One might imagine that with the Mike Vrabel -- er -- distraction being mostly over, it would be smooth sailing as the SS Patriot gets underway in the quest to prove that the 2025 season was no fluke.
Yet on just the second day of organized team activities in Foxboro, it became clear that this year's team will have to conquer several mountainous challenges -- and that's before even getting to the gauntlet of a regular-season schedule that looms in September.
•The Christian Gonzalez Situation
Cornerback Christian Gonzalez proved last year that he is worthy of being considered a top-three player at his position in the entire world. As such, there aren't many people who believe he'll suit up and play in 2026 at the $2.8 million base salary his rookie contract calls for.
The question is what Vrabel, Eliot Wolf, Ryan Cowden and -- most importantly of all -- Robert Kraft believe he should be making this year and beyond.
And while that is a situation that very well could and should be resolved before training camp opens this summer, Gonzalez's absence from Tuesday's OTA session sent an early message that the 23-year-old isn't in a rush to risk any sort of injury until he has secured the payday he politely requested while sitting courtside at TD Garden back in March.
With Derek Stingley Jr. making $30 million per year and Sauce Gardner making $30.1 million, that has to be the starting point for Gonzalez's side in negotiations.
Will the Patriots play ball and pay market value for an elite player at a premium position, or will they argue that with the fifth-year option locked in at $18.12 million in 2027, a long-term extension has to come with a discount to account for the contracted years of 2026 and 2027?
One bit of commentary on the matter from the decision-making syndicate in Foxboro, worth recalling, came from Wolf back before the draft.
“No Gonzalez update other than I’ll continue to publicly say that we want Christian here," Wolf said in April. "And again, he’s under contract, so we would expect that."
He's under contract. So we would expect that.
Many (or even most) NFL teams recognize the reality that first-round picks who become elite players in three years will get their big-money extensions as soon as they are eligible to receive them. And that's really the crux of the matter, determining whether this new era of Patriot football will pay its home-grown players at the very top of the market. With Bill Belichick obviously no longer around to stand front and center to absorb any and all blame if the Patriots are hesitant to open up the vault for a player who very clearly deserves a massive payday, someone is going to have to wear the decision if the team refuses to negotiate to Gonzalez's satisfaction this spring and summer.
The whole situation also serves as a bit of an eye-opener for next year, when Drake Maye becomes eligible for his big-money extension. With quarterback salaries skyrocketing at a seemingly infinite rate, the Patriots aren't going to want to mess around with that one. Right?
Proposed Solution: Pay him. It really is that simple. And, if for whatever reason it becomes a problem in the short-term or long-term future, the Patriots could still trade him. Gardner got moved at the deadline last year for two first-round picks and a player. That's how valuable these guys are. The Patriots have to pay Gonzalez. There's not much wiggle room.
•The A.J. Brown Situation
Speaking of paying market value for an elite player at a premium position, the Patriots apparently have had no issue picking up A.J. Brown's contract, but are now apparently a bit gun-shy to fling away a first-round pick in order to land him.
That's at least the report that NFL Network's Ian Rapoport put out Wednesday night, just as everybody and their mother was certain that the Eagles and Patriots were merely counting down the minutes until June 1 to execute their long-ago-agreed-upon deal.
"I just don't know that it's going to be like snap your fingers and the deal is done," Rapoport said, adding that the Patriots aren't willing to give up a first-round pick "as of right now."
"That means they're not particularly close, and yeah, there's a chance this could drag on for the foreseeable future," he added.
With all due respect: WHAT?!
The A.J. Brown Trade Discourse is about to enter its sixth month. It's starting to crawl and say "dada." The list of interested takers has been short. The Rams dabbled. The Jaguars were briefly rumored. Some folks idly speculated about the Chiefs or Chargers getting involved.
But really, from the start until now, it's been about the Patriots and Eagles. And with Brown not bothering to show up for OTAs in Philly, Howie Roseman and everyone else involved with the Eagles know that the player has to be moved.
All of which leads the rational person to believe that this latest report is a bit of posturing, perhaps a last-gasp attempt to either extricate more from the Patriots in a trade or entice other teams to swoop in and "steal" Brown from the Patriots.
