A night after moving up in Round 1 of the NFL Draft to select offensive tackle Caleb Lomu
, the Patriots found themselves in a similar position late in Round 2.With five edge rushers coming off the board early in the second round, New England struck a deal again — this time trading up eight spots to selected edge rusher Gabe Jacas.
“We were exploring the board, and Gabe was the highest rated player that we had on there, obviously at a position of need. And we felt like rather than waiting — I said
this last night about Caleb too — I was a little bit surprised he wasn’t off the board already,” executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said.
“We tried to pull the trigger. We were calling a bunch of teams before we ended up making the trade and fortunately the Chargers wanted to acquire more picks. So, we were able to get up and acquire the player we coveted.”
The move up for both Lomu and Jacas cost the Patriots two additional fourth-round picks and one sixth-round selection. That level of aggression wasn’t necessarily the strategy entering the week, but rather an in-the-moment decision to secure two players the team highly valued.
“Wouldn’t say that that was necessarily the plan. We were open to doing what was best for the team. We thought this would be a possibility based off the amount of names that we had on the board in the first couple of rounds, and it ended up going that way,” Wolf said. “With Caleb and with Gabe, we did not think they were going to be there when we got them.”
With one pick remaining on Day 2, the Patriots stayed put as there was internal debate between several players ahead of their third-round selection. The team held firm and saw Notre Dame tight end Eli Raridon fall to them.
“We didn’t think Eli would be there when we got him either,” shared Wolf. “But all those tight ends stared to go off the board so we said ‘Maybe we can just sit here and see if he’ll fall to us.‘”
Tight end was another position of need for New England. While Raridon suffered two ACL tears early in his collegiate career, the Patriots’ medical staff had no concerns following evaluations at the NFL Combine and during his pre-draft visit to the team facility.
Raridon bounced back to play all 28 games over the past two seasons at Notre Dame and now joins a tight end group led by veteran Hunter Henry and free agent addition Julian Hill as a high-upside developmental piece.
“Tremendous athlete. One year [starter] that has overcome some serious injuries here at Notre Dame to kind of find his own this year. You can see him coming into his own as we went through the season. You can just see his confidence growing and growing throughout the year,” Wolf said.
“Kind of an all-around guy. Probably more of a pass catcher first but willing blocker … Really good worker. Has a lot of talent at 6-foot-6, 245 lbs. Tested incredibly well and again just some untapped potential there with only the one year of playing.”
