If the New England Patriots were to make a substantial leap during the 2025 NFL season, it wouldn’t come as a huge surprise. In place are all the ingredients of a team ready to ascend to the next level. Young star quarterback with perennial Pro Bowl potential? Drake Maye’s your guy. New head coach with a proven track record of winning? Say hello (again) to Mike Vrabel. All sorts of cap space and a willingness to field a contender sooner rather than later? Yeah, the Patriots fit that description as well.
According to Spotrac, the Patriots have $30 million more in cap space than anyone else in the NFL, meaning they theoretically should be able to outbid anyone for whomever they choose to set their sights on. And according to ESPN’s Patriots beat reporter Mike Reiss, that player may be Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley, who many outlets project as the top offensive lineman available in free agency.
“The Patriots plan to target at least one top free agent,” writes Reiss. “Buzz at the NFL combine was that Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley would be the apple of their eye.”
The 30-year-old Stanley is coming off of the second Pro Bowl season of his career after starting all 17 games for the Ravens last season. He ranked 37th out of 81 qualified tackles during the 2024 season according to Pro Football Focus, but had the 16th highest pass blocking grade of all tackles in the NFL.
Serious ankle injuries limited Ronnie Stanley to just 7 games total in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, but he’s since returned to form and proven to be an unsung contributor to Baltimore’s success each of the last few seasons. Assuming he’s still got a handful of high-quality seasons left, he could prove to be a vital piece of Drake Maye’s continued growth.
Reiss notes that the Patriots won’t be reckless with their spending, stating that the Patriots plan to “be flexible” if their top free agency targets don’t pan out. But even Mike Vrabel has acknowledged that he expects his team to be aggressive in their pursuit of returning to the postseason.
“I’m confident we’ll be aggressive,” Vrabel said, per Reiss. “There’s going to be this high level that things are going to get done very quickly.”
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