The New England Patriots don’t have a specific deadline to close out a potential pursuit of Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown, EVP of player personnel Eliot Wolf told reporters including MassLive’s Karen Guregian on Thursday.
“I think the only real deadlines you have are salary-cap related,” Wolf said Thursday, per Guregian. “For instance, did we spend money in free agency that would take us out of something else? But I wouldn’t say there’s a deadline on trying to improve the team.”
Wolf’s media available took place the day after the Patriots, who have been connected to Brown throughout the offseason, signed former Green Bay Packers wide receiver Romeo Doubs to a four-year deal.
Both Guregian and NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe reported shortly after the deal that bringing in Doubs wouldn’t necessarily stop the Patriots from pursuing Brown.
Wolf told reporters Thursday, however, that he doesn’t consider it as a necessity to add a clear-cut WR1 ahead of Drake Maye’s third NFL season.
“We were going through this the other day. The whole idea of a No. 1 receiver, how many of them are there in the NFL? Maybe half the teams have one,” Wolf said. “So, I don’t know if that’s a prerequisite for being a good football team. In my experience, it hasn’t been. I think as long as you have a lot of good players with diverse skillsets, like we have, then that stuff kind of takes care of itself.”
The Patriots had about $40 million in cap space heading into the Monday start of free agency negotiations.
The team has since cleared out $16.8 million in space by releasing wide receiver Stefon Diggs, while also committing more than $61 million in combined AAV to eight free agents.
That includes Doubs and his $17 million AAV deal in addition to guard Alijah Vera-Tucker ($14 million AAV), edge rusher Dre’Mont Jones ($12.2 million AAV), tight end Julian Hill ($6 million AAV), fullback Reggie Gilliam (3.6 million AAV) and safety Kevin Kyard ($9 million AAV), per Spotrac.
The money involved in free agency deals for linebacker K.J. Britt and safety Mike Brown have not yet been reported, according to Spotrac.
What the Patriots’ cap situation looks like after all those new deals are finalized could impact the likelihood that Wolf decides to meet the Eagles’ reported asking price of a first- and second-round pick in order to bring Brown and his $32 million AAV contract to Foxborough.
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