Should Patriots approach NFL free agency like Commanders did in 2024? originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The NFL is a copycat league.
Whenever a proven formula emerges, you can bet teams will try to copy it and see if they can yield similar results.
One team that recently showed tremendous progress in a short amount of time was the 2024 Washington Commanders. They entered NFL free agency last March with a ton of salary cap space, but instead of targeting one or two high-priced players, they opted to sign a bunch of good, dependable players who didn’t have the same upside but still upgraded the roster at their respective positions.
And by filling a lot of their roster needs through free agency, the Commanders didn’t go into the 2024 NFL Draft needing to reach for any one position. They could take the best player available with most of their picks.
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Could the Patriots use a similar approach to free agency next month?
“You want to at least be passable at (most) positions, and I think the way you do that is you do what the Commanders did last year. You go look for guys who maybe you have some background with, who are sure things, the kind of middle-of-the-fairway free agents,” The MMQB’s Albert Breer suggested on the latest episode of NBC Sports Boston’s Next Pats Podcast with host Phil Perry.
“Those guys weren’t franchise-altering players, but it accomplished what (Mike) Vrabel was talking about (during the Scouting Combine) whereas when (the Commanders) got to the draft, they didn’t really have to force it. They didn’t have to force a need with all of those picks they had last year, and it put them in a position where they could be competitive pretty quickly.
“And then, obviously, the quarterback played at an unbelievable level and took a team that was probably a .500 or worse roster and got them to 12 wins.”
Given the Patriots’ abundance of roster needs to address during the offseason, you could make a case that spending on a bunch of guys instead of splurging on a couple makes the most sense.
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport had a similar take when he joined the Next Pats Podcast during Super Bowl week in New Orleans.
“Well, now they’ve got a quarterback. Are they a great team? No, they’re probably still a year away,” Rapoport said. “Although, as we’ve learned from the Commanders, if you’ve got a guy and you surround him with a really good group of middle-class free agents, you can make your roster better quickly. I think it’ll be a better spot in free agency.
“I think they’ll spend. They have to spend. But I don’t know if it’ll be top, top, top of the market. I could sort of see if it was like the Commanders last year where you’re like, ‘We have so many holes to fill; we’re going to spend $10 million (each) on like six guys,’ instead of $60 million on two guys.”
The good news for the Patriots is that, with almost $130 million in salary cap space (easily the most in the league), they could spend big on a few players and still make other strong additions.
Also in this episode:
Does Eliot Wolf really have final say?
Assessing how much money the Patriots will spend in free agency
Could the Patriots really land Travis Hunter at 4th overall?
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