How Mike Vrabel Handled Question About Patriots Missing On Chris Godwin

The Patriots did solid work in the days leading up to the start of the NFL year, and they deserve to be celebrated for those improvements.

However, the misses in New England can’t be ignored.

The Patriots didn’t address two of their biggest needs at the outset of free agency. New England didn’t add a No. 1 wide receiver over that time period, nor did it bring in a standout left tackle to protect Drake Maye. The Patriots reportedly made concerted efforts to fill those voids, but they remain in search of solutions.

Chris Godwin could have been one of those fixes, but the star receiver reportedly turned down a very generous offer from New England to stay in Tampa Bay. Mike Vrabel on Thursday was asked about the Godwin pursuit, as well as the Patriots’ general mission to improve their receiving corps.

“I’m not going to talk about any players other than the ones that are right here and the ones currently on our football team,” Vrabel told reporters, per a team-provided video. “We’ll continue to target. Mack Hollins will be here tomorrow — he’s a wide receiver. We’ll continue to look at the wide receiver position as it relates through free agency. Explore every option with other teams and then get to the point where we’re looking at the draft. There’s a lot of time. I know everybody’s like, ‘It’s over at free agency.’ It’s never over.

“Zo (Alonzo Highsmith) keeps reminding me and everybody else that because he’s been around a lot of times. He’s like, ‘There are players that are going to become available whether it be now or in May or after training camp. I’ve seen it enough that there are going to be someone that’s currently not on our roster that’s going to help us win a game this year.'”

Time will tell how New England bolsters Maye’s supporting cast before the start of the signal-caller’s sophomore season. But a great place to start would be adding a highly accomplished wideout who was released Wednesday.