Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Revamping: New England Patriots’ 2026 NFL Draft Opportunities Revealed

Starting point is 00:00:00 The NFL draft combine is upon us. And this 2026 draft class could not be any more tailored to the Pats' needs than it is. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots. Your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. What's happening? I'm your host, Nick Cattos, born and raised in New England.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Been covering the Pats for the past 16 years. as many of you know, also the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, which is now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. On today's show, the Pats have 11 picks in this year's draft, and that should put them in a spot to be very aggressive on draft weekend. In the second segment, I'll give you three names that could be Pat's targets at number 31 that I love. But first, even though this draft is not rich with top-tier talent, it is set up for the Pats to do very well. Today's episode is brought to by Fandul.

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Starting point is 00:01:53 Now, I believe that edge is one of, if not the biggest need for the Patriots this offseason. And when you look at this draft, pass rusher, defensive end, edge, it's pretty stacked as far as depth goes. Dame Bruegler of the athletic, one of the best in the business, put out his top 100 of NFL draft prospects recently. 15 of his top 100 were edge players. 15 of the top 100. Jordan Reed of ESPN posted back on October 29th that the defensive line was the strongest position group in this. this year's draft. Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL network recently posted. If you need an edge rusher, this is a good draft to double up. The depth of the class is impressive. I've got 10 guys worthy

Starting point is 00:02:40 of a spot in the top 50. There's another layer of quote-unquote traitzy players beyond that group. ESPN's Matt Miller writing about the defensive lineman in this draft during Senior Bowl week. On Tuesday of that week, Matt Miller wrote, Zion Young, Lee Hunter, Caleb Banks, and T.J. Parker all looked like top 40 players. You're going to hear a lot about this defensive line class in the next three months. You're the Patriots. You need an edge, at least one edge, if not two edges out of this draft coming up in April. And you're looking at the board.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And you're looking at top 50 players, top 100 players, and it is littered. Those boards are littered with defensive ends. Plenty of opportunity for the Pats to add a pass rusher with any of their picks, but especially when you look at a first round pick, their second round pick, a golden opportunity to land a young, impressive, defensive edge that can pass rush for you for the next six, seven, eight, nine years. Get a little bit more young at the edge. That opportunity will be right there in front of the Patriots. on draft weekend.

Starting point is 00:03:56 Another deep positional group in this draft class is wide receiver. Now, here's the thing when we talk about wide receivers. I don't think the Patriots need any more guys who can be a two receiver, a three receiver, a four receiver. It feels like they have enough of those guys. It feels like between Kisham Booty and Mack Hollins and Kyle Williams and maybe Pop Douglas and Efton Chisholm and even Stefan Diggs, if you keep him, feels like you have wide receiver two through like five or six pretty much locked down.

Starting point is 00:04:30 The Patriots need a true number one guy. Now, whether or not they feel like that guy is going to be in this draft, well, that's up to them. But when you look at wide receiver in this draft class, it is pretty, pretty, pretty deep. Dame Bruegler, positional breakdown. When you look at his top 100. We just told you that he has 15 edges in his top 100 players. At wide receiver, he has 17 players in the top 100 that play that position. That is the most of any group. 17 out of the top 100. Now, who's actually going to be there for the Patriots at number 31? It's unlikely Ohio State's Cornell Tate is going to be there, right? He's going to go pretty early. It's unlikely that USC's Mackay Lemon is going to be there.

Starting point is 00:05:21 Arizona states Jordan Tyson also unlikely. Washington's Denzel Boston. I think those four receivers, and many people would tell you this, not just me, but I think those four receivers are going to be the first four off the board. And I don't think any of those guys will be sitting there for the Patriots at number 31. Now, of course, you wonder could the Patriots get Uber aggressive and trade up in the first round to try to land Carnell Tate, McClell Lemon, Jordan Tyson, or Denzel Boston,

Starting point is 00:05:49 maybe. But if they don't look to be super aggressive and move up in that first round, I don't think any of those four guys will be there at 31. So if they're not going to be there, who could be there at 31? Well, Matt Miller of ESPN noted recently, the back end of the first round, there are going to be several good receiver prospects in that range.

