After using each of their first two selections to move up the board, the New England Patriots stood pat with their third choice in the 2026 NFL Draft. Instead of swinging a trade, they invested the 95th overall pick in a tight end.<\/p>\n
That tight end is Eli Raridon out of Notre Dame, who was added to the team in the late third round.<\/p>\n
Raridon, 22, spent his entire four-year college career with the Fighting Irish. After seeing only part-time action over his first three seasons, he closed out his time at Notre Dame on a high note: as a senior in 2025, he started all 12 games and finished with career marks in receptions (32) and receiving yards (482).<\/p>\n
In total, Raridon hauled in 48 passes for 623 yards and three touchdowns during his 40 games at Notre Dame. His production may not have stood out, but the 6-foot-6, 245-pounder proved himself a reliable and versatile player at the Y-tight end spot.<\/p>\n
As such, he projects to play a prominent role in New England\u2019s offense from early on his career. Raridon becomes the fifth tight end on the Patriots\u2019 roster, joining team captain Hunter Henry, veteran free agency signing Julian Hill and backups C.J. Dippre and Marshall Lang.<\/p>\n
With Raridon brought aboard, the Patriots are left with five selections in this year\u2019s draft. Their next pick comes at No. 171 in the fifth round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After using each of their first two selections to move up the board, the New England Patriots stood…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,727,726,728,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-874067","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-draft","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-news","13":"tag-new-england-patriots-roster","14":"tag-newengland","15":"tag-newenglandpatriots","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116463281487279757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874067","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=874067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}