The 2025 NFL Draft is 30 days away.
With that said, we could write 30 different stories with 30 different scenarios over the next 30 days about what the Patriots could/should do with their No. 4 overall pick in the draft.
Trade back? Trade up? Stick and pick? Draft Will Campbell? Draft Tet McMillan? What about Kelvin Banks? Mason Graham? Trade in a package for Micah Parsons?
There’s a lot out there. Try not to get too lost in the weeds with all of it!
Let’s add this piece from NFL Network’s Daniel Jeremiah from Monday, who was asked on The Pat McAfee Show who New England should take with their fourth pick if both Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter are off the board when they go on the clock on April 24.
“Yeah, I would say if you don’t get Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter, I would add a little line to the end of ‘best available,’” said Jeremiah. “I would say ‘best available player that can help your quarterback.’ So I would be looking on the offensive side of the ball, and Ashton Jeanty - I have him as, I think, the No. 3 player in the draft.
“So if you’re just going pure ‘best available player,’ it’d be Jeanty. And if you’re obviously looking on the offensive side of the ball, he would be the guy there from the offensive side of the ball standpoint. So I just feel like that’s gotta help. Unless you can get Abdul Carter - like somehow Abdul Carter gets there, I get it. But man, like, if you draft Travis Hunter, he’d play at receiver, he helps Drake Maye. This first pick after a defensive-heavy free agency, it just feels like, ‘Man, this has gotta be a pick that helps Drake Maye.’”
So if you like Jeremiah, who is as plugged in as anyone who covers the draft, it looks like you’re throwing the Heisman Trophy runner-up at running back into the mix for the Patriots.
At 5-foot-8 and 211 pounds, the 21-year-old Boise State-product set the college football world on fire last season, rushing for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns. That yardage total is the second most in a single-season in college football history, falling just 27 yards shy of Barry Sanders’ record of 2,628 rushing yards in 1988. His touchdown total in 2024 puts him in a four-way tie for fifth-most for a single-season in college football history (for those curious, Sanders set that record in 1988, too, with 37).
Any time you have a season that even comes close to the same sentence as the unassailable Heisman-season for Sanders, you know you’re in rarefied air. And if Jeanty had put these numbers up while playing for a higher-profile program, it’s safe to say that he would have joined college football’s most exclusive fraternity in December instead of Hunter.
Jeanty would be an obvious upgrade for New England at running back, who saw a mixed bag of results from Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson in 2024.
After Stevenson agreed on a four-year extension last summer worth $36 million, he went on to have one of his worst professional seasons, losing 7 fumbles and recording just one game over 100 yards rushing - Week 1 in Cincinnati. His 3.9 yards per rushing attempt was the lowest of his four-year career, as was his 5.1 yards per reception. For a player who was once decidedly a true dual-threat player out of the backfield, 2024 saw the 27-year-old become a liability for an offense that needed him to be a star.
Gibson, on the other hand, was someone who was thought to be a change-of-pace back for the Patriots in his first season with the team. And while he was able to do that at times as a pass-catcher averaging 9 yards per reception, doing so with only 23 catches on the season was not going to be enough to truly move the needle for a rudderless offense under one-and-done offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
Adding a stud like Jeanty to this running back room would immediately raise tides for the entire position group. In a world where Jeanty, Stevenson and Gibson are all on the Patriots roster in 2025, Gibson would truly be able to settle into a true pass-catching back specialty role a la James White of Patriots-past, and Stevenson would become an over-qualified second string running back behind the rookie. Having this type of stability in the running game would take a lot of the heavy lifting off of Maye’s plate, as both the organization and Patriots fans look to the 22-year-old to take a big leap in his sophomore season.
Me personally? I see Jeanty as more of a luxury item for a team that’s more ready-made to “win now” than a piece you add as you’re in the process of rebuilding a foundation. Adding Jeanty to this Patriots team would be like buying a hot tub before replacing your hot water heater. It’s fun to have, but do you really want to continue showering in the cold?
I think Jeanty is going to be a day one stud, regardless of where he goes. But if New England is the team that drafts him in April, I think the ceiling for how much of a stud he can be is capped from the jump.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the Patriots’ offseason.