{"id":874049,"date":"2026-04-25T03:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874049\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T03:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T03:13:08","slug":"patriots-trade-with-bills-move-up-in-nfl-draft-to-select-caleb-lomu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874049\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots trade with Bills, move up in NFL Draft to select Caleb Lomu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"a-term a-term--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/tag\/new-england-patriots\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew England Patriots\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tThe Patriots sent the 31st pick and the 125th pick (a fourth-rounder) to the AFC East rival Bills in exchange for the 28th pick.<\/p>\n<p><img width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Caleb-Lomu-Patriots-first-round-pick-2026-NFL-Draft-69ead97539fcb-768x432.jpg\" class=\"attachment-16:9 size-16:9 wp-post-image\" alt=\"Caleb Lomu Patriots draft\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><br \/>\n\tUtah offensive lineman Caleb Lomu at the NFL rookie combine. AP Photo\/Michael Conroy\t<\/p>\n<p>After much of the local pre-draft debate was whether or not the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/tag\/new-england-patriots\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Patriots<\/a> would trade out of the first round, New England opted to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Patriots\/status\/2047508650806157819\" rel=\"nofollow\">trade up<\/a>. In the end, offensive tackle Caleb Lomu was selected 28th overall out of Utah.<\/p>\n<p>The Patriots sent the 31st pick and the 125th pick (a fourth-rounder) to the AFC East rival Bills in exchange for the 28th pick.<\/p>\n<p>Lomu, 21, entered the draft after starting for two years for the Utes. He earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in 2025, helping Utah go 11-2.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-foot-6, 313-pound lineman has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/prospects\/caleb-lomu\/32004c4f-4d71-9974-81d5-d7ddcc67cbb9\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">described by NFL.com draft analyst Lance Zierlein<\/a> as \u201cstill in the early stages of his development.\u201d But Lomu is seen as possessing imense potential.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis play could improve rapidly with strength gains and additional coaching,\u201d added Zierlein.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly where Lomu plays on the offensive line in 2026 remains to be seen. Right tackle could be his spot in the future, though the short-term future of 2025 starter Morgan Moses is still to be determined. New England front office executive Eliot Wolf said earlier in April that the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/patriotswire.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nfl\/patriots\/2026\/04\/13\/patriots-eliot-wolf-important-update-morgan-moses-future\/89596454007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expectation<\/a>\u201d was for the 35-year-old Moses to be back in Foxborough next season.<\/p>\n<p>Still, if Lomu is seen as something of a developmental prospect, having Moses come back for another season could be hugely beneficial.<\/p>\n<p>Hayden Bird is a sports staff writer for Boston.com, where he has worked since 2016. He covers all things sports in New England.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet the latest Boston sports news<\/p>\n<p class=\"m-generic-cta__subtitle\">Receive updates on your favorite Boston teams, straight from our newsroom to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Patriots The Patriots sent the 31st pick and the 125th pick (a fourth-rounder) to the AFC&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874050,"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-874049","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\/116463168199288595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874049","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=874049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}