For fans of the New England Patriots, it’s been a refreshing start to the 2025 league year.

Adults are in the room again, thanks to a sense of command and structure emanating from head coach Mike Vrabel and an improved coaching staff. The team actually made some splash moves both in free agency (like WR Stefon Diggs and DT Milton Williams) and April’s draft (like Ohio State RB TreVeyon Henderson). All signs point to positive strides this season, possibly big enough ones to match the mounting expectations in Foxboro.

That’s how fans are feeling about this upcoming 2025 season, at least. As for NFL executives? Some aren’t yet convinced that Vrabel can save the Patriots from a fatal flaw that’s been plaguing the organization for years.

Brutal truth: The 2025 Patriots have capped upside due to painfully thin roster

The Vrabel regime has already severed ties with several former Patriots captains and starters, including center David Andrews, to special teams ace Joe Cardona.

But as we were reminded by the team’s decision to waive 2024 draft pick Layden Robinson on Monday, the majority of the Patriots’ current depth chart issues stem from years of negative ROI on draft picks. As reporter Greg Bedard of the Boston Sports Journal, following the team’s preseason dud against the New York Giants last week:

“I think this game showed off the Patriots’ lack of depth that I’ve been talking about, but the Giants had guys running wide open, the tackling was poor, etc. Basically, this was the complete opposite of the Commanders’ game, and the score shows that. Vrabel prides himself on his entire team playing a certain way, and this wasn’t it. That will bother him.”

There’s not much Vrabel can do about recent draft busts like Cole Strange, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Marte Mapu in his first training camp with the team. New England’s poor draft history over the past several years came with the job, and as one NFL executive told ESPN’s Mike Reiss, there’s only so much Vrabel and his staff can do to cover up some obvious warts on the roster.

“One NFL front office source who has watched the Patriots this preseason described his view of them this way: Improving, playing hard, but thin in multiple spots beyond their starting lineup because of shaky drafts in recent years that have contributed to a roster that will require more than one year to replenish,” Reiss wrote.

The good news? We can already feel this exhausting trend beginning to shift. The Patriots’ first five selections in the 2025 draft — LT Will Campbell, RB TreVeyon Henderson, WR Kyle Williams, G Jared Wilson, and S Craig Woodson — are all expected to be either starting Week 1 of the regular season or filling prominent roles right out of the chute. Developing draft picks into impact starters is the key to modern NFL roster building, and the Patriots have struggled in this area in recent years.

As long as the Patriots can execute Vrabel’s stated goals of eliminating bad football and capitalizing on opponents’ mistakes, they’ll be a much better football team than fans have watched over the past two seasons. But Vrabel is powerless over the lack of ascending young talent and depth on the current roster, and until he has multiple years under his belt to build it, the Patriots will be taking the field with a lower ceiling than fans are hoping for.