Every so often the board makes a mistake, and the Patriots were there to profit. Isaiah Davis, the No. 164 name on the board, should have been long gone before Round 7, Pick 9. They moved the roster forward and banked a B for it.

Jayden Daniels gives the offense a face and a plan, and the grade leans heavily on whether he hits. The edge rusher hole is the one line item this class does not answer. It is not that Smith is a bad player; it is that the Patriots had louder needs to answer first.

The cost of the Smith reach is exactly the players who went right after him.

In short, they left a little better than they arrived, which is the whole idea.