Starting point is 00:06:11 Mike Reese on Sunday caught up with field yates of ESPN and talked about some of the wide receivers in this draft. Texas A&M's KC Concepcion is someone that you've probably heard a lot of the last week or so. Indiana's Omar Cooper Jr. Also could be there at 31. Now, we'll talk more about KC. Concepcion a little bit later in the next segment. But as far as Omar Cooper Jr. goes, polished, instinctive, detailed route runner who choose up yards after the catch through contact, strength, balance, and vision.

Starting point is 00:06:46 That's what Field Yates had to say about Omar Cooper Jr. How about Day 2 options? Notre Dame's Malachi Fields, Tennessee's Chris Brasell, Mississippi State's Brennan Thompson, in Louisville's Chris Bell. Now, Chris Bell is an interesting prospect because he's sneaky good and probably was looking at a first round grade or at least near the end of the first round, top of the second round.

Starting point is 00:07:12 but he had a significant injury, ACL, at the end of the season in December. So, you know, if you look at Chris Bell, do you want to take somebody that high in the draft who just tore his ACL in December? If it wasn't for that injury, he would absolutely be in the conversation as one of the top four or five receivers in this group. And as field eights told Mike Reese, quote, there is tremendous receiver depth in this class, unquote. Jordan Reed of ESPN has wide receiver as the third deep. position group in the draft this coming April. And then you look at offensive tackles. Pretty interesting.

Starting point is 00:07:49 You know, the offensive tackles are not really seen as an elite class. I don't even think you'd look at Will Campbell, Armand Membou, for example, from last year. I don't know if you put any of the tackles that are in this year's draft above those guys if they were all part of the same draft group. But there's going to be an opportunity because there's not really that elite tackle. there's going to be an opportunity for the pads to land someone at number 31 if they want. Matt Miller wrote about Monroe Freeling, offensive tackle.

Starting point is 00:08:21 He has him going in his mock draft at number 29. This was early February. Freeling's upside could be intriguing for teams looking for a starting right tackle in this class. Freeling has idea length and movement skills at 6.7 and 315 pounds. Back to field eights. He has the Patriots actually drafting. offensive tackle, Caleb Lomu, and that's from February 11th mock draft from field gates. Lomu, who took over at left tackle for Utah, 2024 could slide in at tackle or guard for New England.

Starting point is 00:08:54 Lomu needs to further develop his strength, but the 6'4-pounder is already a solid pass protector who did not allow a single sack in 2025. You also have guys like Maxi Hennichor. You have Blake Miller from Clemson. Those are right tackle options towards the end of the first round. You can even look at linebacker as another position that has seen as pretty deep in this class, which would make sense for the Pats when you look at what they had at linebacker. And as soon as Robert Spillane went down, how that significantly impacted the football team and the defense.

Starting point is 00:09:25 So when you look at these positional groups, when you look at edge and wide receiver and tackle, even linebacker, you start to feel pretty good. Tight end is another positional group that has seen as pretty deep in this draft class. these are all positions that the Patriots should be targeting in free agency and in the draft. So even though there's not a ton of top tier talent in this draft, it sets up pretty darn well for the Patriots. All right, three guys that I love in this draft and could be there at number 31. That's next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Starting point is 00:11:21 Go to lockdown patriots.com or check the link in the show notes to learn even more. Also, don't forget as you watch on YouTube, if you're watching on YouTube to click that thumbs up, give us a like, helps us with the algorithm, builds up the numbers in the community here. Don't forget to throw a comment in as well. and do not forget to subscribe. We're about 40 subscribers away from 9,000. Let's get there. Let's continue to prove to the lockdown world that lockdown Patriots is no joke.

Starting point is 00:11:50 And we can continue to build this community bigger and bigger as we get ready for the combine this week, free agency in early March, and of course, the draft in late April. I watch college football. I am not sitting here telling you that I ripped through tons of tape. I'm more focused on the NFL season, of course. and watching tape from the Patriots. But I watch plenty of college football, and there are a number of guys in this draft that I like.

Starting point is 00:12:15 There are some guys that I love. So I wanted to give you three names that I am intrigued by. And I would say borderline love, if not love, that could be at number 31 for the Patriots. I'm not going to sit here and give you names of guys who are going to go in the top five, top 10. That makes no sense. So let's start with the wide receiver, Texas A&M.

