Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Swing Big: New England Patriots Must Aggressively Add Talent This Offseason

Episode Date: February 12, 2026

New England Patriots face a defining offseason as they prepare to swing big with over $40 million in cap space and 11 draft picks. Can Mike Vrabel and Eliot Wolf capitalize on Drake Maye’s affordable rookie contract and fill critical needs at wide receiver, edge, and right tackle before ballooning quarterback salaries limit their options?Nick Cattles breaks down the Patriots’ roster questions, spotlighting Stefon Diggs’ off-field issues, Kayshon Boutte’s contract status, and Pop Douglas’ fit in Josh McDaniels’ offense. With the Super Bowl run leaving the staff short on prep time, Nick Cattles examines the urgency to quickly reshape the depth chart, improve draft returns from recent years, and solidify New England’s spot atop the AFC. Will the Pats’ front office connections and last year’s momentum be enough to deliver another successful offseason?Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPatriots?sid=YouTubeLocked On NFL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft & More🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNFL#patriots #newenglandpatriotsEverydayer ClubIf you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclubSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!TurboTaxFor a limited time, you can have your taxes done by a local TurboTax expert for just $150 — all in, if a TurboTax expert didn’t file for you last year. Just file by February 28.  Visit http://TurboTax.com/local to book your appointment today.FanDuelThe Winter Games are on. And there’s no better way to follow them than with a bet on FanDuel. FanDuel - Play your game.IndeedListeners of this show get a $75 Sponsored Job Credit to help give your job the premium placement it deserves at http://Indeed.com/lockedonnfl.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's the off season, and one thing is crystal clear. The Pats need to take some big swings to take the next step as an organization. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots. Your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts Network, your team every day. What's happening in? I am Nick Cattels, your host, born and raised in New England.

I've been covering the Pats for the past 16 years. also the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown Patriots, my peeps, part of the lockdown podcast network. Now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. On today's show, the offseason comes at you fast when you make it to a Super Bowl and the Pats need to be prepared. Also, even though the wide receiver room exceeded all expectations, it remains full of questions heading into this important offseason. But first, the Pats need to take some hacks.

The Patriots have over $40 million in cap space as they get ready for free agency. Now, of course, you can create more space as well. But right now, they're at about $41, $42 million in space. They also have 11 draft picks at their disposal. In my overall offseason plan, if I were Mike Rable, I would be walking into the room telling my front office, telling my scouting department, telling everybody that can hear the sound of my voice. We're going to take some big swings. We're going to take some big swings this off season without being reckless. You can take big time hacks without being reckless. That's what I would do if I were the Patriots.

I would be looking at making some significant additions to this football team over the next. couple of months. Now why? Why would I be aggressive? Why would I be taking these big swings? Let's start with the quarterback. Drake May is combined over the next two years, 2026, 2027, his combined cap hit is $21.6 million. Drake May is going to make less money the next two years than Milton Williams makes. When your quarterback is still on his rookie contract, you have to take advantage of that. May is extension eligible after next season because once you finish three years in the league,

you can then be extended. Of course, the Patriots will have an option that they have to pick up for year five of that rookie deal, but after 2026, May can sit down with Elliot Wolf and whoever else is working on contracts at that point. He can sit down, he can have that conversation, he can be extended.

But for the next couple of, years, the next few years, he's on that rookie deal. You still have year three, year four, and year five on that deal. And the next two years, less than 22 million combined of your cap is going to your quarterback who just finished as the runner up to the MVP. We know he wasn't very good in the postseason. We've talked about it. We're done with it. Rareview mirror. We're looking forward. And so you've got a guy at the most important position who finished second and MVP voting by a total of what, five, I think it was five points, one first place vote short of what Matthew Stafford got. To give you an idea, Dak Prescott right now is making the most money at the quarterback

position when you go by average annual value, 60 million a year. So when you get to those negotiations with May after next season, it's not crazy to believe that your quarterback is going to be making $65 to $70 million on the average annual value starting in 2029. You've got to get ready for that. But until you get to that point, before you have to pay that huge truckload of money to your franchise quarterback, you take advantage. You take advantage by peppering this roster with a number of good players. You take advantage by being aggressive and going out for some of those bigger names that we will talk about over the next couple of weeks. Strike now.

