{"id":873974,"date":"2026-04-25T01:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873974\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T01:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T01:15:16","slug":"new-england-patriots-select-gabe-jacas-in-2026-nfl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/873974\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Patriots select Gabe Jacas in 2026 NFL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHe\u2019ll probably be, in my opinion, our highest draft pick,\u201d said head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/staff-directory\/bret-bielema\/1775\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bret Bielema<\/a> in November 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Bielema\u2019s opinion became fact Friday as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patriots.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New England Patriots<\/a> picked senior linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/gabe-jacas\/15034\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gabe Jacas<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/draft\/tracker\/2026\/rounds\/2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">pick 55<\/a> in the second round of the 2026 NFL Draft. A three-time All-Big Ten honoree with <a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/sports\/football\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Illinois<\/a>, Jacas heads to the next level with a chance to be a dominant force off the edge.<\/p>\n<p>As a four-year starter with the Illini, Jacas had one of the best careers for an edge in program history. He\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/fightingillini.com\/documents\/2025\/8\/21\/2025_FB_Record_Book_Records.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">second all-time<\/a> in career sacks with 27, and his 11 sacks this year are the fifth-most in a single season.<\/p>\n<p>Jacas is a powerful pass rusher and relies on his strength to get through opposing offensive linemen. He\u2019s relentless in pursuit, always tracking the quarterback throughout the play. <\/p>\n<p>The Florida native was also proficient at stripping the ball from quarterbacks. He racked up three forced fumbles in each of the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a really, really tough task to block,\u201d Bielema said. \u201cHe\u2019s so powerful, he really does lean well, he bends well. He\u2019s such a high motor guy, a great power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, Jacas can struggle in the run game. There were times this season when he let a runner get by him, not realizing where the ball was. If he can clean that up, Jacas will likely find success in the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jacas has a chance to be a starting edge rusher with New England, as it\u2019s lacking at the position. The Patriots didn\u2019t have any players with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/team\/stats\/_\/name\/ne\/table\/\/sort\/sacks\/dir\/desc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">double-digit sacks<\/a>. Linebacker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/player\/_\/id\/3122793\/harold-landry-iii\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Harold Landry III<\/a> led the team with 8.5, and no one else had more than eight.<\/p>\n<p>With Jacas\u2019 power and ability to get to the quarterback, he should be able to make an impact from the get-go.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>@ben_some16\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/dailyillini.com\/cdn-cgi\/l\/email-protection#b6d4d3d8c582f6d2d7dfdacfdfdadadfd8df98d5d9db\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe\u2019ll probably be, in my opinion, our highest draft pick,\u201d said head coach Bret Bielema in November 2025.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":873975,"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-873974","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\/116462703320198857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873974","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=873974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}