Free agency will begin in about two weeks, and the draft always looms large for the Patriot Nation and any other NFL team's fandom. The outcome of free agency will pre-determine to some extent which positions the Pats will address in April's draft.
Whoever is calling the shots and making that proverbial "final decision", Mike Vrabel and his team or last year's architect of another last-place disaster, Eliot Wolf, it's a critical offseason.
The hope is that Vrabel will be in the lead and the Bill Belichick crew will be back-benchers. Their 2024 performance proved they were not ready for prime time.
In an event, free agency will lay a foundation, and the principles there and in the draft should be the same for Vrabel. The new Head Coach should concentrate on bringing in as many top players as possible with his available resources and fill in the rest with good old-fashioned scouting.
Free agency's objective is to add several playmakers in positions of need
Vrabel has to allocate his cap money in free agency precisely. He can't just throw money at the wall and expect the results of 2023 and 2024 to change. The focus he needs isn't rocket science, just common sense. NFL winners are built in the offseason by signing and drafting the best players you can.
If any NFL team needs top, proven playmakers, it's the lackluster Patriots. They only have a handful and need to at least double that number to have a chance in 2025. In free agency, you'll pay the piper to get these players. Those players need to be consensus top talents at positions of need above all.
Vrabel has many positions to choose from. The most pressing needs are on the offensive line, especially the tackles and left tackle; at the edge position, where he has none; at wide receiver, where he doesn't have either a No. 1 or No. 2 wideout; and at defensive tackle, where the cupboard needs stocking.
It doesn't matter whether Vrabel lands these top additions in free agency (though that's comprised of proven NFL-quality players) or the draft (more of a crapshoot). It just matters that he gets them. Loads of the $126M or so in cap space should be allocated to adding three or four top players at those specific positions of need.
Adding a gaggle of mediocre ones won't help. Buy the best, and for a change, scout the rest. Sign stars if they agree to join the new era at Gillette Stadium. Drake Maye will be a draw, even if the facilities and player amenities aren't up to snuff, as pointed out recently by NFL players themselves.
Patriots need to draft a few top players and forget stockpiling picks
Stockpiling loads of lower-round draft picks is an OK strategy if you plan to trade up. If not, not so much. It's a poor play. Good and great NFL teams (assuming they have the top priority, a quarterback) are built in the offseason.
After suggesting the Patriots pay big for the best free agents, the recommendation for the draft is the same. Go for quality. Forget stockpiling picks if you intend to use them later. Use your own high picks and trade the rest for higher ones. Top players win in the NFL, not mediocre or just decent ones.
Mike Vrabel's objective in free agency and the draft should be to add as many high-quality players as possible, e.g., at least Pro-Bowl-level free agents and potential ones in the draft. Good and great teams then do what the Patriots have been deficient at without Tom Brady to bail them out. It's called scouting.
Bill Belichick's personnel team, and the one Vrabel evidently inherited for whatever reason, aren't up to the task. The advice here is to consign that group to backroom offices and let them crunch some analytics. Vrabel's men, Ryan Cowden and John Streicher, VP of football operations and strategy, should run the show.
Eliot Wolf, a prime architect of the Patriots' downward spiral for several years, says he's making the final personnel calls. Patriot Nation had better hope not. Vrabel must make the final calls, or you can cashier 2025 like the Pats tanked the 2024 season before it even began. Whatever.
The strategy for whoever the Pats' decision-maker is this: Sign and draft a handful of top players, make a few trades of underperformers, and scout the rest, if your backroom staff can. The bottom line is that quality, not quantity, wins in the NFL.