Per our regularly updated Patriots Draft Meetings Tracker, New England has so far had reported pre-draft contact with more than 130 prospects. Among those, 17 have crossed paths with the organization on more than one occasion.
But even within that group, one player stands out: Missouri linebacker Khalil Jacobs, who is getting some serious interest from the team.
After previously meeting with him around the Tigers’ pro day in late March, the Patriots later also met him virtually. On Thursday, they touched
base for a third time: Jacobs was hosted at the team’s Gillette Stadium facility in Foxborough, the 18th reported player to travel to New England for a pre-draft visit.
The Patriots taking a close look at Jacobs should not come as a surprise. Earlier in the offseason, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said that the team would “like to maybe address [getting younger at linebacker] in the draft. It looks like a good year at linebacker.”
And while Jacobs is not the most highly-regarded linebacker in the public eye — NFL Mock Draft Database does not even have him listed among its 713-prospect deep consensus board — he does have plenty of fans within the league. The Patriots appear to be among them, for the reasons outlined above and because of what he offers in the first place.
Standing at 6-foot-1, 227 pounds, he scored an unofficial Relative Athletic Score of 6.44 during pre-draft testing. While undersized by traditional standards, the 22-year-old plays with his hair on fire and was a team leader for the Tigers: he was voted a captain in 2025 despite being a part time starter.
All in all, Jacobs appeared in 19 games with eight starts over two seasons in Columbia; he registered 61 tackles and five sacks. Before moving to Missouri, he spent two seasons at South Alabama, where he played 24 games with three starts.
