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Even though the final game left a bitter taste in their mouths, the New England Patriots have plenty to feel good about coming out of the 2025 NFL season. Having won just eight total games the previous two seasons, they went 14-3 and advanced all the way to the playoffs in their first campaign under head coach Mike Vrabel.
The foundation has been set, now the goal is to further build the house on top. In order to do that, the Patriots vow to be proactive.
“We’re going to explore every avenue to try to improve the team,” said executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf at this week’s Scouting Combine. “We filled a lot of needs last year and we’re still building.”
Despite last year’s success, virtually no position on the team is immune to being impacted by this process. However, Vrabel and Wolf highlighted some particular areas when speaking about where to get better in 2026.
Offensive playmaking
“Obviously, having more playmakers is a good thing. So, we are looking at at the wide receiver position to try to improve depth and at the top as well,” said Wolf.
“But also, when you run your offense and you have one of these No. 1 receivers, the quarterback can get in trouble by trying to force the ball to that person. I know the way Josh [McDaniels] has built the offense out, you’re supposed to throw the ball to the open guy, and that’s what we were able to do this year. Obviously, there’s a hierarchy of players who play the most snaps on third down, things like that, but basically like the more playmakers we have, the better we’re going to be.”
Wolf remained fairly vague in his answer, but the message was still clear. The Patriots want to improve the supporting cast around third-year quarterback Drake Maye, and the wide receiver position is one they will take a long look at to do so.
That does not necessarily mean trading for A.J. Brown, as has been rumored for some time now. However, no stone will be left unturned in order to add to New England’s offensive fire power after it was exposed in the playoffs.
“We didn’t consistently do enough, I thought. There were times where we did and we weren’t able to sustain,” said Vrabel.
“We’ll have to go back and understand that to put yourself in those positions and ultimately win a championship, you’re going to have to beat good defenses, whether that’s at home or on the road or whatever that is. So, the consistency of it, the ability to create some X-plays — it’s hard to drive the ball 10 or 12 plays and you have to be better, improve the details and improve the execution. We’re all involved in it. From the coaching to the playing, it’s on us all. And that’ll be our challenge going forward. Yeah, we had success and there were some really good performances, but the margin for error when you get into January really shrinks.”
Kickoff return
Did you know that the first play of the Mike Vrabel tenure ended in a touchdown? Sure, it was preseason, but TreVeyon Henderson’s 100-yard runback of the opening kickoff against the Washington Commanders was still a positive start to the exhibition schedule.
For the Patriots, however, it was not a sign of things to come. Yes, they found some success early in the season running back kickoffs, but after Antonio Gibson sustained a season-ending ACL tear in Week 5, the team’s ability to return kicks was diminished.
Unsurprisingly, Eliot Wolf sees some potential to get better in this area.
“I think that’s an area that we could certainly improve,” he acknowledged. “I know TreVeyon had the one in the preseason and then, he was doing it a little bit. As we adjust and every team adjusts to the new rules, different things like our blocking needs to kick up a notch. I think part of that would be have an explosive returner that can be back there. Really, once Antonio got hurt that really set us back in that area. We’ll look to try to improve that as well.”
The Patriots finished the season ranked 19th in the NFL in kickoff return average, but their production dropped off after Gibson went down. He had averaged 28.5 yards per runback and scored a touchdown in Week 2; the six other returners used, averaged only 24.6 yards on their return attempts without finding the end zone.
Defensive edge
The Patriots defense was one of the most disruptive units in the NFL playoffs and capable to make life hard on opposing quarterbacks throughout the tournament. However, it had to rely on blitz packages and pressure looks to get the job done; unlike the eventual Super Bowl-winning Seahawks, New England was not able to consistently generate pressure with only four players.
The main reason for that was uneven play on the defensive edge. Unsurprisingly, it s something the Patriots know they need to improve in 2026.
Luckily for them, the draft offers plenty of viable options.
“I think this draft offers a lot of different depth at varying areas, edge being one of them,” said Eliot Wolf. “I think it’s a fairly deep class at that position that’s obviously an area of need for our team, so it matches up nicely.”
The Patriots are entering the offseason with questions on the edge that go beyond the 2025 performance. Sack leader K’Lavon Chaisson is an unrestricted free agent, while fellow starter Harold Landry had a limited impact down the stretch because of a nagging knee injury. Given those circumstances, the team is in the market for some edge help both in free agency and further down the line in the draft.
Team strength
The Patriots morphed into a physical football team in the playoffs, at least on one side of the ball. While their defense was playing bully ball in the tournament, the offense — as noted above — was unable to follow suit.
For the team’s head coach, one of the issues was team strength.
“We have to get stronger,” he said in Indianapolis. “When you have a young football team you have to understand that this is a grown-man sport. There are a bunch of big men out there playing this game, and so I want to make sure that our players understand how important their physical development is. They may be skilled, but we have some guys on our team — everybody’s at a different level, where one player is at 12 years into his career and another player is in his second year.”
Vrabel used a former teammate of his as an example of players actively getting stronger and transforming their body to maximize their abilities to compete.
“Here’s what I always say: nobody talks about Tom Brady in 2001 in 2000 and how he changed his body and he maximized his god-given genetic ability,” he recalled. “Everybody talks about TB12 and the pliability. They don’t talk about how hard he worked in the weight room and how he lifted with the tight ends and the linebackers and he squatted and he hanged clean and he did all those things to make his body the best that it could be for him to to play quarterback and to compete once his opportunity came.”
Tom Brady’s development is unparalleled in NFL history, but Vrabel’s point still stands. His team needs to put the work in if it wants to reach a championship level.