Strike now to surround your quarterback because once he's making that big fat dough in a few years, you're not going to be capable of doing that consistently. So you've got to make those types of decisions this off season. Swing big. You don't have to get reckless, but swing big. Another reason why you have to swing big is because you stunk at the draft in 2022, 2022, 2023, somewhat 2024. When you look at those three drafts, the 2022 NFL draft, you have one player that

remains, Marcus Jones. That's it. 2023, you could certainly feel a little bit better about because you've got Christian Gonzalez, stud. You've got Kashon Booty, had a good year. Pop Douglas chipped in. Bryce Barringer. But when you start to look at it, when you look at that 23 draft class, and you start to scrutinize it a little bit more, there's no question about Christian Gonzalez,

but you got Marte Mapu. I would say he's likely gone. Kishan Bouti, good deal. Bryce Barringer, punter competition, maybe. He was better in the Super Bowl, but he was atrocious in the AFC championship game. He was inconsistent all year long. I think you bring in competition and Bryce Barringer might lose his job for 2026. We'll see. He's got to win that competition. And as far as Pop Douglas goes, we have mentioned this before, his fit within the offense. Is he really a fit with this offense? And you've got some other guys that can play the slot position, which we will talk about in the next segment.

So, yeah, it looks great. You've got five guys from that draft in 2023, but you might only have two by the beginning of the 2026 season. And then we know what happened in 2024. You've got Drake May. You've got Caden Wallace, who didn't play a. all this year but stayed on the roster and you've got marcellus dial who will be returning from an ACL injury so right now you have nine players from the 22 23 and 24 drafts you're averaging three players per draft but in reality you might end up with all of three or four players

from those three drafts you could end up at best with four or five players from those three drafts. When you're averaging barely more than one human being per draft through a three-year period, you got some problems. You got to make that up with some talent on the back end. Swing big. Reason number three, you're going to be the hunted. No longer will the Patriots be a surprise. No longer will they be a likable team. They were likable until they got to the Super Bowl, it feels like. But you will be hunted. You are the champions of the AFC. Your schedule. is freaking loaded. And you are likely going to have

four or five big time games as far as primetime, internationally, maybe even a holiday game. But you are going to be hunted all year long. Teams are going to go out of their way to prove that this year was a flash in the pan. It was an anomaly and you were overrated all year long.

They want to knock you off the pedestal. And so if you're going to be the hunted, you've got to have good talent to great talent to respond. You can't just sit there and be picked apart. Swing big. Finally, you've got needs in premier spots. Wide receiver one. Edge, we talked about it on yesterday's episode.

You're aging out at other positions. Right tackle. Morgan Moses will be 35. Robert Spillane getting to 30. Carlton Davis, getting to 30. getting to 30. I mean, you've got a number of positions across the field, both sides of the football, that need addressing. And don't do it lightly. Walk in and swing big. You can't be slow on the trigger. You've got to be aggressive, you've got to think big, and you've got to execute. You just got to the

Super Bowl. Congratulations. Now the focus, even Mike Vrable would tell you, is all about 2026. And you've got to set the tone and you set that tone by making the statement right now. Big swings. We're taking some big swings. If the Pat's offense wants to improve from the postseason and help Drake May improve as well, they need to figure out their wide receiver room. We'll talk about that next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Hey, hey, hey, if you love this pod, but you hate interruptions, check out the Everydayer Club. Talking ad-free, talking Discord access, and more. Go to lockdown patriots.com, or you can check the link in the show notes to learn even more. And don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. We are going to be here every day looking at this off season, Monday through Friday. A lot to get to. A lot to get to. I can't wait to break all of this down, to look at this roster, talk about,

the improvements that we're going to see. Can't wait for it. So stick with us and help us out. Click that thumbs up if you're watching on YouTube. Don't forget to comment. Don't forget to subscribe. So on yesterday's show, we talked about the Patriots not having a true alpha number one receiver.

But I want to look at the rest of the room because I find the wide receiver room to be compelling this off season. I think you still have a number of questions in that room. as you get ready for 2026. Let's start with Stefan Diggs. You have to begin with the off-the-field allegations. What is going to come of those off-field allegations? I don't know.

That could absolutely impact Diggs' future with this franchise. If there is any doubt, if Diggs is found guilty in any way, if we find out even more details about what happened on that night. If Diggs is in trouble off the field, that changes all of the math. So the first thing is, let's see what happens with those off the field allegations. Maybe he is cleared. Maybe a settlement is taken care of. I don't know.

