Patriots Pick at No. 4 Now ‘Set,’ Experts Claim, as Draft Day Finally Arrives

Sometime between 7:30 pm and 7:40 pm Central Daylight Time tonight, Thursday April 24, in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the suspense for the New England Patriots will be over.

The Patriots hold the No. 4 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, held this year in Green Bay, and with each team allotted 10 minutes to make its selection in the draft which gets underway at 8 p.m., the Patriots’ time slot is pretty much set.

And so is their draft pick. According to longtime NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper, the Patriots have already decided who they will take with the fourth selection — and so have the three teams above them.

“Everything I’ve heard tells me the top four picks are pretty set,” Kiper wrote in a final ESPN.com draft prediction published Thursday morning. “It’s really Jacksonville at No. 5 where things could get interesting.”

Top Prospects Off Board When Patriots Go on Clock

With the Tennessee Titans at No. 1 in need of a quarterback, the consensus among experts is that they will pick Miami’s Cam Ward — who was not a highly recruited prospect out of high school and is not considered a franchise-changing quarterback but simply the best one available for a team that does not have one.

The Cleveland Browns at No. 2, Kiper and many other draft prognosticators believe, will grab Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, out of Colorado, the best all-around athlete in the draft who in a throwback to football’s golden age plays both offense and defense — cornerback and wide receiver.

The New York Giants hold the No. 3 selection, and a team that was once home to perhaps the greatest pass rushing linebacker of all time, Lawrence Taylor, is expected to select the top-rated edge rusher in the 2025 draft, Penn State’s Abdul Carter — in spite of various alleged “red flags” that have been raised in the media about Carter’s character and work ethic.

And then comes the Patriots, whose draft path has been less clear and the subject of intense and varied speculation for the entire NFL offseason.

The Patriots have been linked to Carter, and to Hunter as well. But if Kiper’s claim that the first three picks are “set” holds true, neither will be available by 7:30 Central tonight.

Then there is Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty, the Heisman voting runner-up who is considered the “unquestioned” top ball carrier in this year’s draft. Vrabel had success as head coach of the Titans with a similar running back, Derrick Henry, so some experts believe that he will try to replicate that situation in New England with Jeanty.

With the No. 4 Pick, New England Patriots Select…

But Kiper’s view, the view of another ESPN NFL expert, Field Yates — and indeed as the draft has drawn closer the overwhelming consensus among Patriots insiders as well as national NFL experts — is that the Patriots will welcome LSU offensive left tackle Will Campbell to New England.

“The Patriots have work to do in supporting quarterback Drake Maye in his second season. Campbell checks one box. He has outstanding footwork, yielding just two sacks over the past two seasons,” Yates wrote.

The Patriots offensive line allowed Maye to suffer 34 sacks in his rookie season, though the 2024 No. 3 overall pick started only 12 games (and was pulled after one sequence in Week 18 to allow backup Joe Milton III to see his first NFL action).

That rate of abuse is clearly unsustainable, and it has been no secret that the Patriots place a high priority on making sure Maye is better protected in his sophomore year, and going forward.

“This one simply makes too much sense for the Patriots. Campbell is widely regarded by evaluators as the top offensive tackle in an imperfect tackle class,” wrote Patriots insider Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston on Thursday. “Campbell’s combination of athleticism, toughness and intelligence will help make him a leader in a locker room that could use as much of that as it can get.”