{"id":873456,"date":"2026-04-24T11:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873456\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T11:25:09","slug":"4-winners-and-losers-from-patriots-picking-caleb-lomu-in-the-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873456\/","title":{"rendered":"4 winners and losers from Patriots picking Caleb Lomu in the NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The New England Patriots <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patspulpit.com\/new-england-patriots-draft\/126603\/caleb-lomu-pick-selection-first-round-nfl-week-1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">traded up in the first round<\/a> of the 2026 NFL Draft to ultimately select Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu 28th overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Here\u2019s who the pick impacts for better, or worse, moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">QB Drake Maye: New England\u2019s franchise quarterback now has his long-term protectors in Will Campbell and Caleb Lomu. While Lomu projects to start his rookie year on the sideline with Morgan Moses still manning the right tackle position, the Patriots will hope that young tackle duo anchors their offensive line for years to come and keeps Maye upright.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Additionally, the odds seemed to have only increased that the Patriots will land Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown later this offseason after Philadelphia drafted wide receiver Makai Lemon in round one. That would provide Maye with a top pass catcher and protector as New England continues to use assets to add around him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">OT Morgan Moses: After starting 24 games at left tackle for Utah, the expectation is that Lomu will flip to the right side. But, the 21-year old will start his rookie campaign behind Moses. That depth will allow New England to manage the 35-year old\u2019s workload throughout the spring and summer to keep him fresh for the regular season, also still providing the chance for Lomu to receive key development reps early on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201c[Morgan\u2019s] a tremendous leader and great resource for young players,\u201d executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said. \u201cCaleb\u2019s young. He\u2019s got a lot of things he\u2019s going to need to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">OTs Marcus Bryant and James Hudson III: New England\u2019s lone addition at the offensive tackle position this offseason came late in free agency when they signed James Hudson to a minimum contract. That left the veteran and last year\u2019s seventh-round pick Marcus Bryant as the top backup options entering the week. With Lomu now in the fold as the top swing tackle with a long-term starting future, both Bryant and Hudson will be pushed down the depth chart.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots traded up in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft to ultimately select&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,727,1095],"class_list":{"0":"post-873456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england-patriots-draft","10":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873456","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=873456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}