But that's the first thing we've got to look at in that room. Is Stefan Diggs actually going to be available to you? He, of course, is 32 years old. and the last time I checked, we don't get younger, unfortunately. And as good as he was this year and as much as he exceeded expectations, would you be willing to bet your life on Diggs being incredibly productive next year? I think he could be productive, but the decline has to hit at some point. And don't forget, if you look at his contract, we always look at the big numbers,

it's a lot of funny money. He's not guaranteed a whole heck of a lot of money. And my guess is after what he did this year, my guess is he's going to be looking for a contract restructuring. So if you want to stick with digs, you're likely going to have to marry him for the next couple years. You're going to have to give him more money guaranteed. So let's keep an eye on the off-to-field allegations. Let's keep an eye on the money and whether or not we start to hear about restructuring and all of that. I would imagine we will hear that.

I don't think Stefan Diggs is going to walk into next season if he is cleared. I don't think he's walking into next season with this same exact contract, which could impact his future. Kisham Booty, he's an interesting guy, right? At the beginning of the year, it felt like, woo boy, he's a no doubt number two receiver. We talked about it on the podcast. And then he was kind of up and down.

I mean, he makes big plays, makes big plays. He makes big plays in the playoffs. Didn't do much in the Super Bowl. I don't think that was all of his fault. But Kishan Booty is extension eligible. What do you do with him? I would think the Patriots will try to get a deal done. I don't think he's going to be super expensive.

But really, what is his role? If you're looking towards the future like we are now, what is Booty's role with this offense? Is he a 2? Is he a 2B, 2B slash 3A? I think he's somewhere between there, right? I think he's somewhere between a number two and a number three receiver at the NFL level. So can you make the money work?

Then we got Mack Hollins. Mac Hollins turns 33 years old in September, much like I just said about Diggs. Unfortunately, we don't get younger. And there are not a lot of receivers that continue to be productive in their early to mid-30s. Shout out to Matt Collins. Seemingly a great teammate was much more productive than I thought he would be on the field. Obviously, one of the only guys that made plays for that offense in the Super Bowl against Seattle.

So Hollins, he's a lot of fun and he's good. He's a good, solid receiver. But he's turning 33 in September. You've got one year left on his contract. You're going to keep him around? one year left, you keep them here for a year? Or do you start to kind of look around and say, we can upgrade if it was between Hollins and Booty?

Who would you pick? These are the interesting conversations that we've got to have. How about Pop Douglas? I mentioned during the last segment about Douglas's fit. And there's a big question mark, right? I don't think he's a great fit for the Josh McDaniel's offense because of his frame, his lack of run blocking, but you can also say, hey, he tried.

He gave effort when he was blocking. He wasn't completely inept. And frankly, he did a pretty good job of getting open in some big games. And I thought he was open multiple times in the Super Bowl, but your quarterback missed them. Would this conversation feel different if Drake May was more accurate against Seattle and Douglas ended up having two or three bigger plays? I don't know, because we can't forget you have Efton Chisholm awaiting.

And it feels like as far as system goes, it feels like Efton Chisholm would be a better fit for what Josh McDaniels likes to do in his offense than Pop Douglas would be. And are you really going to carry, you know, three guys who play the slot? Stefan Diggs at this point, slot receiver. Pop Douglas, mostly a slot guy. And you look at Chisham, and he's going to be mostly a slot. slot guy. Can you really afford to carry three of those cats? Find it unlikely. And then you got Kyle Williams, the guy you drafted this year and somebody who showed flashes, but they were only

flashes. I have no idea what kind of step forward or what kind of leap Kyle Williams is going to make in 26. I wouldn't be blown away if he ended up being a number two receiver. I wouldn't be blown away if he goes out there in camp in a few months, and he's just making guys look silly at the line of scrimmage, and he's making plays downfield. I would not be surprised. I mean, he made some big-time catches this year, some difficult catches.

But do you bank on it? I'm at the point where I got to see it to believe it. Can he bring the consistency? He's got all the potential in the world, and I do feel like he's going to be at least a good receiver in the NFL. But how good? Can he get to that number two spot? Or is he going to be perpetually spoken about as a three or a four guy in an offense?

