Things can change fairly quickly in the NFL, a reality that Eliot Wolf alluded to last week during the Patriots’ preseason game when discussing his crowded wide receiver room.
“I think it’s funny to listen to it, because a couple of years ago, everyone was saying that we didn’t have anything. And now they say we have too many,” Wolf said. “So I think it’s a good problem to have.”
Indeed, the Patriots not long ago were considered to have the worst receiving room in the NFL, a situation that has transformed significantly in a two-year period.
Contrast that comment with Mike Vrabel stating two hours later that he doesn’t have a very deep team, and you’ve got a perfect encapsulation of the chaos that is running a football team in the National Football League.
Yet with the Patriots coming off a Super Bowl appearance, it’s fair to wonder where they rank in some other critical areas, particularly on the defensive edge and on the offensive line. Surely, they’re among the best at quarterback, but where do they now stand at wide receiver with the additions of A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs?
To get a national perspective on the state of the Patriots’ roster, let’s take a gander at Mike Clay’s exercise for ESPN.com, in which he ranked every team at 10 different positions. The results from a Patriots perspective were … interesting.
The Methodology
Unclear.
Whether Clay looked primarily at the top one or two guys on the depth chart or looked at groups in their entirety is unclear. What went into the rankings isn’t explained at all, actually, outside of saying that the process involved “objectively grading and/or ranking each positional unit of all 32 teams.”
Additionally, “these are 2026 rankings rather than long-term outlooks.”
With that, we move along.
The Rankings
- Quarterback: 11th
- Running back: 19th
- Wide receiver: 9th
- Tight end: 13th
- Offensive line: 14th
- Defensive tackle: 13th
- EDGE: 25th
- Off-ball linebacker: 12th
- Cornerback: 6th
- Safety: 2nd
There is plenty on that list that makes sense (EDGE near the bottom of the league, O-line middle of the pack), some that is questionable (shouldn’t the WR group rank a little higher?) and at least one that is downright baffling (looking at you, QB spot).
Yet before we dive into the ins and outs and disagreements, we must get to the most shocking ranking of all.
Overall Roster Rankings
Clay said that he weighted some positions more heavily than others before coming up with a final ranking of complete rosters. Here are the results.
- Los Angeles Rams
- Baltimore Ravens
- Philadelphia Eagles
- New England Patriots
- Seattle Seahawks
That … feels like an error? A glitch in the matrix? At the very least, a clerical oversight.
The Patriots rank better than fourth in just one category, and unless safety is weighted with 95% of the importance to a roster, a ranking of fourth makes little to no sense.
Based on salaries by position, we can deduce that quarterbacks, offensive tackles, edge rushers, wide receivers and interior D-linemen are the most valued positions. The Patritots ranked 11th, 14th, 25th, 11th and 13th in those categories. That’s an average ranking of 15th at the five most important positions.
Nevertheless, they were ranked as the fourth-best roster in all of football — better than the defending-champion Seahawks, better than the Lions, Bills, Niners, Cowboys, Broncos, Chiefs and Bengals.
The Agreements
Again, the disagreements are coming, but some of the positional rankings feel right or close to it.
Rhamondre Stevenson is an experienced, reliable back, and TreVeyon Henderson has some potential, so maybe that duo should count for at least the top half of the league. But a 19th ranking isn’t egregious.
On the flip side, ranking the duo of Kevin Byard and Craig Woodson as the second-best safety group in the NFL might be a touch high, but it’s not far off. Byard’s been that good for a long time, and Woodson was extremely impressive as a rookie last year. (Just don’t check the depth chart behind them.) It is worth noting, though, that in ESPN’s annual survey of people around the league, Byard “received votes” but wasn’t even in the top 15 at safety, while Woodson got nobody’s vote.
Certainly, the EDGE group — which, candidly, was the impetus to investigate rankings such as these — is ranked appropriately, especially if Harold Landry’s injury status was considered. A top duo of Dre’Mont Jones and Elijah Ponder with rookie Gabe Jacas as the next in line will not have opposing offensive lines losing sleep leading up to games.
At tight end, Hunter Henry may be exactly positioned as the 13th-best in the league. Sometimes he’s better than that, but the lack of depth behind him at least explains the placement. And the offensive line — with the still-unproven Will Campbell at left tackle and Jared Wilson at center, and with the oft-injured Alijah Vera-Tucker at left guard — has enough question marks to rank 14th in the league. There’s potential to be better, but it will have to be realized before it gets recognized.
The Disagreements
Drake Maye was, as the very worst, one of the three best quarterbacks in the NFL last year. Now entering Year 3, working with the same offensive coordinator for a second straight year for the first time since high school, being given legitimate receiving threats like A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs, working behind an O-line that received hefty investments in free agency and draft capital … he’s the 11th-best QB in the league?
That one’s hard to fathom. And if the entirety of the QB room is considered, perhaps a case could be built. Yet Joe Milton being Dak Prescott’s backup for the ninth-ranked Cowboys pokes some major holes in that possibility. Even more so for Trey Lance and the 10th-ranked Chargers, Justin Fields and the third-ranked Chiefs (with Patrick Mahomes coming off a torn knee), and most significantly, Kyle Allen and the top-ranked Bills.
Drake Maye as the 11th-best quarterback situation in the league is a bit bewildering, to say the least.
Some other puzzling results: Milton and Williams and Christian Barmore only being considered the 13th-best interior D-lineman situation in the league, the Robert Spillane-Christian Elliss duo ranking a little too high at 12th, the cornerback trio of Christian Gonzalez-Carlton Davis-Marcus Jones ranking low at sixth, and the wide receiving group ranking all the way down at ninth.
Brown alone was ranked as the ninth-best receiver in the NFL by ESPN’s panel of scouts, coaches, players and executives this summer, and it’s not as if he’s working solo. Doubs, DeMario Douglas and Mack Hollins round out a robust receiver room. While that group doesn’t compete with the Cowboys, Rams, Bengals, Vikings or Lions, it’s strange to see them behind Seattle, New Orleans, and … the Jets.
At corner, Gonzalez is — like Maye — at worst a top-three cornerback in the NFL. Davis is a solid veteran. Jones is in a perfect spot as the slot corner. The depth is a mess behind them, but the starting unit is among the best in the league, yet this ranking had Houston’s Derek Stingley Jr. and Kamari Lassiter, Pittsburgh’s Joey Porter Jr. and Jamel Dean, and Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon and Josh Jobe in higher spots.
What Did We Learn?
Without knowing the methodology, it’s hard to say. Locally, we know the depth of this roster behind the starters is lacking, with some real issues on the horizon if any starter or multiple starters miss time due to injury. It would have been instructive to zoom out and look at the league as a whole to compare the Patriots’ situation to everybody else’s in the league, but unfortunately, some of the rankings are confounding. The final ranking of fourth overall only added to the confusion.
Yet if you bump up the quarterbacks and cornerbacks and slide the receivers up a tick, you can see enough of the picture. And while there may be disagreements at various spots, it’s difficult to look at that EDGE spot as anything but a certain problem for the Patriots this upcoming season.
