After finishing out the 2025 NFL season with one of the worst offensive line units in the NFL, it’s clear the New England Patriots need to make some changes up front to keep Drake Maye safe in his sophomore season.
Fortunately, the Patriots have an absolute boatload of cap space – $119.8 million, to be exact – and will be able to pretty much build their roster as they see fit before the 2025 NFL Draft.
One suggestion, presented by the fine folks over at Pro Football Focus, was to not just sign the best offensive tackle in free agency, which will likely be Ronnie Stanley if the Baltimore Ravens let him walk, but also grab the top guard, Trey Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs, to pair him up with, checking two names off their list to ensure Maye doesn’t fail for the same reasons as Mac Jones before him.
“As PFF’s Zoltan Buday pointed out when identifying the potential landing spots for the top offensive lineman in this free-agency cycle, the Patriots have the cap space ($119 million) to sign any lineman, and the need extends across the entire unit, so there is no reason they shouldn’t pursue the top options,” Buday wrote. “Adding both Trey Smith and Ronnie Stanley would check that box and give New England’s front-five a facelift overnight.”
Digging into Buday’s previous post, Stanley makes sense for the Patriots for a number of reasons, as New England has some serious needs to fill and the money to do some in the best possible way.
“The Patriots have the cap space to sign virtually any offensive lineman, and with needs across the entire unit, there’s no reason they shouldn’t pursue the best available tackle — Baltimore’s Ronnie Stanley. New England’s left tackle play was a glaring weakness in 2024, as the position group earned a cumulative 49.5 PFF overall grade (31st in the NFL) and a league-worst 44.5 PFF run-blocking grade,” Buday wrote.
“Though Stanley hasn’t been the same since his significant injury in 2020 and will turn 31 in March, he showed durability in 2024, logging a career-high 1,221 snaps. He also delivered arguably his best season since 2019, when he was the second-highest-graded tackle in the NFL. The Notre Dame product finished this past season with a 72.8 PFF overall grade and an 80.9 PFF pass-blocking grade—both of which would have been the highest marks on New England’s offensive line.”
Would it be lavish to add a pair of offensive tackles who could account for as much as $40.5 million combined based on PFF’s own projections? Yes, that is the kind of decision that either goes really well or really poorly, depending on how things shake out. But with the assets to pull it off and a massive need at both positions, signing Stanley and Smith could free up the Patriots to draft defensive tackle Mason Graham out of Michigan at pick four instead of settling for a lesser prospect like Will Campbell, so such a heavy free agency spending spree in March could have additional benefits in April.
The post Patriots encouraged to double-dip on top linemen in free agency appeared first on ClutchPoints.
