Patriots Insider Highlights Star Pass Rusher As Potential Draft Fit
Just a couple of weeks after losing Super Bowl LX, the New England Patriots are back at work. With the 2026 NFL Draft Combine underway, the Pats began getting their first look at some of the top prospects set to make the jump to the pros, with the defensive linemen participating in their drills on Thursday.
With New England widely expected to add some help to its defensive line this offseason, you can bet the team was paying close attention to Thursday’s action. With the first day of drills in the books, Patriots insider Evan Lazar of the team’s official website believes that UCF Knights star Malachi Lawrence could be emerging as a potential option for the team on Day 2 of the draft.
“The one edge rusher who moved to the top of my post-combine watch list is Central Florida EDGE Malachi Lawrence, who posted the second-best relative athletic score among the edge rushers,” Lazar wrote. “Lawrence will need to develop his run defense to be more disciplined on the edge, but my limited tape exposure to him before the combine was intriguing. He had one of the best workouts of any prospect on Thursday night.”
Lawrence spent four seasons playing for UCF, with his senior campaign being the best of the bunch (28 tackles, seven sacks, three pass deflections, two forced fumbles). While his all-around game needs fine-tuning, Lawrence is viewed as a skilled pass-rushing prospect.
When he will come off the board, though, is a mystery. Some projections have him as a Day 3 pick, but a strong performance at the combine has him rising up the board. There’s still a lot of time between now and the draft, but look for Lawrence to be firmly on New England’s radar come April.
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