Whatever it is, the Patriots -- and their fan base -- have to hope that it all amounts to nothing. We all were led to believe that even if a full-on agreement has not already been made, there was at least an understanding of what would be required to complete the deal after June 1. If the two teams can't currently agree on the central portion of the return, then the entire offseason -- for the Patriots and the Eagles -- is about to go haywire.
We can't believe that is the case, despite Rapoport's latest report. But it's at least something we have to consider as we all trudge toward that fateful date of June 1.
Proposed Solution: Send a 2028 first-round pick to the Eagles in exchange for A.J. Brown. See how easy that was? Boom. Done.
(You could argue that it's foolish to trade a first-round pick for Brown if no other team is even in the market. You'd be right. But after Jaylen Waddle -- who is younger but has roughly 63 percent of Brown's career receiving yards and 26 receiving touchdowns to Brown's 56 -- fetched the Dolphins a first and a third, and after D.J. Moore -- who has 15 fewer touchdowns than Brown despite playing 26 more games -- cost the Bills a second-round pick, the market is what it is. Certain things have certain prices, and a game-changing wide receiver's price is high.)
•The Smaller But Still Relevant Situations
To some, the absence or presence of Kayshon Boutte in 2026 may be irrelevant. But hear me out.
From Weeks 1-8 last year, Boutte caught 23 passes for 431 yards and five touchdowns. He averaged just under 19 yards per reception, which his insane. He got downfield, he made contested catches, and he was operating on an ethereal realm with Maye. Then he tweaked his hamstring and missed two games, and then he suffered a concussion. A genuinely impressive season was derailed.
Boutte (55.5 percent of the team's offensive snaps) was doing that in a wide receiving corps that primarily involved Stefon Diggs (54.7 percent) and Mack Hollins (60.1 percent). Wouldn't Boutte's production theoretically increase if he were instead on the field with A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs?
I, for one, believe not only would Boutte end up with some juicy one-on-one matchups in that scenario but that Maye might be eager to take his shots in those spots, based on the way those two functioned together in the first half of last year.
Vrabel was asked directly about his communication with Boutte this offseason, and the head coach said he "would imagine" Boutte would pick up where he left off. After the Brown situation presumably gets squared away next week, Vrabel will need to have more extensive communication with Boutte to lay out what Boutte's role will be with the team. Boutte has roughly 2 percent of the leverage that Gonzalez has with regard to any potential holdout or trade demand, but he could be a critical No. 3/4 (depending on the down, because Hollins is a great third-down WR) receiver for the Patriots moving forward. Mending that fence will be on Vrabel's docket during OTAs.
And speaking of Vrabel, his answer when asked about potentially missing any more time after missing day three of the draft is sure to resurface in the days and weeks ahead.
"I can only tell you I'm going to be there today. I can't tell you anything other than I'm going to be out there today in full force," Vrabel said. "And I mean that because who knows what's going to come up? Anything could happen."
That answer might have actually been genuine. Which, you know, might be a little frightening for the Patriots. While this story began by stating that the Vrabel-Dianna Russini controversy was largely over, that can always change an instant. Certainly, when Vrabel announced the day that the draft started that he wouldn't be present for rounds 4-7, nobody exactly saw that coming. So Vrabel's at least aware that similar detours could await if or when something comes out about his yearslong relationship with Russini.
He and the Patriots are clearly hoping that won't be the case, but as Vrabel said himself, anything could happen.
Once the regular season does get underway, the Patriots will deal with being the visitors on a banner-raising night against the team that defeated them in the Super Bowl, two Thursday night games on short weeks, coast-to-coast travel after a Sunday night game leading into a date with the Bills, and the reality of a difficult slate of opponents on top of all of the logistical difficulties. And that will only come after Vrabel and Co. handle all of the challenges that they're already encountering this spring.
A year ago at this time, we all wondered if Vrabel could lift the Patriots out of irrelevance. That one was answered emphatically, and though the questions have changed in tenor, they've increased in number.