This offseason screams for a Mike Vrabel/A.J. Brown reunion or the Patriots acquiring a premium pass rusher such as Maxx Crosby.
This offseason screams for a Mike Vrabel/A.J. Brown reunion or the Patriots acquiring a premium pass rusher such as Maxx Crosby.Terrance Williams/Associated Press
The buzz exiting the NFL Scouting Combine is that the Patriots plan to be clear-eyed this offseason. They don’t intend to throw their money around like besotted bar patrons after getting a taste of the Super Bowl in the first round of the Mike Vrabel regime.
Moderation is good. But now is not the time for a Foxborough Fallback, either. Vrabel, executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf, and the rest of the gang can’t get too conservative, swearing off pricey elixirs for what ails their roster. It’s not the time to sink all the hopes of improving this team into draft picks, affordable free agents, reclamation projects, and returning players. That’s a recipe for regression.
This team doesn’t need 11 rookies, or more depth guys, or more culture agents. It needs more difference-makers and game-changers. It screams for a Vrabel reunion with receiver A.J. Brown or a premium pass rusher such as Maxx Crosby. That’s what the sobering Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks revealed. More upper-echelon talent equals more of a margin for error for a team that benefited from outrageous fortune and a favorable schedule in 2025.
So, pinning the majority of your hopes of finding those players to the roster roulette known as the NFL Draft when your first-round pick is No. 31 out of 32 first-rounders and six of your picks are in the fifth round or later represents its own type of risky offseason approach. The same applies to simply re-upping your own players, a lesson Wolf learned the hard way in 2024.
Building through the draft is the ideal way to construct a contender. But it’s not the only avenue. The Patriots are proof of that. They don’t reach the Super Bowl last season without the enviable return on investment they got from a franchise-altering free agent class, led by Milton Williams.
They blended that ROI with a promising draft class that plugged holes and made crucial contributions before some of its members (Will Campbell and Jared Wilson) got overextended.
Desperate to remove the taint of back-to-back 4-13 seasons, the Patriots were the NFL’s biggest free agent spender last offseason, sinking more than $364 million into improving the team, according to Spotrac. They were aggressive from the opening bell of the market. It paid off with one of the greatest turnarounds in NFL history and 17 wins (including playoffs).
No one is saying they have to spend to that level again, especially in this thinner free agent class. But let’s hope what came out of Indianapolis was subterfuge or posturing. They should take a few home run swings, and the trade market appears to be the best way to do that.
Notably, the Patriots’ brass didn’t rule out moves for players such as Brown or Crosby, whose trade costs should get more realistic from the Eagles and Raiders, respectively, the closer we get to March 11, the start of the new league year.
Vrabel boasts a vision. But now is not the time for the Patriots to stand pat or just plug along with a long-term blueprint. This shouldn’t be a stand by your rebuilding plan offseason that primarily relies on the draft for roster reinforcements. That’s too timid for the defending AFC champions and, really, any team boasting a quarterback the caliber of Drake Maye still playing on a rookie deal.
The Patriots aren’t one player away from perennial contention, but they’re players, plural.
To that end, the Patriots need to think about how to best use their draft capital. Hint: It’s not sticking at No. 31. They either need to use the pick to acquire an NFL-proven game-changer or package it with one of their other 10 selections to move up in the first round.
You can acquire game-changers between Nos. 30 and 40. Look at Patriots running back TreVeyon Henderson, taken 38th last year. But do you trust New England, given its wide receiver track record, to draft a Brown equivalent there?
Finding a disruptive edge rusher in that range is certainly no guarantee, either, even though this is a deep edge draft.
Depth is nice. Competition is desirable. You don’t win on depth alone. You win with first-rate talent (starters) and difference-makers. That’s what the Patriots were lacking in the Super Bowl. It’s why the Rams were able to push the Seahawks in a way the Patriots couldn’t.
NFL MVP Matthew Stafford and the Rams lit up the same defense that limited the Patriots to 0 points, a paltry 88 yards, and five first downs in the first three quarters of the Super Bowl, before Maye and Co. piled up the offensive empty calories to statistically airbrush their outing.
The Rams scored 27 points against the Seahawks in the NFC Championship game — it would’ve been 30 if LA didn’t elect to go for it on fourth down from the Seattle 6 in the fourth quarter — and put up 37 points in a Dec. 18 overtime loss in Seattle. There was no greater sign that the Seahawks weren’t concerned about the Patriots’ pass catchers the same way they were about Puka Nacua and Davante Adams than how they blitzed their best cover corner, Devon Witherspoon.
The postseason revealed that Maye needs more help. He was sacked a playoff-record 21 times. He turned the ball over eight times in four games, including three turnovers in the Super Bowl. That wasn’t just his balky shoulder or indoctrination to postseason play.
The disgruntled Brown, who has made no secret of his unhappiness with the Eagles’ passing offense, could do for Maye what Diggs once did for Josh Allen in Buffalo. Diggs arrived there in a blockbuster trade that included Buffalo shipping its 2020 first-round pick to Minnesota for him.
Given their contracts, parting with a first-round pick for Brown or Crosby might feel like a heavy price to pay. But the Patriots possess the cap space (projected at more than $40 million) to absorb one of those contracts. Plus, it buys them some time to use future drafts to find eventual successors at those A-list positions.
It also sends the message that they’re now a destination for premier NFL players.
The move for the Patriots this offseason isn’t to sit on the sidelines of the NFL’s big-name player pool.
They can make a splash deal without going overboard.
Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com. Follow him @cgasper and on Instagram @cgaspersports.