Bottom Line
Round 3 capital (pick 95) to New England pairs an 84th-percentile explosiveness/YPRR-over-expected profile with a clogged depth chart behind Hunter Henry — a developmental TE2 bet with TE1 athletic upside but limited Year-1 path. Hold or take a late-2nd flier in TE-premium; fade in 1QB standard.
Team Fit & Opportunity
Landing in New England is a mixed bag. Hunter Henry remains the entrenched starter and Julian Hill profiles as a blocking-leaning #2, leaving Raridon to fight for the move TE role in a Drake Maye offense that should grow into more 12-personnel usage. The Patriots only vacated 25 targets, so Year-1 volume is capped. The longer-term case: Henry is on the back end of his career, and Raridon's size/explosiveness profile fits what a developing Maye needs as a seam-stretching outlet by 2027.
Talent Profile
At 6'6"/248 with a 4.62 forty, 36" vert, and 123" broad, Raridon's testing landed at 8.1 RAS — good athleticism in a position-scarce class, with explosiveness grading 84th percentile. The translatable signal is the 84th-percentile YPRR-over-expected, suggesting the Notre Dame route tree underutilized him relative to per-route efficiency. The flag is a 16th-percentile route versatility score — he wins on a narrow menu (seams, crossers, contested vertical) rather than the full TE route tree. Production was 66th-percentile, athleticism 81st. The composite reads: vertical big-slot weapon, not a Y/F hybrid.
Strengths
- Vertical separation at size: 36" vert and 4.62 at 248 lbs translates to seam wins; the 84th-percentile YPRR-over-expected backs the per-route efficiency on tape.
- Explosive movement profile: 84th-percentile explosiveness sub-score plus a 123" broad gives him red-zone box-out leverage that NE's offense currently lacks beyond Henry.
- Draft capital + age curve: Round 3 (pick 95) at 22 with TE10 class rank means the Patriots invested real resources in a position they'll need answered in 2027.
Concerns
- Route tree is narrow: 16th-percentile route versatility is the single biggest red flag — he's a specialist, not a complete TE, which limits early-down snaps.
- Blocked depth chart: Hunter Henry runs the TE room, and 25 vacated targets across the offense gives Raridon a thin Year-1 target pool.
- WAA 35th percentile: Wins-above-average score suggests he wasn't elevating Notre Dame the way the explosiveness numbers imply he should have.
Historical Comp Read
Ian Thomas (88% similarity) is the cautionary tale — testing freak, drafted Day 2, never carved out a real receiving role and settled into a TE2 blocker career. Erick All (84%) is the more optimistic read: efficient per-route producer who flashed before injury. James Mitchell and Dalton Keene are outright misses. The comp cluster skews toward "athletic TE who never gets the route-tree expansion to matter" — and that's the base case here unless NE actively schemes him up.
Outlook
Year 1: TE40-50 range, sub-30 targets, occasional TD-dependent flex weeks in TE-premium only. Three-year arc bends on whether NE lets Henry walk after 2026 and hands Raridon the move TE role in a maturing Maye offense — that's the catalyst, and it gets him to TE15-20 by 2028. The collapse trigger is the route-versatility flag manifesting as a permanent two-route specialist, in which case he's a blocking TE with three TD games a year and off rosters by 2027.