{"id":871663,"date":"2026-04-22T05:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871663\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:39:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:39:24","slug":"patriots-predicted-to-select-20-sack-defensive-end-to-bolster-front-with-dremont-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871663\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Predicted To Select 20-Sack Defensive End To Bolster Front With Dre\u2019Mont Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 NFL Draft will begin Thursday night, and unlike last year, the <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patriots<\/a> will make their pick at the end of the evening.<\/p>\n<p>New England has a variety of options to weigh for the No. 31 pick, and Nathan Jahnke from Pro Football Focus <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pff.com\/news\/draft-nfl-mock-draft-jets-reset-on-defense-miami-doubles-down-on-wide-receiver\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">predicted that the<\/a> Patriots will choose UCF pass rusher Malachi Lawrence at that spot.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;New England had a top-six offense and a strong secondary, but its biggest weakness was the front seven,&#8221; Jahnke wrote on Monday. &#8220;The team\u2019s leader in pressures, K\u2019Lavon Chaisson, left in free agency. The other edge rusher from last season, Harold Landry Jr., has never earned a pass-rush grade above 65.0 in a season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The\u00a0Patriots\u00a0added Dre\u2019Mont Jones in free agency, but could still use another rotational piece. While Lawrence did not produce like a typical first-round edge rusher at UCF, he ranked at or above the 93rd percentile in the 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, 10-yard split, vertical jump and broad jump at the combine.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence played four seasons at UCF, appearing in 39 games and recording 28 tackles for loss along with 20 sacks. He would make a valuable addition to the defensive line.<\/p>\n<p>More NFL: <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\/news\/patriots-re-sign-fullback-jack-westover\/9b6cd4b7757499b8e8e11ead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Patriots Re-Sign Member Of Backfield, Headscratching Decision<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL Draft will begin Thursday night, and unlike last year, the Patriots will make their pick&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-871663","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-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116446754486347314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871663","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=871663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}