When Mike Vrabel was hired to succeed Jerod Mayo as the Patriots' head coach, he made it clear early on what improvements needed to be made to the roster immediately better, and he appeared to accomplish that through free agency and the draft.
Among the most dire needs was wide receiver, and although the team was unable to land the biggest free-agent players, they did bring in Stefon Diggs to serve as the WR1 the Patriots have lacked since Julian Edelman retired in 2021. There were questions about his performance, however, since he was returning from an ACL injury suffered the previous season.