With the NFL Scouting Combine commencing in Indianapolis, with on-field workouts beginning on Thursday, it’s only natural to start thinking about how the Patriots will be approaching their offseason.
Will this be a year where Mike Vrabel, Ryan Cowden and Eliot Wolf get aggressive in the draft? Will the power structure at 1 Patriot Place be willing to move draft picks to bring in premium talent? Does it make sense to stockpile draft capital for the coming years as the top of their roster gets more expensive?
These are the types of questions that will be asked by fans and media alike leading up to the NFL Draft in late April, as New England is faced with an offseason that requires them to fill some obvious holes while simultaneously building a roster that will help them avoid the dreaded Super Bowl hangover that has regularly plagued losers of the big game for years and years.
Factoring in that the Patriots have somewhere between $40 million and $42.7 million in cap space, and there’s an argument to be made that Vrabel and his front office buddies should spend aggressively to maximize Drake Maye’s rookie contract window. They have the space, they have the draft picks (11 in 2026), and they have the needs.
With that said, WEEI’s Chris Scheim is skeptical that the organization will have that mentality as they build towards the 2026 season.
“If you're going to spend, the time to do it was last year and this year,” Scheim said on Mego and Scheim on Saturday. “Because the way it lines up - the contract that you pay for last year, and the contract that you pay for this year should expire as those homegrown guys’ contracts come due. Like, that's the whole point. You have to time it up properly.
“If you don't, then you've wasted your young quarterback’s rookie contract entirely, which is a disaster. That's why they should spend this offseason. They absolutely should. Whether it's for A.J. Brown or Mike Evans or Tyreek Hill or Brian Thomas Jr - whoever, whatever, it doesn't matter. They should spend on somebody. My issue is, I don't believe that they will.
“The Patriots just haven't operated in a manner in which they've spent a lot, especially in consecutive years. The last time they spent a ton of money was 2021. They went to the playoffs, got shellacked by the Bills, and then didn't spend for the next, what, two years? Three years?”
WEEI’s Meghan Ottolini is in lockstep with Scheim’s line of thinking, pointing to how attractive the situation is in New England at coach and quarterback compared to recent offseasons where that may have been one of the chief reasons why free agents weren’t lining up for a move to greater Foxborough.
“This is where I get a little frustrated,” said Mego. “Because on the one hand, we hear about the three-year increments, and how much you're going to spend or not spend in cash spending. And it's like - you spent a couple years truly being cellar dwellers, and it was reflected in your record, and you couldn't get anybody to come here.
“Like, you're much more in the catbird seat right now, where you're finally - at least a little bit - more attractive. We're not saying you're a 10, and everybody wants to come here because of Mike Vrabel and Drake Maye, but you are attractive. So why not take advantage of that? Because who knows how long this is gonna last?”
“You have to take advantage of it,” Scheim replied. “Because you're not going to be able to forever. You're seeing teams like the Kansas City Chiefs - they took advantage of it while they could, and now they've kind of had a bad season.
“Their offense wasn't great the year before, even though they were in the Super Bowl. And now, who knows what this next season is going to look like for them? They're resetting a lot of things. They just restructured Mahomes’ contract to free up $34 million in cap space. So they're trying to figure things out. The Rams had to do the same thing - they went to the Super Bowl in 2021, they had to reset some things. Matthew Stafford got hurt, so it kind of worked out, and now - boom, they're back to being one of the best teams in football.”
As the combine rolls along, we’ll hear from both Wolf and Vrabel, where both will be met with a bevy of questions from the assembled media on what their offseason plans will entail. Wolf is scheduled to meet with the media on Tuesday, while Vrabel’s podium session is scheduled for Wednesday.
Stay locked in to WEEI and WEEI.com for all the latest on the Patriots’ offseason.