Patriots unlikely to pursue big-name quarterbacks in offseason?

The New England Patriots have a need at quarterback, and multiple established veterans could be available for the right price during the offseason. That doesn’t necessarily mean one of them will land there, though.

NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran does not believe the Patriots will pursue a high-end veteran quarterback this offseason. Instead, he expects the team to sift through mid-tier free agents and then see how the draft unfolds.

“To me, I think they will be more of a mid-tier team that will try its luck in the draft, so meaning mid-tier free agent — a [Marcus] Mariota, a [Jacoby] Brissett, whoever they deem worth chasing and securing and then to play it in the draft,” Curran told WEEI’s “Dale & Keefe” on Wednesday. “That’s the hardest thing about this — do you force it in the first round with a Mac Jones or a Kyle Trask, who certainly don’t seem to me to be first-round quarterbacks? Or do you say, ‘we’re going to take that good linebacker and see if Trask or Jones if we take them in the second round are players we can develop, or somebody else?'”

Brissett, at the very least, spent the start of his career with the Patriots, so he knows the team. That said, this might come as disappointing news to some, given how flat the New England offense was for much of the 2020 season.

The Patriots make sense as a fit for top-tier quarterbacks, but Bill Belichick is not known for parting ways with lots of draft picks for stars. It would be an out of character move, and what Curran describes certainly sounds a lot more like the Patriots.