Starting point is 00:12:34 We brought them up a little bit earlier in this show. KC. Concepcion. Now, he is a premier slot receiver, Z-type receiver. Of course, Z-type receiver and Josh McDaniel's offense is somebody that can move all along the line of scrimmage. Think of Stefan Diggs. Casey Concepcion is that type of guy. He's got tons of wiggle, very difficult to take down by any tackler. He is extremely explosive. When you talk about explosive plays, You talk about playmakers. You talk about yards after the catch ability. Casey Concepcion is that type of guy.

Starting point is 00:13:12 He is a headache for any defense. He can turn a 10-yard pass into a 60-yard house call. And here's the thing, too. He's not the biggest guy in the world. He's 5-11-190 decent size. He's not that prototypical X-receiver. We'll get to one of those guys in a couple of minutes. But even though Casey Concepcion is 511,

Starting point is 00:13:33 190, he can go up and get it. At his size, he can go up and get it. He separates at the line of scrimmage. He separates in his routes, good route runner. And again, the versatility. Yes, mainly a slot guy you look at, Z type guy, but he does have inside, outside versatility. Casey Concepcion is one of the players in this draft that I love. I love him. I've seen him play at least a handful of times this past season, and he made plays every single time I watched him play. I think he is a really good receiver and could help the Patriots. Now, I also think it's more likely that somebody like Concepcion would be drafted

Starting point is 00:14:17 by the Patriots, especially at number 31, if Stefan Diggs is no longer in New England. I think that would be more likely to happen. If Stefan Diggs stays, then it's probably less likely you draft a guy, like Concepcion because he does a lot of those things that you want Stefan Diggs to do. So Casey Concepcion on my list at 31. Another wide receiver. Now, this might be a little too early, but you're not going to draft until late in the second round

Starting point is 00:14:47 because fortunately you got to the Super Bowl this year. Wide receiver Malachi Fields out of Notre Dame. Now, many of you know I am a Notre Dame fan. I watch every single Notre Dame game. I saw plenty of Malachi Fields. Now, early on in the season, he wasn't doing a whole heck of a lot. But as the season progressed and as the offense kind of found its mojo, Malachi Fields made more plays week after week after week.

Starting point is 00:15:16 Now, when we talk about Concepcion, not having that prototypical X size, that X receiver size, Malachi Fields has that in spades. Malachi Fields is a big human. He is 6'4, 223 pounds. He is that ex-guy, that big boundary receiver, contested catches. And I know some of you might freak out and start thinking about Nikiel Harry, but Malcalfields is somebody who is a contested catch guy. I think he's better than Nikiel Harry.

Starting point is 00:15:48 I mean, he is straight up at times acrobatic, can contort his body and make very difficult catches. I saw him sky and make a couple of high point catches this year for the Fighting Irish. He is somebody who, you know, we talk about Mike Vrable type players and we look at receivers. Vrable loves bigger guys, loves contested catch guys, loves catch radius guys. And Malachi Fields, when you look at the level of difficulty and some of the catches that he had this past season, I think he's a talented guy. And I don't think he's just limited, by the way, to, downfield throws and boundary throws.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Fields can be effective in the middle of the field. He can do other things as a receiver. He's got strong hands. Now he does have smaller hands. If we talk about the hand measurements and we go through all that, we know quarterbacks, you know, less than nine inch hands or whatever. It could be an issue. You know, when you look at Malachi Fields, his hands are under nine inches.

Starting point is 00:16:49 So that could be an issue. But I'm telling you, watching him at Notre Dame, he had strong hands and he made several tough contested catches. Malachi Fields to me is somebody who could right away make a difference down the field, middle of the field, red zone contested catches, somebody like Drake May with a strong arm. I've seen fields lay out and make catches as well. He's somebody that could make, I believe, an immediate impact in your passing game if you drafted him at number 31.

Starting point is 00:17:20 So we gave you two wide receivers. I'm going to go to the defensive side of the football for my third and final guy here. And it's defense event, defensive end from Miami, Akeem Mesidor. Now, when you look at the size of edge players and pass rushers that Mike Vrable's defense likes to deploy, a lot of those guys are 255, 260. Akeem Mesadour is 265. Now, he's not a tall dude. He's not 6566.

