The New England Patriots opened the final hours of the 2026 NFL draft in the secondary.
The war room in Foxborough selected Wake Forest cornerback Karon Prunty in the fifth round at No. 171 overall on Saturday afternoon.
A three-star recruit out of Virginia’s I.C. Norcom High School, Prunty’s NCAA run dated back to 2020. He made stops at Kansas and North Carolina A&T before transferring to Wake Forest for his final year of eligibility. From there, the third-team All-CAA selection became a third-team All-ACC selection.
Prunty appeared in all 13 games last fall for the Demon Deacons. He finished with a 44.4 percent catch rate and a pair of touchdowns allowed in coverage, per Pro Football Focus. There were 40 tackles, one sack, one interception, eight pass breakups as well as one forced fumble and one recovery tacked on over that span.
Standing north of 3,000 career defensive snaps, the 24-year-old eclipsed 50 starts during his collegiate journey.
At 6-foot-1, 190 pounds with 31 3/4-inch arms, Prunty clocked the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds at the Wake Forest pro day. Along with the long speed, he ran the three-cone drill in 6.82 seconds, which would have ranked atop all participating cornerbacks at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine.
A shot on length and fluidity, Prunty added a 33-inch vertical and 10-foot-3 broad jump during the pre-draft process before becoming New England’s first Saturday selection.
He marked the 11th corner taken on the draft’s final afternoon, following Tennessee’s Jermod McCoy, Oregon’s Jadon Canady, Florida’s Devin Moore, Miami’s Keionte Scott, Texas’ Malik Muhammad, Texas A&M’s Will Lee III, Washington’s Ephesians Prysock, Arizona State’s Keith Abney II, Duke’s Chandler Rivers and Stephen F. Austin’s Charles Demmings.
New England’s cornerback room will be in the hands of Pro Bowl and All-Pro Christian Gonzalez well beyond his impending fifth-year option. But behind the former No. 17 overall pick, the perimeter depth chart needed deepening following free agency.
Veteran starter Carlton Davis III turned 29 in December and is scheduled to carry $22 million cap hits for 2026 and 2027. And after not being tendered as a restricted free agent, Alex Austin moved on to the Miami Dolphins. The rest of the cornerback group includes slot-covering, punt-returning captain Marcus Jones along with Charles Woods, Kindle Vildor, Marcellas Dial Jr., Brandon Crossley and last year’s “Mr. Irrelevant,” Kobee Minor.
Prunty, who did not frequent Wake Forest’s special teams last campaign, played 90 percent of his downs as an outside corner and made a “30” visit to Gillette Stadium.