It just feels when you look at this wide receiver room overall, and I felt this way, you know, heading into the season, and I feel this way after watching this entire season play out. We watched a lot of football this year. Lots and lots of football, thankfully. It feels like everyone is off by like one slot. And what I mean by that is you don't have your true. alpha wide receiver one.

That's missing. Diggs is that guy right now. But Diggs really, I think, is a two. And again, as he ages, at best, he's going to be a number two receiver. And he's a guy that's going to perform out of the slot for the most part. So you have like your slot guy who's in his 30s coming off the ACL acting as your number one. That's got to change for 2026.

But if you could slide everybody down one, it feels better, right? Like if you got your number one wide receiver alpha, if you got your alpha at that position and you're set. And then you have Stefan Diggs as your second receiver in the slot. Then you've got Kishon Booty who slides in very nicely as the number three receiver. And then you've got Williams and Hollins trying to battle it out for that fourth receiver spot. If Williams makes a leap, maybe Williams leaps over Booty. And then maybe Williams is your third.

third receiver. But it just feels like, you know, booty, Kyle Williams, Mac Hollins, in any order you want to put those guys, they really feel like as of right now what you could bank on, number three to number five receivers. And then you would have Chisholm or Pop as your sixth guy, Diggs again is your number two guy coming out of the slot. And then you've got the alpha who is getting all sorts of the attention. That's how it feels like it should slot into place for next year. This room is interesting because you could argue booty will be better. You could argue that Douglas could be better.

You'll argue that Chisholm will be better. Again, Kyle Williams could make a big year two jump. I don't want to hold them down. So it's a very compelling and intriguing room to keep an eye on over the next few months. From Super Bowl 60 to mapping out an offseason in like 72 hours. That's next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. The Winter Games are officially here.

And if you're anything like us, you're locking in for events you only get to see on the biggest stage every four years. And that's why following the Winter Games on Fandul, it just makes sense. From metal counts to individual events to finding your angle on the sports you care about most, Fandul gives you more ways to stay connected to the action. the drama of curling matches that start slow and somehow get intense fast. I was watching that mixed doubles. Oh boy. Speed skating races decided by inches hockey games that feel different right from the opening faceoff.

I mean, I'm talking even niche events becoming must watch when you're fully locked into the competition. Fandul keeps the entire Olympic experience engaging from start to finish. The winter games, they are on. And there's no better way to follow them than with Fandul. Fandul, play your game. Life comes at you fast. Life comes at you fast. Let's just kind of absorb this for a minute because I know we just watched Super Bowl 60 on Sunday.

It was emotional. It stunk. It was a miserable experience. But if you think about this in a way, Super Bowl Sunday was just a few days ago. But now we look forward. And the combine in Indianapolis is less than two weeks away. Free agency is about a month away on the calendar. The NFL draft is, you know, just, I mean, less than just about two, two and a half months away, right?

In late April. I mean, things have to turn around very quickly for the Patriots. It's great getting to the Super Bowl, but it is a tremendous challenge to your off season because you just walked off the field. You're still processing what happened. And now you've got to get ready for the combine in less than two weeks. Now you've got to get ready for free agency in about a month.

And now you've got to get ready for the draft two, two and a half months away. Life comes at you fast. And so there's going to be pressure on Mike Vrable and his coaching staff because those guys are playing catch up. they weren't watching college film during the season. They had not been watching college film over the past 18 to 20 weeks or so. I mean, this is a coaching staff. Now, maybe, maybe you looked at it every once in a while.

Maybe you snuck some in during the by week, but very unlikely. So you're playing catch up. Vrabel's playing catch up, Josh McDaniels, Terrell Williams, Zach Corr, all of these guys. They're playing catch up. They're going to have to talk to the scouting department, the front office. They're going to have to start watching film on these players. And they're well behind.

I mean, Vrable was introduced on January 13th of 2025. So he is a month behind. There's the story of after his introductory press conference, he walked in and started talking to the front office and the scouts. He walked in right away. But that was, you know, middle of January. Now you're looking at the middle of the middle of February. You've got to get caught up very quickly. The old Bill Belichick, no days off for any of

these guys. They have to turn around so fast and figure out who's going to be available, who they like, who they don't like, get with the scouting department. There's a lot of work to be done in a shortened amount of time. And so you've got to be efficient with your time. And it goes back to yesterday's episode when I talked about the fact that the Patriots, they only have six or seven unrestricted free agents, that should help them. Because if they can efficiently get through those decisions and just get to the next thing, that will help. But they are a month behind, at least a month behind, compared to last year.

