New England’s season ended in a Super Bowl loss, but it also ended with something the franchise hasn’t had in a while, with clarity at quarterback. Drake Maye looks like the real thing, and that has a way of speeding up every other roster decision. That urgency showed up immediately in Mike Vrabel’s message once Super Bowl LX ended, as he met players in the tunnel on the way back to the locker room and kept repeating the same line: they “gotta be pissed together,” a pointed reminder that the loss belongs to everyone, and that the only acceptable response is to carry it into the offseason as fuel.
The Patriots also enter the offseason with a very specific shopping list.
Bleacher Report pegged their biggest needs as edge rusher, wide receiver, and offensive tackle, then attached three trade targets that would instantly jolt the entire league’s offseason market. Do the Patriots truly need them to make a better season?
Is A.J Brown the perfect name for the Pats?
A.J. Brown is the cleanest swing for the Pats. The premise behind the rumor cycle is that Philadelphia could at least entertain offers, and that the relationship piece is a real part of the chatter. Reports said that Patriots targets section explicitly cites ESPN insider Jeremy Fowler’s notes that there’s a belief around the league Brown could be on the move because of a deteriorating relationship with the Eagles.
If that door is even cracked, New England is an obvious suitor. Brown would immediately become a true No. 1 receiver for Maye, the kind of physical, high-volume threat who makes an offense less fragile week to week.
Brown is a player who changes third downs, changes red-zone play calling, and changes how defenses can allocate bracket coverage. He could also change the way a young quarterback plays, because it gives him a “solve” against pressure looks, a place to put the ball when the play breaks down, and the coverage is muddy.
Brown's availability would spike the entire receiver market, force contenders to weigh first-round pick prices, and push other teams to decide whether they’re buying, selling, or holding their own wideouts.
It would also put the Eagles under an unforgiving spotlight, because trading a player like Brown is never just a transaction.
Maxx Crosby could be a star on the Patriots team
Maxx Crosby is the defensive version of that same earthquake. The Patriots’ needs list puts edge rusher right at the top, and Crosby is the name that keeps hovering over the league like a storm cloud for almost every team. CBS Sports also published a set of mock trades for Crosby that underscores the scale of what it would take.
For New England, Crosby is a structural fix. Edge pressure changes everything: it shortens quarterback time-to-throw, and it makes coverage look better than it is. It’s the closest thing the sport has to a cheat code that isn’t dependent on perfect timing. A great pass rusher can wreck a game even when the offense has a good plan.
That’s why Crosby is the kind of trade that would shake up the entire offseason. The Patriots are also one of the few franchises that could justify making that kind of swing without destroying the rest of the roster plan.
A young quarterback timeline gives you room to invest aggressively in premium positions because they’re not burning cap space at QB the way veteran-led teams are. If New England sees Maye as the guy, it creates the logic for a Crosby push.
And recently, Maxx Crosby also weighed in on some of the panic swirling around New England’s offensive line, specifically the chatter about shifting rookie Will Campbell away from left tackle after an uneven year that ended painfully in Super Bowl LX. Crosby urged patience, arguing the answer isn’t an immediate position change, but refinement. He pointed to Campbell’s technique and confidence as the real fixes, and warned that moving him inside doesn’t solve the core problem of surviving on an island when “you’re thrown into the fire” against elite rushers every week.
Deonte Banks: A good surprise?
Then there’s Deonte Banks, the type of target that feels less glamorous than Brown or Crosby but can be just as disruptive to a team’s blueprint. The broader trade-candidate conversation around Banks has also been fueled by performance and trajectory.
That’s precisely why he fits a classic Patriots lane: buy low on a young player, put him in a more stable structure, and see if the player becomes something else entirely.
If New England believes its environment can rehabilitate the talent, Banks becomes a high-upside move that can reshape the defense without the sticker shock of chasing the league’s most expensive veteran corners. Such a move would also fit the modern reality that defense is once again about matchups. The AFC is loaded with quarterbacks and speed, and the only way to survive a playoff run is to have corners who can hold up long enough for the rush to get home. That’s why edge and corner talk often move together.
Of course, blockbuster trades don’t happen in a vacuum. That’s where Pats' outgoing side enters the picture, even if only as background context. There’s also a timing element that makes this offseason feel like it could move fast.
When a team comes off a Super Bowl, they need to stay on top. The Patriots know exactly what that looks like historically, and if New England wants to keep its edge, it can’t wait for the market to come to it.
That’s the shape of the offseason if they decide to act like a team that was just in the Super Bowl and now wants to finish the job. Any one of those acquisitions would change how the rest of the league behaves, too. Foxborough and Mike Vrael need to understand that the window is open right now, and the Patriots need to return to what they were once. This will truly happen again soon?
