Mike Vrabel won’t make the same ill-fated “burn some cash” declaration that his predecessor did, but he expects to be able to make moves in free agency this offseason.
The Patriots Hall of Famer was installed as the team’s head coach following the firing of Jerod Mayo after one season. This is a pivotal offseason for the Patriots, who have a league-leading $120,541,728 in cap space this offseason, according to Over the Cap. Holes abound on the Patriots roster, meaning shrewd moves in both free agency and the draft are imperative to a group seriously lacking in talent at present -- largely the result of missteps in both areas in recent years.
The Patriots also had a league-leading amount of cap space last offseason, but most of their spending was concentrated on retaining players who were pending free agents. Their external additions were exclusively budget adds, most of whom made minimal impact in 2024.
Vrabel said Tuesday in his first appearance on The Greg Hill Show that he has no concerns about their ability to spend in free agency.
"Yeah, I’m comfortable that Eliot (Wolf) and I are going to be able to find ways to add productive players, great people to this football team," Vrabel said. "That’s through the draft, that’s through free agency – so I’m confident that we’ll be able to have the resources that we need to go sign players within a limit.
“We understand that free agency isn't the only answer, it’s not 100 percent, as you all know, but it’s about adding the right players that we feel like can help the team and that we’re comfortable with. Sometimes if you don’t know him, you also don’t know what you’re going to get.”
Indeed, having a ton of cap space doesn’t necessarily equate to a great offseason. Look no further than the 2021 free agent class, when the Patriots spent widely on players like Jonnu Smith, Nelson Agholor, and Hunter Henry, only to not know how to use them effectively in the offense.
Getting premier free agents though might be a problem in and of itself. The Patriots are coming off a miserable 2024 season, and Drake Maye is one of the few draws to New England right now. That doesn’t mean players can’t be sold on a long-term vision, and certainly the addition of someone with Vrabel’s resume should help.
Vrabel, for his part, has a vision on how to attract free agents.
“I think that we have to make it a destination. I’ll tell you a story about free agency when I got to Houston. They had natural grass in their dome, and they’d wheel it out and they’d cut it into sections. I was like this is unique, what’s this? And they were like ‘Well, we thought that free agents would want to play on natural grass.' I said the only thing free agents care about is green and it’s not natural grass.
“So, there are two forms of free agency. One is trying to go out and trying to maximize your earning potential and go for the top dollar, and we see that early on in free agency the first couple of days, maybe the first week. Then, after that, I try to tell players it comes down to opportunity. If you want the best opportunity to go and be able to produce and contribute, then that’s going to lead then to the next form of free agency where then you can take advantage of the system in a year or two whenever you sign with us.
“I was one of those players that coming from Pittsburgh, signing here was about the opportunity. It wasn't about the dollars, that turned into being able to have those types of contracts as my career went on and the production increased and all those other things. So, we’re going to identify players at all different levels, and it’s a process putting it all together.”