Similar to the start of free agency and the lead-up to the draft, the trade deadline is considered an exciting part of every NFL season, especially for a team like the Patriots that has plenty of needs to be addressed.

Hopes were high that the new regime would make some moves before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. deadline, even if it only meant trading players away for draft compensation. Instead, the team wasn’t even rumored to have made calls to teams looking to trade some of their players, which disappointed many fans.

Considering the long list of names that had been rumored to be on the trade block, like CB Jonathan Jones, WR K.J. Osborn, and WR Tyquan Thornton, it was surprising when the deadline came and passed without a single move.

With Eliot Wolf in charge of making those decisions now and knowing his preference for building teams through the draft, it made little to no sense to see their lack of interest in getting some deals done, and it wasn’t explained any better by Jerod Mayo this week.

Jerod Mayo’s lack of explanation about the Patriots’ trade deadline decisions brings more questions than answers

Because rumors had been circulating in the two weeks leading up to the trade deadline this past Tuesday, the head coach was going to be asked why the team chose not to make any moves when speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

As expected, the question was asked, but the answer was not exactly what most hoped to hear from Mayo.

“I’m not sure. I mean, look, for us, it’s about value. It’s about thinking about the present and also trying to get better in the future.”

Maybe he isn’t as tuned into what’s going on behind the scenes with the roster as he has claimed previously, or perhaps he didn’t want to dive into the details or reveal the conversations he had with teams about certain players to the public.

No matter what, the “I’m not sure” comment raised some concerns about the team’s future and decision-making, especially since they’ll be heading into a very critical offseason again next year. It could even be considered a more important offseason than this year, as they must prioritize building the right team around Drake Maye and fast.

Hopefully, that’s the plan, and (hopefully) Wolf has more to say on the matter than Mayo did, but it’s unlikely we hear from him about that any time soon.