The New England Patriots introduced four of their high-priced free agent signings at Gillette Stadium on Thursday. While each player projects as an immediate starter on the roster, New England’s top decision makers know the roster is far from complete.
“There’s still more work to be done,” executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said Thursday. “Obviously we’re not finished. We still have more needs to fill.”
Among those position groups that remain under construction is the offensive line. Following the release of David Andrews, New England will need a new center in 2025. That center will also need two lineman to his left as question marks remain at both left guard and left tackle without a comfortable day one starter on the roster.
For a team that entered the offseason with plans to support their young quarterback Drake Maye, that search will now continue in both the remaining free agent market and the NFL Draft.
“We’re going to continue to support … the needs that we feel like are on the team, and we will target the offensive line,” head coach Mike Vrabel said. “There’s still quite a bit of time before we get to the draft, but there’s also — we don’t want to just be careless. We talked about there’s a difference. We want our players to play aggressive. We don’t want them to play reckless.
“So we don’t want to be reckless through this process. We want to be very intentional with the people that we bring on this football team, and we’ll continue to target all those needs that we feel like and the players that can help us.”
Beyond supporting Maye up front, New England entered the offseason hoping to upgrade the quarterback’s pass catchers. After failing to land Chris Godwin despite a big money offer, the Patriots have shown interest in the recently released Cooper Kupp.
While the Patriots won’t be reckless in their pursuit of the 31-year old, they are willing to keep all options available to them when it comes to upgrading at receiver.
“We’ll continue to look at the wide receiver position as it relates to free agency, explore every option with other teams, and potentially then we’ll get to the point where we’re looking at the draft. There’s just a lot of time,” Vrabel said.
Time does remain for New England’s free agency group — which includes Vrabel, Wolf, Ryan Cowden, Matt Groh, and Richard Miller — to continue to bolster the roster. The group has added impact players such as Milton Williams to the defensive line and Morgan Moses to the offensive line, but know more will be available throughout the upcoming months.
“[Patriots senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith] keeps reminding me and everybody else of that, because he’s been around a lot of times,” Vrabel said. “He’s like, ‘there’s players that are going to become available, whether it be now or whether it be in May or after training camp… I’ve seen it enough to know that there’s going to be someone that’s currently not on our roster that’s going to help us win a game this year.’”
