The 2026 NFL Draft is underway, and the New England Patriots were willing to be aggressive. It showed: they traded up in both the first and the second round in order to add to their roster and fill some needs.<\/p>\n
Their targets in those moves? Offensive tackle Caleb Lomu and defensive edge Gabe Jacas, the first two members of a 2026 rookie class that looks as follows:<\/p>\n
1-28 OT Caleb Lomu (Utah): Offensive tackle was one of the biggest needs on the Patriots\u2019 roster heading into the draft, and they wasted little time addressing it. They did so by picking an impressive athlete who started 24 games at the University of Utah over the last two seasons. Caleb Lomu still has some work to do particularly as a run blocker, but he is a natural athlete who has the skillset to develop into Morgan Moses\u2019 heir at the right tackle position. With him and 2025 first-round pick Will Campbell in the fold, New England has its long-term bookends. | News<\/a> | Analysis<\/a> | Profile<\/a> | Instant grades<\/a><\/p>\n 2-55 ED Gabe Jacas (Illinois): The Patriots had their eyes on this edge class, but they needed to get aggressive to pick one of its top players. After trading up in Round 2, they brought in a player who has a relentless motor and is one of the best run-defending outside linebackers in the entire draft class. Jacas might not wow you with his speed or bend around the corner, but he is a relatively clean and playable defender with plenty of college experience despite not turning 22 until May. | News<\/a> | Profile<\/a> | Instant grades<\/a><\/p>\n The Patriots originally entered the draft as the owners of 11 total picks. Following their trade-ups in the first two rounds, they are left with six combined picks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL Draft is underway, and the New England Patriots were willing to be aggressive. It showed:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52640,727,726,728,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-874015","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-new-england-patriots-news","14":"tag-new-england-patriots-roster","15":"tag-newengland","16":"tag-newenglandpatriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116462962865361904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874015","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=874015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}