Now that the Patriots are headed back to Foxboro for the start of training camp, it's a good time to take a closer look at the current state of the roster and determine which groups still need to be improved.
With this team, their biggest weaknesses are very apparent, with the pass rush being at the top of the list. And because of that, there is a strong need to improve those areas before facing what is already being considered one of the toughest schedules of the 2026 season, and having a less-than-ideal defensive line won't cut it.
To drastically upgrade that unit, however, the Patriots will have to either turn to one of the remaining free agents and hope they can acclimate to the team quickly, which might be easier for a veteran like Jadeveon Clowney, or pull off another blockbuster trade for someone they can invest a lot of money and time in.
Regardless, they're in a good spot to make the kind of moves they need to, as they sit with over $37.7 million in salary cap at this stage of the offseason. They only have one rookie unsigned, leaving them with plenty of money to spend and every reason to do so.
The Patriots have the means to upgrade their roster to make an easier Super Bowl push
For much of the last decade, the Patriots haven't had the luxury of leftover salary cap to spend going into training camp, and for the most part, Bill Belichick was a penny-pincher in free agency anyway, always making it seem like they never had much money to spend in general.
Besides the spending spree of the 2021 offseason, he was not a GM willing to spend the big bucks to get the caliber of players the team needed, and that became detrimental to their success, or lack thereof.
Then came the years when they had virtually nothing to spend, like Jerod Mayo's only offseason as the head coach, when they couldn't even overpay players to bring them to New England. But that has fortunately changed over the last two years, allowing Mike Vrabel and Co. to spend what they wanted to bring in top playmakers.
They made some impressive moves this spring, like signing WR Romeo Doubs and trading for A.J. Brown, but they still have a good chunk of salary cap to use.
Because they want to take advantage of their wide open Super Bowl window, there's no reason to go into the regular season with that much money still on the table when there are top names still unsigned and plenty of names circulating the trade rumor mill.
The only reason to be supportive of their decision to hold onto this amount of money is if they believe they'll have a better chance at getting the player they desire most near the trade deadline midseason, someone like Maxx Crosby, for instance.
Otherwise, holding on to almost $40 million just one season after shockingly making it to the Super Bowl seems foolish and will surely be a decision that would come back to bite Eliot Wolf in the long run.
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