The New England Patriots have the need, the cash, and the willingness. Whether or not they will be able to significantly upgrade their offensive line in free agency will be a different story, though.
With less than two weeks before the market is set to open, after all, the first big names have already started to come off. On Friday, two of the top linemen scheduled to enter free agency on March 12 — and therefore two potential Patriots targets — were removed from the equation by their respective teams.
The first was guard Trey Smith, who despite earlier reports indicating the opposite was given the non-exclusive franchise tag by the Kansas City Chiefs.