Patriots Draft Preview: Wide Receiver Class Extremely Thin At Top

The Patriots will once again be looking to “weaponize their offense” in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Can they actually make it happen, though?

Keagan Stiefel (me again) joined George Balekji and Travis Thomas on NESN’s “Foxboro Rush” podcast on Wednesday to discuss wide receiver prospects that New England could target. It’s an extension of the conversation we had last week (which can be found here) and will continue to have throughout the season.

Stiefel, Balekji and Thomas discussed Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan, Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka, Missouri’s Luther Burden III and Colorado’s Travis Hunter, but the conversation ultimately came down to whether those players were a fit.

McMillan, specifically, was an interesting case, as his placement at the top of the wide receiver class doesn’t necessarily mean he’s ready to be — or even capable of being — a WR1 in the NFL.

McMillan, size-wise, is most similar to the likes of the Atlanta Falcons’ Drake London and the Green Bay Packers’ Christian Watson, so those might be interesting cases to study.

“Who do you put around guys like that?” Stiefel asked. “It’s the smaller, underneath wide receivers — the Ray-Ray McClouds of the world, the Darnell Mooneys of the world. What do the Patriots have? They have those guys.. who can play next to big-bodied receivers and find ways to contribute without being the primary target.”

You can listen to the full episode of “Foxboro Rush” on YouTube and Spotify.