Patriots Mailbag: Crafting an Offseason Wishlist

While Vrabel was the obvious choice as HC, there may be some cause for consternation as far as Vrabel & Ryan Cowden as talent evaluators from their years together in Tennessee, including some potentially alarming red flags. During the Vrabel regime from 2018-23, the trio of GM Jon Robinson, Cowden & Vabel oversaw a checkered draft history at best & disastrous at its worst. Certainly, the Pats cannot afford such cloudy talent judgment just 1 year after Wolf’s choices of Polk, Wallace & Baker. Any cause for concern here heading toward April? -Art Cote

The 2019 draft stands out and is a big reason why they had success for a couple of years. It’s a difficult evaluation for me as well because a lot of the players they drafted who didn’t work out are players I liked coming out, many who landed on my annual big boards. For that reason I can’t entirely fault their drafts, sometimes they are simply crapshoots in that way. But still, there is some concern as there always is for me because the best teams are the teams that consistently draft well. Just look at three of the final four teams this year and what outstanding jobs they’ve done in recent years with their draft picks. The Commanders are a bit of an exception with their standout 2024 free agency class but of course, you’ve got to consider Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin and other Washington draft picks who have been a big part of their success this season. Hopefully, Vrabel and Cowden’s experience along with the scouting department makeover that Eliot Wolf began to implement last season will pay dividends and the Pats can kick things off under this new regime with a draft like the Titans 2019 class. -Mike Dussault

I assume they are all false, but there’s a lot of trade rumors about how to Patriots should trade Maye and keep Milton. This is complete idiocy and don’t know why people say this nonsense on TikTok, etc. So this leads to my next question of why Milton seems so valued now? He played one…