This AFC Team’s Free Agency Could Lead To Judgements Of Patriots

The New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans entered the 2024 offseason with a few similarities.

Both the Patriots (Jerod Mayo) and Titans (Brian Callahan) have first-year head coaches. Thus, both are in the rebuilding stages. Both also had a ton of cap space at the start of the league year. And both the Patriots, who have the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, and Titans (Will Levis) could start quarterbacks on rookie contracts come September.

However, despite those similarities, the two organizations took much different approaches in free agency.

The Patriots opted to retain some of their own. And while offensive tackle Mike Onwenu received a well-deserved payday, the majority of New England’s re-signings were on team-friendly deals. None of the external signings the Patriots made — Jacoby Brissett, K.J. Osborn, Antonio Gibson — qualified as big-money signings either.

Instead, New England preached drafting and developing. It’s fair to think the Patriots could have done more to better the 2024 roster and still kept the future as the main focus, though.

The Titans came in on the opposite side of the spectrum. With Levis behind center, Tennessee made use of its cap space and made use of one of the biggest advantages in sports: A quarterback on his rookie contract.

Tennessee spent those finances on needs at key positions. The Titans outbid the Patriots for wide receiver Calvin Ridley on a deal that very well could look like an overpay down the line. But in doing provided a developing quarterback with a game-changing weapon. The Titans now have DeAndre Hopkins and Ridley in their receiver room.

The Titans also went out and added a star to their defense. The Kansas City Chiefs traded cornerback L’Jarius Sneed to the Titans for a third-round pick and seventh-round pick swap. Tennessee then agreed to give Sneed a reported four-year contract worth $76.4 million. Sneed has game-changing potential himself, and while it’s not always wise to trade draft capital for a player who then needs a big-money contract, that will be a moot point if Sneed greatly improves Tennessee’s pass defense.

The Titans also replaced Derrick Henry with pass-catching option Tony Pollard, perhaps as a way to modernize the offense, and added a pair of offensive linemen, including Lloyd Cushenberry. Cushenberry, a 2020 third-rounder by the Denver Broncos, was a highly-regarded center in 2023.

All told, the Patriots and Titans went about their offseasons much differently.

Who made the right decision? Who knows. The answer to that question is not definitive right now.

But should the Titans’ key additions help jumpstart their rebuild, and ultimately aid in the development of Levis, the Patriots might be judged on why they didn’t make bigger moves.