It's the NFL off-season, which means that hope springs eternal for all 32 NFL teams and fans want their squad to sign/trade for every relatively interesting name that even potentially becomes available for acquisition.
Latest on the list for everyone are Odell Beckham Jr., the 30-year-old one-time megastar receiver who is holding workouts to show he's finally healthy after his second career ACL surgery, and Eagles cornerback Darius Slay, 32, whom Philadelphia has apparently put on the trading block.
Oh, and while we're at it, the Patriots should also sign 32-year-old veteran receiver Adam Thielen -- but only if trading away a second-round pick for 30-year-old DeAndre Hopkins doesn't work out. Or maybe you should just get both. AND throw OBJ in there for good measure.
That's right: don't forget about New England needing to cut a deal for Jalen Ramsey now that the Rams are apparently in yard-sale mode. Or about how Bill Belichick is going to sign Orlando Brown Jr. to a $20 million-per-year deal because Bill coached Brown's dad about 30 years ago.
On one hand: sure, a fan can dream, right? Who wouldn't want their team to go crazy and grab a bunch of good players and get closer to competing for a Super Bowl? Isn't that what rookie quarterback contracts are for?!
Plus, not all of those moves are completely off the table -- even if almost all of them are sliding off and dangling by the most precarious of credulity threads.
Here's the problem -- and it's not just that the Patriots don't have $86 million to spend this season the way the Chicago Bears do.
It's about the reality of what the Patriots are right now and what actually moves the needle toward a title.
Yes, the Patriots do need cornerbacks, receivers and an offensive tackle for this coming season.
But do they need these particular ones -- most of whom are 30-plus and have their best football behind them? What is signing Thielen to a short-term deal going to meaningfully do for your team in 2023?
As exciting as the idea of Beckham is, he's probably not long for professional football the way his legs have been going. He may not even make it through a season if you sign him.
At some point, don't you need to get and develop your own playmaker instead of this revolving door of paying for guys who did their best work elsewhere?
Slay is a really good player that might actually be worth a short-term deal, but he's not likely to want to take a discount to come to New England -- a team that's not ready to compete for a Super Bowl. Plus, again, there's the fact that he's 32, and you're paying for future performance, not the past.
Brown makes much more sense to bring in given he's only 26 and still has some years ahead of him. Given how important left tackle is, paying him top of the market (while still an overpay) is a worthwhile investment.
But that move would also eat up almost all of the projected cap space you have this year and necessitate more roster cuts to make it happen -- all for an "okay" rather than "great" tackle. So while the Patriots should consider that move, it would have significant consequences, and the team still isn't winning a Super Bowl just based off of that.
None of this is to say the Patriots should just sit on their hands in free agency and do nothing. That's not really an option; this team needs to improve. Plus, New England has two more cheap years of Mac Jones with which to create a great all-around roster around him.
But we should demand a bit more from the Patriots than just making eyes at any 30-and-over veteran hitting the market that we've heard of before. Sure, New England needs established players. But it also needs to make sure there's a coherent plan for getting the right ones.
Throwing money around all over the place is how you get years like 2021, where you hit on a few players, miss on a bunch more and still don't win a playoff game while screwing yourself for the following year.
We don't want that again, do we?