The Patriots entered the week with perhaps the weakest roster in the NFL and have made significant strides in a short time to improve it.
Head coach Mike Vrabel and executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf have [agreed to sign](https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/03/10/patriots-free-agency-tracker-and-grades-every-signing-rumor-and-update/) nine players since Sunday night, handing out [$284.6 million](https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/03/11/callahan-5-thoughts-on-the-patriots-opening-290-million-free-agent-splurge/) in total contract value.
One long-time NFL scout sees the Patriots as “definitely more talented” after the signings.
Here’s the full list:
DT Milton Williams: 4 years, $106M, $63M guaranteed, $24M signing bonus
CB Carlton Davis: 3 years, $54M, $34.5 guaranteed, $16.5M signing bonus
DE Harold Landry: 3 years, $43.5M
LB Robert Spillane: 3 years, $33M, $20.6M guaranteed, $9M signing bonus
OT Morgan Moses: 3 years, $24M, $11M guaranteed
WR Mack Hollins: 2 years, $8.4M, $3.5M guaranteed, $1.5M signing bonus
QB Joshua Dobbs: 2 years, $8M, $3.8M guaranteed, $2.1M signing bonus
DT Khyiris Tonga: 1 year, $2.7M
TE Austin Hooper: 1 year, $5M, $4M guaranteed, $2M signing bonus
“Looks like they’re signing a whole new team,” one VP of analytics said.
He continued, “I’d guess some of those contracts will be regrettable in a year or two (as is often the case with free agency) because there isn’t much room to outperform.”
A director of pro scouting had a more optimistic view, noting that the Patriots “had to overpay for some but signed good players that are plug and play and will help them immediately.”
Now, he believes the Patriots will need to hit on their draft picks, of which they have five in the first four rounds.
One NFL assistant general manager believes there was “a lot of money spent on declining players” by the Patriots but also noted that’s typical of free agency. He specifically pointed to Davis, Moses and Landry as being on the downturn of their careers.
He actually believed the Patriots got a bargain in Williams, who’s the highest paid non-QB to switch teams in free agency this offseason.
“The Milton deal is a tax on him being the one young good player on the market,” he said, while noting the Patriots also probably had to pay more because New England is an undesirable place to play. “Honestly, coming in under Christian Wilkins is a small win.”
Wilkins signed a four-year, $110 million deal with the Raiders last offseason, netting him $27.5 million per year vs. Williams’ $26 million average per year.
An agent had an opposing view.
“The Williams deal is insane,” he said. “Landry and Spillane are $3 million per year too high, but the rest of the deals are decent.”
Williams, 25, was one of the youngest unrestricted free agents available this offseason. He was playing his best football by the end of last season when he registered two sacks in the Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX win over the Chiefs.
This was viewed as a shallow crop of free agents around the league, so give credit to the Patriots for being aggressive and not being left in the dust with so much cap space and needs strewn across the roster.
One league source believed the Patriots paid near the top of the market for players like Williams, Landry and Spillane. But he also noted that they’re productive players and that paying Williams $26 million per year is more advisable than the Panthers dishing out $54 million per year for Tershawn Wharton after they missed out on Williams.
Another analytics analyst believes Williams has been an underrated player for a while, and continued, “I’m not sure he’s going to out-perform that contract, but when you’ve got that much cap space, it’s gotta go somewhere and I think you could do a lot worse.”
That analytics analyst also liked the Spillane signing, calling him “a force” who has “quite the reputation as a tough-ass dude.” He also believed Hollins was good value.
The Patriots believe they improved in a lot of positional rooms. There should be more certainty behind the Patriots’ signings this season since all of them, outside of Williams, have played on a team with a current Patriots coach on staff.
Landry and Spillane have both played on teams under Vrabel and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Davis was with the Lions last season with defensive coordinator Terrell Williams on staff. Moses played under wide receivers coach Todd Downing. Tonga played under current outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, Dobbs played under Vrabel and offensive coordinator Doug Marrone, and Hollins played under McDaniels.
So, there’s little mystery in the class.
The crop of free agents will be judged by how well Williams plays under his new contract, and the VP of analytics believes he could have a hard time living up to the deal. If he continues to be a game-wrecker in the middle of the Patriots’ defense, then they’ll look prescient. It won’t be a disaster if Williams doesn’t play up to his contract since there wasn’t another player worth that type of money, but the hope is that the signing winds up being a good investment. He has among the best potential of anyone in this free-agent class.
As for next steps, the Patriots need to continue adding at offensive tackle and wide receiver. Moses is a stopgap solution at right tackle, but they still don’t have an obvious starting option at left tackle. Cam Robinson is still available, however.
And at wide receiver, the Patriots might need to be creative by trading for a player like Tee Higgins, Brandon Aiyuk or Jakobi Meyers or waiting for the Rams to release Cooper Kupp.
It’s not ideal for the Patriots to go into the 2025 NFL Draft having glaring holes at wide receiver and offensive tackle if they want to avoid drafting for need this offseason.