Patriots are reportedly willing to do whatever it takes to sign top free agent

There might be four games left to be played this season, and most of the focus surrounding the Patriots has shifted to the 2025 NFL Draft, but a very important free agency begins a month before that. They will have the most cap space to spend of every team in the league and plenty of roster holes to address, with many hoping they'll prioritize the offense for Drake Maye.

That means the new regime will need to take a good look at the upcoming free agent receivers and offensive linemen, in particular, and there are a few intriguing players set to hit the market. The most discussed of all continues to be current Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, who is set to hit free agency for the first time in his career next spring.

Because the Bengals have seemingly made it clear they don't intend to extend the 25-year-old due to the need to give Ja'Marr Chase a new contract, Higgins is expected to be the top free-agent receiver of the entire 2025 group.

The Patriots have been interested in him over the years, including earlier this year when Cincinnati was considering tagging and trading him. But according to The Athletic's Chad Graff, the team plans to go "all in" to sign him next year, and they certainly have the means to do so.

The Patriots really want to bring Tee Higgins to New England for Drake Maye

Because the current receiving corps has been predominately underwhelming this year, which has been increasingly disappointing for the rookie quarterback, Graff believes the Patriots will go above and beyond to convince Higgins to sign a long-term deal with them, even more so knowing that they might need to offer more money to get him in the building.

"The Patriots are going to be all in on Tee Higgins. They’ve shown an interest in established receivers, and Higgins is the best free agent. I expect them to offer him the moon. The question is whether he says yes or no."

"The question is whether he says yes or no" is the most critical part. This is still new territory for the Patriots, who had historically been a highly desirable place to play because of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. But things have changed over the last five seasons, so they might need to become a team that overpays for who they want.

The good thing is that Graff believes that with Maye under center, it might make it easier to sign free agents, especially offensive players, as they now know the team's direction in that regard, which had been questionable before this past year.

"Two words: Drake Maye. There are four main factors when attracting offensive free agents (and specifically wide receivers): money, the quarterback, the destination and the chance of winning. In recent years, the Patriots couldn’t offer three of those four things. Now, if they offer Higgins more than anyone else and pair him with Maye, maybe that overcomes being in a rebuild in a cold-weather market."

If that's true, it would be a move in the right direction, and Maye has proven enough to players around the league that he's the real deal and desirable to play with. That could become a big factor for a guy like Higgins, who wants to be the WR1 on a team, and that won't be happening in Cincinnati. It would be his immediate future in Foxboro, though.

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