Patriots may cut a $3.5M receiver — because “good” isn’t good enough.

Patriots Mailbag: Roster ‘weak links,’ surprise cut candidates and more

The roster-building portion of the Patriots’ offseason is (mostly) over. Now it’s time to decide who sticks.

The ramp-up to the 2025 season begins in earnest next Monday with the start of organized team activities (OTAs), followed by mandatory minicamp in early June. Those sessions will allow new head coach Mike Vrabel and his staff to evaluate the 90 players on the current roster and begin deciding who will be part of the final 53 in September.

Before OTAs kick off next week, let’s see what’s on your mind in a fresh Patriots mailbag.

After all the moves in free agency and the draft, what is the biggest team need and will they attempt to address it prior to the season? – @P8triot37

It’s a good question, Scott. The work on the roster is far from over. Any executive or coach will tell you that pursuit is ongoing. Especially for the Patriots, who are a year removed from having arguably the worst roster in the league.

But identifying “needs” at this stage? Kinda difficult. They could play a game tomorrow if they had to. That’s not to say every spot is ideally staffed. But it’s staffed. And even if it’s not, there are options to staff it.

I’ll mention one spot as a real question mark because I’m not sure who’s handling it, and I think it’s a critical one: left guard.

Offensive lines are what analytically-minded individuals might call “weak-link systems,” meaning that if there’s one weak portion of a multi-layered unit, that portion will be attacked by the opposition, which can render the rest of the unit’s performance ineffective.

The Patriots have options at left guard — rookie third-rounder Jared Wilson, Layden Robinson, Cole Strange, Wes Schweitzer and undrafted rookie Jack Conley among them — but until a starter emerges there, that looks like the weak link in front of Drake Maye.

Though upgrades have been made at other spots in the trenches offensively, the Patriots need to make sure they have left guard settled, because that position will help secure Maye’s space to step up in the pocket.

It’s also an especially important position, in my opinion, since the player manning it will be aligned next to a rookie left tackle in Will Campbell and a veteran center who was recently released by his last team in Garrett Bradbury. Having a capable body in there will be key.

How to address it? What would make the most sense would be to allow the players already on the roster to battle it out. Unfortunately for New England, there aren’t any obvious names in free agency to acquire at that spot, and high-end offensive line talent isn’t typically available just before the season.

Other positions that could use a little depth where there are some free-agent names available?

If they want another outside-the-numbers cornerback who loves to play man, Stephon Gilmore is still out there. On the edge, if they want some run-stuffing help, they could go for the recently-released Jadeveon Clowney, who was a Mike Vrabel pupil during their shared time in Houston.

Za’Darius Smith also is a free agent and could provide a little more juice on the edge as a pass-rusher.

I enjoyed the podcast on Efton Chism III, and I’m rooting for him. The WR room is interesting. Didn’t Kayshon Boutte do enough last season to be part of it? Is Mack Hollins a lock to making the roster? – @LereimTrygve

Hey, Trygve. If healthy, Mack Hollins is a lock to make it.

Follow the money: He got $3.5 million fully guaranteed from New England this offseason. They aren’t planning on flushing that down the drain. He’s already shown to be a high-energy leader in the building, providing some maturity to a room that could use it based on they way last year played out.

As far as Kayshon Boutte goes, he exceeded expectations last season with 43 catches and 589 yards. But that doesn’t lock him into a roster spot. Especially with a new offensive coordinator in place and three significant additions — Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams and Hollins — joining his position group.

If you’re asking me, DeMario Douglas and Kendrick Bourne seem like the more likely roster options than Boutte at the moment.

What do you see happening with the WR room? How many guys do you think you could justify keeping? Feels like there’s a few guys that are must keeps (Diggs, Williams, Pop). Could they keep more than 6 WRs on the roster? Especially if they like Chism, this feels like a tough call. – @ErnestLambert5

I think whether or not Stefon Diggs is healthy enough to start the year on the active roster will have a real say in how many of those young wideouts end up getting kept.

He looks like he’s moving well, but let’s assume for the moment that he’ll start the year on the Physically Unable to Perform list. And let’s assume that Hollins, Kyle Williams, Douglas and Bourne are the top four with Diggs out.

I think there’s a scenario where they could keep a couple more — two of Boutte, Ja’Lynn Polk and Chism, perhaps — but that might depend on who plays special teams. And of the other receivers on the roster, very few look like special teamers.

If Diggs is healthy, that eliminates one more roster spot for a young player. I would consider Polk, Boutte and Javon Baker squarely on the bubble right now simply based on the numbers and the track records of other players already on the roster.

How much do you think with a back like TreVeyon Henderson, who can accelerate quickly up to speed, and Drake Maye’s mobility, that Josh McDaniels might make the RPO run game part of the offense? If they are willing to risk running Maye more, it has potential to be explosive. – @qualitysmoke

I think adding more of an RPO element would make a lot of sense, QS, but it’s worth remembering that Mac Jones was coming from an RPO-heavy system at Alabama and then ran very few (15 total) as a rookie in 2021 with McDaniels calling the plays.

McDaniels has been very open about how he studied the game at all levels in the time he had available to him last year, so perhaps he’s opening himself up to those kinds of offensive looks. How McDaniels builds his offense around Maye’s skill set will be one of the most intriguing storylines to follow during open OTA and training camp practices this offseason.

Given the schedule if Vrabel and the rest of the staff can get good results out of what is at worst an average talent roster, how does this team not end up with 11-13 wins? They play bad teams and good matchups even if they are a Faux Playoff team they could win the AFC East – @DylanWarner24

While I agree that Patriots fans should be optimistic based on many of the additions their team has made this offseason, setting the bar at 11-13 wins feels… a little over the top!

I’m not saying it can’t happen. As a matter of fact, the Patriots are favored in 11 of their games as things stand right now, so maybe the low end of your range will end up looking good by December.

But assuming they’ll win all 11 of those — and maybe a couple more with games against the Bills, Bengals, Ravens and at Miami on the schedule — is assuming everything will go right for them under Vrabel in Year 1. Not impossible. But also not to be expected.