So the good and the bad, you make a deep run, you get to the Super Bowl, awesome. But now you're behind the eight ball when it comes to all of your preparation for this upcoming offseason. And as we've discussed the last two shows, this is a critical offseason for this franchise. And that's why when I look back at last year, I give Elliott Wolf some credit. I know a lot of people just give all the credit to Mike Vrable or John Stretch Stryker or Ryan Cowden. And I disagree with that. Those guys, of course, deserve credit.

And of course, Mike Vrable has the final say. But the fact is, a lot of that hay was already in the barn when Vrable got hired last year. That's the facts. As Brad Stevens would say, facts. right so Elliot wolf his scouting department all of that work had been done and yes they've been doing the same thing so the scouting department in the front office they're not behind but they could go to the coaching staff much earlier than this year and say this is what we think and these are the guys and that conversation started a month prior to when it's starting this time around

but I give Elliott wolf a lot of credit because he was the dude that started the foundation to the offseason last year. He was the one that did a lot of the work. Mike Vrable's not doing the work when he's not with the organization yet. And I can guarantee you this. Vrable wasn't doing any work regarding the college game

or free agency while he's coaching the football team. So that's why guys like Elliot Wolf and Ryan Cowden, Alonzo Highsmith, that's why they have big impact. That's why they are crucial to the operation. Vrable and Stretch because Stretch, remember, he's doing about a million different things week to week to week in season. Vrable and Stryker, they don't have the time to devote to it.

So all the background work, all the evaluations, the watching of the tape, going to these college games, going to pro games, and laying this information out for Vrable and Stryker and the coaching staff to absorb over the next week or so. I mean, that's a significant impact to the operation. And now Stretch, he has to take the, you know, kind of quasi football coach hat off somewhat. And now he's going to go to the personnel side. He's going to get away from the whole challenges and football strategy and jump in, I'm sure, with the scouts. So there's a lot of work to be done.

And we should not overlook the contributions, the important contributions of Cowden or Highsmith or Wolf. Now, here's the good news. You have stronger relationships. Last year, you were starting from scratch. Vrable had never worked with Wolf. Wolf had never worked with Vrable. Cowden was coming in from the Giants organization. So he had to integrate himself into the front office and meet the scouts.

So you were dealing with all sorts of new relationships. You were dealing with a new grading system. Now you should know that grading system like the back of your hand. So you've got stronger relationships. ships. You've got a better understanding of the process and how you grade and evaluate these players now. And you've got documented success. That makes me feel good. I mean, this past off season was great. Now, is this offseason going to be as good as last off season? Or are the Patriots going to hit for that high average that they hit? I'm not so sure. Sometimes these

things go up and down. They're a little bit of a roller coaster. But I do have trust and I do have confidence in Vravel and Stryker and Wolf and Cowden and Highsmith and other guys in that front office and scouting department. I have confidence that they'll be able to figure it out and they'll make a number of really good decisions. They have one year on the resume together and it was a very good season. So that's the good news. The good news is your relationships are stronger.

You know the process. You've got a handle on the process. You know, the success is there. your foundation has already been started so you're not starting from scratch like you pretty much had to do last year. I mean, so much roster turnover. There's not going to be that much turnover this offseason. And if you are Wolf or Cowden or Highsmith or anybody in the scouting department, you now have a full understanding.

And Cowden did because he worked with Vrable and Tennessee. But all those other guys that worked with Vrable for the first time over the last year, You know, now you're walking into this process with a full understanding of, A, your own roster, and B, the types of players that your head coach wants on the team and the types of players that your staff want on the team. So all year long, you know, as you're doing the scouting and evaluating and you're having these conversations away from the coaching staff, all year long, you have a much, much better understanding of what you're looking for. It's not a needle in a haystack. You now know what Vrable

wants. So that should also make the process more efficient. But it is a big time challenge to quickly turn around like this and get all the ducks in a row and start making some noise in the offseason. But I think these guys will be able to get the job done. That wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being in Every Dayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C. Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel, hit that like button and subscribe. And if you're looking for a gift for someone, make it easy. Check out the Everydayer Club. Add free episodes of this show, exclusive Discord Server access, and more. Subscriptions can be gifted through lockdownpatriots.com. Have a great day,

and we will see you tomorrow.