Since walking off the Super Bowl field 76 days ago, the New England Patriots\u2019 goal has been to improve the roster to get back to that stage.<\/p>\n
Saturday marked one of the final steps in that process, as the team made five Day 3 selections in the NFL Draft \u2014 with improving depth a key point of emphasis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s invaluable really to roster building as I see it,\u201d vice president of player personnel Ryan Cowden said of the final rounds. \u201cThe depth part, and I think that\u2019s a big part of where we wanted to come into this draft\u2026 It\u2019s all about trying to find competition at the back end of the roster. And you can never have enough depth. We know that. We were fortunate last year. We were a pretty healthy football team through the 2025 season, and you just can\u2019t bank on that happening in the same way.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so our goal now is to start really building depth with young players who can come in and this coaching staff can really mold into the type of players that we want. So, this depth on Day 3 and this post-draft that\u2019s getting ready to happen is really important, and it\u2019s something that\u2019s exciting. Our scouts do a great job along with the coaching staff of trying to get the right guys in.\u201d<\/p>\n
After trading a pair of fourth-round picks to move up in Rounds 1 and 2, the Patriots waited roughly 70 selections to make their first pick Saturday. That was Wake Forest cornerback Karon Prunty, who joins a depth chart that includes Charles Woods, Marcellas Dial Jr. and Kobee Minor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a player that was really intriguing to us because of his length, his speed. He\u2019s an aggressive player,\u201d Cowden explained. \u201cHas an interesting story, starting out at Kansas, and he went to North Carolina [A&T] for a minute and then at Wake Forest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe brought Karon in on a 30 visit. He did a great job with our coaching staff. He really represented himself in a really professional manner, and we\u2019re excited to bring his skill set at the perimeter corner and where it goes from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sticking on the defensive side of the football, the Patriots added TCU linebacker Namdi Obiazor and Boston College pass rusher Quintayvious Hutchins over the final two rounds \u2014 both players who are expected to make an immediate impact on special teams.<\/p>\n
The other Day 3 selections focused on offense, which included a second investment at offensive tackle with the \u201cmassive\u201d Dametrious Crownover after selecting Caleb Lomu in the first round Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I would want a room to be crowded, I\u2019ll take that as being one room that\u2019s crowded,\u201d Cowden said. \u201cIt is a premium position in our league and the pool of players that can play the position is, is relatively small. You can never have enough depth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two seventh-round picks also targeted offense. New England added a potential third running back in Alabama\u2019s Jam Miller, while also selecting their third quarterback in Texas Tech\u2019s Behren Morton as a developmental option.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing that stands out is the toughness. He played through a lot of stuff. He\u2019s been beat up, but he\u2019s played through a lot of stuff,\u201d executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a live arm. He\u2019s really smart. He\u2019s been productive. He\u2019s played a lot of football, and he\u2019s a really good fit for the type of offense that we want to run.\u201d<\/p>\n
New England will now turn to undrafted free agency to round out the roster. Wolf said the team is expected to target wide receiver after not addressing the position in the draft. Reinforcements could also come via trade, with speculation around A.J. Brown continuing as the Patriots look to put the finishing touches on the roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s always work to be done, as far as filling holes and adding depth at a lot of different spots,\u201d Wolf said. \u201cNow that the draft has ended, our guys are working on college free agency, but as always, we\u2019re always going to try to look for ways to improve the roster.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since walking off the Super Bowl field 76 days ago, the New England Patriots\u2019 goal has been to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,727,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":["post-874721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-football","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","tag-new-england-patriots-draft","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116468224061601041","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874721","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=874721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}