Starting point is 00:17:48 He's 6'3, but he's 6'5-6-5-6. but he's 6'3 compact 265. He's got a ton of rush moves. When you watch him play, I saw him play a number of times this year, including the college football playoff run that Miami had, getting to the national championship game and losing to Indiana. I watched Akeemez-A-Dor plenty of times this year. He's got a ton of different pass-rush moves.

Starting point is 00:18:09 He can beat guys inside. He can go outside. He has the, I'm not going to tell you he's Miles Garrett. But remember when the Patriots played Miles Garrett, and we talked about the Eurostep move, where you kind of leap inside. Akeem Mesedor has that Eurostep move. He gets upfield very, very quickly as a pass rusher.

Starting point is 00:18:29 He also played some inside for Miami. At times, Miami would slide him inside the defensive alignment on the line, and he would play against guards. And when he got to play against guards, he was a massive, massive headache. So Akeem Mesidor, when you look at Edge, He might be gone by number 31. He might slip to 31.

Starting point is 00:18:51 He's going to be a 25-year-old rookie, so that gets in the way of him going in the top 20. He also has had to deal with some injuries. I think a foot injury back in like 20, 23, which was a major issue for him. But we're talking about somebody, again, 6-3-265, gets up field quickly, tons of pass rush moves,

Starting point is 00:19:11 can play them inside from time to time. He has a non-stop motor, which we know. Raibo loves guys with nonstop motors. And Akeem Mesidor can also play against the run. He's pretty good against the run. He embraces playing against the run. So three names, Casey Concepcion, Malachi Fields, and Akeem Mesidor, those three guys,

Starting point is 00:19:35 guys that I love and could actually be there at number 31 for the paths. All right, coming up, will 11 picks with 11 picks in this year's draft, It's time for the paths to get aggressive. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Ever wanted to experience the NBA Finals live and in person? Bandool is giving you the chance to turn that dream into reality with their NBA sweepstakes. Here's how it works. Use your profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA finals trip for two.

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Starting point is 00:21:01 We appreciate every single solitary one of you. As I was digging in the beginning stages of my draft research, pretty much every single report reads the same. There is a lack of blue chip prospects in this draft. In a similar way, we saw that in 2025, right? We didn't have a ton of blue chip guys.

Starting point is 00:21:22 You had Travis Hunter. You know, you had Abdul Carter. You didn't really have a number, a high number of blue chip prospects. And so this draft, the 2026 NFL draft, kind of the same thing. It lacks blue chip prospects in big numbers. And it's not a very deep draft, not super deep. So to me, those two things mean opportunity for the Patriots. And let's get into why.

Starting point is 00:21:50 Number one, the Pats have 11 draft picks this year. 11. I don't think you're going to use all 11 of those picks. And that means you're set up. You're set up for plenty of trading options. The Pats, for example, they have two fourth round picks. Maybe you use one of those fourth round picks to move up in the second round if there's somebody that you really like that starts to fall down that board.

Starting point is 00:22:16 So you can use one of or both. of those fourth round picks to maneuver around. Even at number 31, you can try to trade down. Maybe there's a team. Now, a lot of times this happens for quarterbacks or the idea is for quarterbacks. But any player, right, you draft somebody in the first round, you get that fifth year option. If there's a team that is higher up in the second round that wants to jump back into the first round to get that 50 year option on the player that they want to draft,

Starting point is 00:22:48 and they feel like they got to make that move where they're not going to get the player. Patriots could easily trade down from number 31 and get in the top five or six or seven of the second round and pick up additional picks, which again means you can maneuver around. The pats also have not one, not two, not three, but four sixth round picks.

Starting point is 00:23:10 Those can be sweeteners. You can throw one or two of those to maybe move up in the fourth round. So there's going to be a lot of opportunity for the Patriots with their 11 draft picks to move around the board. And I think they should be aggressive. You know, not a lot of blue chip guys, not a super deep draft. I would be trying to get as many top 100 picks as I could get. I'd be trying to move some of those fourth rounders and sixth rounders. I'd be trying to do some things.

