The path to back-to-back AFC East championships will be littered with landmines for the 2026 New England Patriots. A year after they took advantage of a favorable schedule in impressive fashion, Mike Vrabel and company will be up against one of the NFL’s toughest slates in the new league year.
That means accepting the status quo won't cut it, even with the quick ascension of quarterback Drake Maye. The NFL’s legal tampering window looms on March 9, and the Patriots can’t afford to sit back and see how things play out.
Otherwise, breakout edge rusher K’Lavon Chaisson could fly the coop.
Vrabel made significant roster changes in Year 1, ultimately turning over close to 50 percent of the personnel left over from the Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick regimes. The Patriots committed $364.3 million in max potential value to new player contracts in 2025, per Spotrac, blowing every other team out of the water, thanks largely to their league-high salary cap space. Pass rushers Chaisson and Harold Landry Jr. were among that mass of outside talent that Vrabel brought to Foxboro.
New England will naturally take a more cost-efficient approach to the first wave of 2026 free agency, making some key departures unavoidable. But edge defenders capable of 75 QB pressures, 10-plus sacks, and 30 run stuffs in a single season are hard to find, and the Patriots should be doing whatever it takes to keep Chaisson in their building.
K’Lavon Chaisson could be the key to Patriots’ offseason
As Greg Bedard laid out this week for Boston Sports Journal, the Patriots could get choosy with how they spend this offseason. In addition to their own pending free agents, they could also look at locking up cornerback Christian Gonzalez with a multi-year extension.
“I think you're going to see a balance between cutting back on spending, Kraft allowing more leeway with the budget, and the departure of some players to give the Patriots somewhere in the vicinity of $50-60 million in cash to spend this offseason,” Bedard wrote. “It's not a lot compared to last year, but I think Vrabel had this plan in mind. I think he convinced Kraft to let him spend in 2025 in order to get competitive quickly. If that happened, they would bid some veterans goodbye, concentrate on the draft and internal improvement, free agency would mostly be on a budget, and with one or two big-ticket items in 2026.”
Those big-ticket items figure to come on offense, as surrounding Maye with more playmakers figures to be a major 2026 priority. The team will improve immediately if it can add a top pass-catching free agent like wide receiver Alec Pierce or tight end Isaiah Likely.
Signing both players would be a dream scenario for Patriots fans, but that might not be in the cards. Pairing one big offensive splash with a new multi-year contract for Chaisson feels like the right blend of staying proactive but also thinking long-term. The Patriots also have to plan for Maye’s future mega contract extension, of course, which could come as early as 2027.
Chaisson signed a prove-it deal with New England last year for $3 million — and he definitely proved it. His fit in Vrabel’s defense is impossible to ignore, and at Spotrac’s market projection of $26.8 million on a three-year deal, locking him up prior to the March 9 tampering frenzy feels like a no-brainer move.
Extensions tend to roll in during the first week of March, so Patriots fans should learn Chaisson’s fate around that general timeframe. Re-signing with the Patriots wouldn’t be off the table if he does hit free agency as scheduled, but it could definitely muddy the water.
Given the scheme fit, and Chaisson entering his prime as a 26-year-old former first-round pick, this one makes too much sense. The clock is ticking, and Vrabel will want to make sure one of his top defensive game-wreckers is taken care of before that timer goes off.