The Patriots bolstered their pass-catching corps in the third round of the 2025 NFL Draft — selecting Washington State wide receiver Kyle Williams with the 69th overall pick. Williams — who reeled in 14 touchdowns with the Cougars last season — gives New England a potential deep-threat target on a revamped wideout grouping that added Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins earlier this offseason. Here are four things to know about New England’s new wide receiver: He was one of the most productive receivers in FBS in 2024 After arriving on the scene as a reliable pass-catching threat at UNLV for three seasons, Williams developed into a potent deep-threat menace over another two years at Washington State. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound wideout may not have the frame that paints the picture of an “X” receiver, but Williams had a track record of shredding defensive backs during his tenure in Pullman, Washington. Williams elevated his draft stock during the 2024 season, reeling in 70 catches for 1,198 yards and 14 touchdowns — averaging 17.1 yards per catch. The 23-year-old wideout finished the 2024 season fourth in the FBS with his 14 receiving touchdowns — just one behind both Travis Hunter and Ohio State freshman phenom Jeremiah Smith. “I would describe it as versatile, game-changing, and electric,” Williams said Friday of his play style. Williams stands as the first Washington State draft pick by the Patriots since the team took Drew Bledsoe first overall in 1993. He’s a legitimate deep-threat talent The Patriots rolled the dice on UCF receiver Javon Baker in the fourth round of the 2024 NFL Draft in hopes the speedy wideout would eventually complement a rocket-armed QB like Drake Maye. But after a disastrous start from Baker in 2024 (one catch, 12 yards), the Patriots might be ready to slot Williams into a similar role in 2025 as a deep-threat target for Maye. Rather than target a big-bodied boundary receiver, the Patriots are banking on the talent found in a pass-catcher like Williams — who uses his straight-line speed and shiftiness to separate from defensive backs and gain chunk yardage after the catch. Williams — who clocked in with a 4.40 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine — posted a strong 58.3 percent success rate on throws of more than 20 yards in 2024, according to The Athletic’s Dane Brugler. While Maye should have several short-yardage and red-zone targets to throw to in 2025 between Diggs, Hollins, Hunter Henry, DeMario Douglas, and others, Williams could put opposing secondaries on their heels as a home-run hitter on the outside. “I pride myself on winning one-on-one matchups,” Williams said on The Draft Network blog. “That’s my bread and butter. I always feel like the best receivers in the NFL have to beat man coverage with consistency.” He was a former QB in high school Even with his evident talents as a playmaking wideout, Williams spent the majority of his high-school career playing quarterback. Williams — who was born in Baltimore but moved to Inglewood, California, at a young age — honed his craft as a signal caller while training with Steve Clarkson, a private coach who has worked with several NFL quarterbacks like Ben Roethlisberger and Nick Foles. After serving as a backup QB for two years at Narbonne High in Los Angeles, he transferred to Hawthorne High — with the lefty completing 127 of his 220 throws for 2,114 yards, 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions as a junior, while also rushing for 941 yards and eight touchdowns as a dual-threat talent. Williams then transferred to St. Monica Catholic High for his senior season in order to be coached by Clarkson’s son, Anton. Anton Clarkson convinced Williams to make the switch to wide receiver for his senior season, where he could both maximize his athletic talents and also increase his odds of earning a collegiate scholarship. “I kinda looked at him and said, ‘Look, if you had a couple years at this thing, I think you could be a pretty special quarterback.’ But he was playing catch-up,” Clarkson told The Daily Orange of his message to Williams. “It was pretty easy to see that if he played receiver, got out on the perimeter … he’d be a special player.” Williams caught 31 balls for 763 yards (24.6 yards per reception) and nine touchdowns in 2019 at St. Monica — eventually earning a scholarship at UNLV. Chris Simms tabbed Williams as the No. 2 WR in this draft class Former NFL QB and current NBC analyst Chris Simms has been one of the top supporters of Williams during the pre-draft process — listing the Washington State as the No. 2 receiver in the 2025 NFL Draft Class behind only Travis Hunter … and ahead of a top-10 pick in Tetairoa McMillan (No. 8 overall, Carolina). “I like guys that can get tough YAC [yards after catch], right? Tough YAC where — make a person miss, break a tackle, take off to the races, make an explosive play. He has that,” Simms said of Williams. “He’s got another gear when the ball is in the air, that, like a Travis Hunter, doesn’t have, to where he can go get it and turn it on and separate from people. “He is a guy unlike Travis Hunter, where I look at it and go, he can catch a slant and go 70 and 80 [yards], right? And I think when it came down to it in his route running, I thought he was the second-best route runner in the draft, only to Travis Hunter.” That’s high praise from Simms, although the former signal-caller doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to the NFL Draft. Last year, he listed Drake Maye as the sixth-best QB in the 2024 Draft class, a decision that aged poorly over the fall.