Acritical few months await the Patriots.

Mike Vrabel seemingly is the ideal person to lead a turnaround in New England following a series of terrible seasons. But Vrabel can only do so if he has enough talented players in his locker room, and the Patriots badly need to improve in that department this offseason.

With a wealth of salary cap space and a key selling point in Drake Maye, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero believes New England will be ready to make waves once the new league year begins.

“I would anticipate that they are very active,” Pelissero said on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s “Felger & Mazz,” as transcribed by USA Today. “…

Listen it’s hard when you’re bad, and people didn’t know if the quarterback was gonna be any good. The good news this year is you’re still bad, but people now know this quarterback is good. Are the Patriots going to have to overpay in free agency? Probably, that’s just the nature of it.

“But you’re gonna have a much better selling point than, ‘Hey we’re going to pay you a little extra. And you get to play with this dude who, if we can just make this thing competent, has a chance to be really good.”

Who could be the beneficiaries of those projected overpays? Wide receiver Tee Higgins and offensive tackle Ronnie Stanley are two of the very best players set to hit the open market, and both just so happen to play positions of need in Foxboro, Mass.

The Patriots surely will have competition in trying to sign those stars or any other top free agents. But as Pelissero outlined, New England now is able to make a far more compelling pitch than years past.