guess. I think that there’s – at all different levels there’s guys of all shapes and sizes. Some are a little older, some are a little younger,” Vrabel said. “But I think there’s guys that I like and that [outside linebackers coach Mike Smith] likes and that our scouts like throughout the draft.”‘<\/p>\n

Patriots decision-makers have discussed this edge class and the need at the position at different points throughout the offseason, going back to the NFL Combine<\/a>. Last week, Patriots executive vice president of player personnel\u00a0Eliot Wolf mentioned wanting to add speed<\/a> at the position to boost the depth. <\/p>\n

“We could complement our room with some speed. I think that’s evident. Dre\u2019Mont, Harold [Landry III], Elijah [Ponder] and some of the other guys we have, they all have their skill sets. We would like to get faster,” Wolf said in his pre-draft press conference. “Dre\u2019Mont\u2019s a guy that can play across the line, run games. I mean, he can sneaky beat you with speed, but that’s probably not his bread and butter. So, that’s an area that we’re looking to try to improve the depth on the roster.”<\/p>\n

Heading into the draft, Harold Landry and free agent signing Dre’Mont Jones project as the Patriots top two edge rushers, although Landry is working his way back from a knee<\/a> injury that limited him for much of last season. Elijah Ponder returns as a rotational player, with Bradyn Swinson and free agent signing Jesse Luketa offering depth. The team did lose K’Lavon Chaisson in free agency. <\/p>\n

How will the Patriots bolster that group in the 2026 NFL Draft? You can check out our positional preview here<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the NFL Draft later this week, edge rusher projects as one of the New England Patriots’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,15,208,111578],"class_list":{"0":"post-871414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-newengland","12":"tag-newenglandpatriots","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-nfl-draft","15":"tag-patriots","16":"tag-patriots-offseason-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116444619310699019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871414","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=871414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}