{"id":872028,"date":"2026-04-22T16:48:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872028\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T16:48:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:48:43","slug":"2026-nfl-draft-prospects-the-patriots-showed-particular-interest-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/872028\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 NFL Draft prospects the Patriots showed particular interest in"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The NFL Draft is all about collecting data. In order to finalize boards and make decisions on picks and trades, teams rely on a vast amount of information that has been gathered not just over the last few weeks and months but oftentimes going back several years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">One big piece of the puzzle, and one that may hint toward a club\u2019s eventual plans, is pre-draft meetings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Between college all-star events, pro days, visits and workouts, the draft cycle offers several opportunities for teams and prospects to connect. Only a fraction of those contact points actually become public knowledge before the actual draft; teams try to play their cards close to the vest, which makes it impossible to paint a fully accurate picture.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">However, based on the facts that we have available, we can still see who teams have shown the most interest in so far for whichever reason. In the New England Patriots\u2019 case, 22 players stand out among the more than 140 who have had confirmed meetings with the club: according to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-draft\/122562\/rumors-meetings-interviews-workouts-visits-tracker-2026-nfl\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">up-to-date tracker<\/a> they all had more than one reported interaction with the organization before the draft.<\/p>\n<p>RB Mike Washington Jr. (Arkansas): Combine + Pro DayWR Lewis Bond (Boston College): Senior Bowl + Local visitTE Eli Raridon (Notre Dame): Shrine Bowl + Senior BowlTE Dan Villari (Syracuse): Hula Bowl + Senior BowlOT Jude Bowry (Boston College): Pro Day + Local visitOT Travis Burke (Memphis): Pro Day + 30 visitOT Max Iheanachor (Arizona State): Combine + 30 visitOT Ryan Mosesso (UMass): Pro Day + Local Pro DayOL Greg Crippen (Michigan): Pro Day + Local Pro DayOL Delby Lemieux (Dartmouth): Senior Bowl + Local Pro DayOL Logan Taylor (Boston College): Pro Day + Local Pro DayOL Jeremiah Wright (Auburn): Pro Day + 30 visitDT Tyler Onyedim (Texas A&amp;M): Combine + Pro DayDT Landon Robinson (Navy): East-West Shrine Bowl + Pro DayED Keyron Crawford (Auburn): Combine + 30 visitED Quintayvious Hutchins (Boston College): Combine + Local Pro DayED Zion Young (Missouri): Combine + 30 visitLB Khalil Jacobs (Missouri): Pro Day + Virtual meeting + 30 visitCB Andre Fuller (Toledo): East-West Shrine Bowl + Pro DayCB Devon Marshall (N.C. State): Virtual meeting + Local Pro DayCB Karon Prunty (Wake Forest): Pro Day + 30 visitCB Avery Smith (Toledo): Combine + Pro Day<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The list of double or triple meetings is deeper at some positions than others. Offensive tackle and the interior offensive line, for example, saw four players with multiple confirmed meetings each. Among them is projected first-round selection Max Iheanachor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">When it comes to the frequency of meetings, nobody beats Khalil Jacobs. The Missouri linebacker met Patriots representatives at his pro day, later had a virtual meeting with the club, and also visited Gillette Stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Jacobs was among several players to be brought in for such visits. The belief is that the Patriots used all 30 available slots for out-of-town visits, while also inviting three players for what is an unlimited number of local visits.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The full list of confirmed attendees is 27 players deep and includes 24 so-called 30 visits.<\/p>\n<p>QB Jalon Daniels (Kansas): 30 visitQB Joe Fagnano (UConn): Local visitQB Behren Morton (Texas Tech): 30 visitRB Adam Randall (Clemson): 30 visitRB Kaelon Black (Indiana): 30 visitWR Cyrus Allen (Cincinnati): 30 visitWR Lewis Bond (Boston College): Local visitWR KC Concepcion (Texas A&amp;M): 30 visitWR De\u2019Zhaun Stribling (Ole Miss): 30 visitTE Oscar Delp (Georgia): 30 visitOT Jude Bowry (Boston College: Local visitOT Travis Burke (Memphis): 30 visitOT Max Iheanachor (Arizona State): 30 visitOL Emmanuel Pregnon (Oregon): 30 visitOL Jeremiah Wright (Auburn): 30 visitDT Kayden McDonald (Ohio State): 30 visitED Keyron Crawford (Auburn): 30 visitED Romello Height (Texas Tech): 30 visitED Gabe Jacas (Illinois): 30 visitED Malachi Lawrence (UCF): 30 visitED R Mason Thomas (Oklahoma): 30 visitED Zion Young (Missouri): 30 visitLB Khalil Jacobs (Missouri): 30 visitCB Karon Prunty (Wake Forest): 30 visitS Emmanuel McNeil-Warren (Toledo): 30 visitS Malik Spencer (Michigan State): 30 visitS Zakee Wheatley (Penn State): 30 visit<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">In addition to those 27 players, the Patriots had also planned to bring guard Chase Bisontis (Texas A&amp;M) and edge George Gumbs Jr. (Florida) in for visits. The first fell victim to a scheduling conflict while the second was canceled by the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">As for those meetings themselves, Mike Vrabel recently explained what purpose they serve for the team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cYou try to create a day that would look just like a regular season day,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve tried to take it from the approach that\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, this is everybody that you\u2019re going to meet with so that you\u2019ve seen this face in two hours when you walk into their office, and you guys have a meeting, or you do an install with your position coach.\u2019 We just want to try to gage their authentic self, want them to be genuine and try to picture them in our building a couple weeks from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Obviously, 30 visits or any other form of meeting are not necessarily exact tools when it comes to gauging actual interest. That said, if we look back at last year, we can see that the Patriots had pre-reported pre-draft contact \u2014 i.e. contact that was public knowledge before the draft \u2014 with seven of their 11 eventual selections, including three who visited the club in Foxborough (with the actual number even higher).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The chance that some of the players listed above will end up as Patriots this weekend therefore appears to be fairly quite high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NFL Draft is all about collecting data. In order to finalize boards and make decisions on picks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52640,727,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-872028","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-new-england-patriots-analysis","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-draft","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116449385210254119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872028","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=872028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}