Starting point is 00:23:39 So I can get as many shots, as many swings as possible at the top 75, top 100. And I think the Patriots will have opportunity to do just that. Another part of this draft, there are a number of guys that are at a similar talent level. And so what that means is draft position is a little less important. Like picking at 31 this year might not be as bad of a scenario because if you only have a handful of guys that you truly see as blue chippers, and you're saying that a lot of this first round going into the second round is going to be pretty much the same level of talent. That's good news for the Patriots.

Starting point is 00:24:21 It's not like there's this huge drop off through the first 15, 20 guys. Once you get past that top 8 to 10, it pretty much evens out for a while. And I think that's good news for the Patriots. I mean, Matt Miller of ESPN posted recently, the 2026 class lacks a high number of prospects with a first round grade. So you have a bunch of dudes. who are good prospects, not great prospects. And, you know, you look at the first round grades.

Starting point is 00:24:51 If you have 10, 11, 12 guys, whatever it is, if you have 10 guys with the first round grade, then that means it's all about your scouting, your talent evaluation, and how you can find guys. Like teams with the best evaluators and teams that have the best process can take advantage of a talent pool like this class has because there's a lot of similarly ranked guy.

Starting point is 00:25:13 And so the intangibles and what makes a guy click, those are vital things when you look at classes like this. And I trust Mike Vrable and I trust Elliot Wolf, Ryan Cowden, Stretch. I trust these guys to find players who are going to be underdrafted, so to speak. I trust Mike Vrable in this front office to be able to find those types of guys. and I think you're going to have a number of those guys. There's not much of a difference between the guy who gets picked at 31 and the guy who gets picked at 25 or 22.

Starting point is 00:25:52 Maybe the Patriots end up getting the best player out of that range from 20 to 32. Maybe the Pats find the best player in that range because they have really good evaluators and they know what makes these guys kind of, you know, click, so to speak, and they end up landing somebody. at 31, who probably should have gone maybe at 20 or 18. I'd also look at this and say, because the Pats have six picks, rounds five through seven, you have a lot of opportunity at like lottery tickets. And you have a lot of opportunity to draft guys who can set up competition for you.

Starting point is 00:26:36 And so I can't wait to see what the Patriots do in this draft because when you have a half a dozen picks in those last three rounds. Again, you can you can try to move those picks as sweeteners and trades or you can take swings at lottery tickets. You take a swing at a tracy guy, as Daniel Jeremiah would call them. Maybe you take a couple of swings at trade tea guys. Maybe you take a couple swings at guys that had injuries and they're falling down the board and you're just taking these flyers. And if you pick, you know, maybe if you trade one of those six round picks but you use three of those sixth round picks, maybe you land, you know, one of those guys. Think about the Kishon Booty and Pop Douglas draft.

Starting point is 00:27:18 Those are lottery tickets. And so maybe you find somebody rounds five through seven with all of those picks at your disposal. Maybe you find somebody who is actually someone who can compete for a job and maybe land a job. Maybe you got guys from small schools that you're interested in. And, you know, with more of those picks five through seven and those. rounds, it opens up the opportunity for you to draft maybe a smaller school guy because you've got other lottery tickets to try to cash in. And it all comes down to scouting. So I think, you know, again, when you start looking at how this draft falls, the positions that are pretty deep compared

Starting point is 00:27:59 to others are positions the Patriots should be targeting. They have some roster questions at those positions. Then you've got guys who interest me that I love that could fall to 31 and could make an immediate impact at edge or wide receiver. And then you've got a somewhat shallow draft, as they would say, but you've got 11 picks, which really allows you to move around and do some creative things. And you look at some of these guys, very similar talent level. Maybe you steal a couple cats in this draft. It's going to be a very fun time and interesting time. The Combine also, as we know, a lot of stuff leaks during Combine Week.

Starting point is 00:28:44 Agents are talking, teams are talking, players are talking. So should be a pretty news heavy week this week. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everyday or reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button. and of course, don't forget to subscribe.

Starting point is 00:29:05 If you're looking for a gift for someone, make it easy. Check out the Every Day or Club, add free episodes of this show, exclusive Discord, server access, and more. Subscriptions can be gifted through lockdownpatriots.com, five bucks a month, 50 bucks for the year. Have a great day, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Revamping: New England Patriots’ 2026 NFL Draft Opportunities Revealed

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