{"id":874112,"date":"2026-04-25T04:51:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874112\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T04:51:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T04:51:17","slug":"despite-lengthy-injury-history-patriots-arent-worried-about-third-round-te","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/874112\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Lengthy Injury History, Patriots Aren’t Worried About Third Round TE"},"content":{"rendered":"

In high school, Eli Raridon<\/a> tore his ACL. By the end of his freshman year in college, he tore it again. For the Notre Dame tight end, injuries have been a part of him over the last few years. That didn’t matter for the New England Patriots, who drafted Raridon<\/a> 95th overall in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n

The productive pass catcher has capable hands and is a excellent blocker. He caught 32 passes last year for 482 yards, dropping just two passes. He’ll now enter the Patriots<\/a> organization as the second tight end on the roster behind longtime vet Hunter Henry.<\/p>\n

Raridon visited the Patriots<\/a> earlier in the offseason, and the team’s medical staff cleared him from his previous injuries.<\/p>\n

“Jim Whalen, Dr. (Scott) Martin, Mike Baum and the whole crew signed off on it, and no real concerns,” executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf <\/a>said in a video conference with reporters. “We brought Eli in for a pre-draft visit, and so they were able to examine him not only at the Combine, but also here, and no concerns.”<\/p>\n

\"Notre<\/p>\n

Oct 11, 2025; South Bend, Indiana, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish tight end Eli Raridon (9) makes a catch as NC State Wolfpack cornerback Jackson Vick (22) defends during the second half at Notre Dame Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Michael Caterina-Imagn Images | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Raridon told reporters after being selected that his faith played a big part in his road to recovery. He’s feeling amazing, he said, and that is body “feels amazing.”<\/p>\n

“No\u00a0effects\u00a0at all,” he said. “And I give all glory to my lord and savior Jesus Christ, and he’s been watching over me and taking care of me. … A lot of my mental strength resided in my faith, trusting the Lord, trusting that he has a plan for me. And just to put everything I have into the sport, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. But it has worked out, and I just have all my faith in him. And I just play free out there, I’m not worried about anything.”<\/p>\n

Raridon Watches One Of The NFL’s Top TEs<\/p>\n

The rookie will slot behind Henry on the depth chart, a player he’s heard good things about. While he hasn’t studied his new teammates game, there’s one top tight end he likes to watch.<\/p>\n

“I’ve looked at the George Kittle a lot,” Raridon said. “Just love how he can do both things extremely well. Love the way he blocks. Love his mentality while playing the game and obviously, he makes great plays in the passing game as well. And that\u2019s someone who I try to embody my game after.”<\/p>\n

The “Y” tight end may not jump off the stat sheet, but his versatility in an offense as complex as Josh McDaniels’ should be a fun watch this summer. A lot of Raridon’s upside in New England<\/a> is based on future projections, but the team is confident in the Notre Dame alum.<\/p>\n

“You can see him sort of, again, coming into his own as we went through the season,” Wolf said. “You could just see his confidence growing and growing throughout the year. Kind of an all-around guy, probably more of a pass catcher first, but a willing blocker. Again, like I said about all these rookies, he’s going to have to get stronger, but really, really good worker, has a lot of talent … just some untapped potential there with only the one year of real playing.”<\/p>\n

Make sure you bookmark New England Patriots on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns, and so much more!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In high school, Eli Raridon tore his ACL. By the end of his freshman year in college, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874113,"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-874112","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\/116463553279883138","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874112","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=874112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}