{"id":873899,"date":"2026-04-24T23:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873899\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T23:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T23:15:28","slug":"patriots-reveal-surprising-detail-about-drafting-caleb-lomu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873899\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Reveal Surprising Detail About Drafting Caleb Lomu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a> traded up to select Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu in the first round, but Eliot Wolf did not think he would be available.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots needed a tackle to eventually take over for Morgan Moses, and Lomu can do just that. The Patriots met with him at the combine, but Eliot Wolf revealed that the team canceled his Top 30 visit because they felt like he would not factor into their plans.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe interviewed him at the combine,&#8221; Wolf told <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.masslive.com\/patriots\/2026\/04\/patriots-canceled-caleb-lomus-pre-draft-visit-because-they-thought-hed-be-gone.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MassLive&#8217;s Mark Daniels<\/a>. &#8220;That was great. We actually canceled his 30 visit because we didn\u2019t. We had one scheduled and we just didn\u2019t think he was going to factor in for us. We thought he\u2019d be gone,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cHis agent, Chase Callahan and Colin Roberts weren\u2019t too excited about that, but they understood and, you know, here we are. So, it\u2019s pretty exciting to be able to acquire him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lomu was one of the best offensive tackles in the class. When the Patriots saw him slide to No. 28, they decided to trade up and secure him. Wolf is glad the Patriots still wanted him despite the cancelled visit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t shocked by (the canceled visit) or thought differently,\u201d Lomu said. \u201cHad a really good visit with them at the Combine. \u201c\u2026 It didn\u2019t throw me by surprise. Always thought they were still in the mix, and of course, they were. I\u2019m just very happy that they were in the mix and still wanted me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots seem to have gotten a player that they had very high on their board. The future of their offensive line at both tackle spots is in good hands. With Will Campbell protecting Drake Maye&#8217;s blindside, Lomu will eventually take over on the right side.<\/p>\n<p>More NFL:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nesn.com\/new-england-patriots\/news\/patriots-mock-draft-2026-7-round-final-new-england-defense\/f5f698cc1715b3cd7769c0b3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patriots Mock Draft 2026: Final 7-Round Edition Focuses on New England&#8217;s Defense<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots traded up to select Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu in the first round, but&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-873899","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\/116462231473492893","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873899","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=873899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}