Patriots may have tried everything to sign a major WR for Drake Maye, but Bucs GM's revelation proves it still wasn’t enough

The New England Patriots wanted to land Chris Godwin.

That's no secret. 

However, the wide receiver opted to remain with his former team, signing a three-year $66 million deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And in doing so, he left a lot of money on the table. 

Buccaneers general manager Jason Licht revealed that there were plenty of teams that were looking at Godwin. But, one stood out to him. 

“There were several teams that inquired but there was one that kept writing him blank checks,” Licht told WDAE. “We got to a point of what we could do in order to keep everything together and add some pieces here, and he took it.”

So with that, the question is did that "blank check" offer come from the Patriots? 

When NFL Network's Ian Rapoport first reported the news of Godwin's new deal with the Buccaneers, he revealed that the receiver passed up an additional $20 million to remain in Tampa Bay. And while he wouldn't name the exact team that was willing to offer that, he heavily implied that it was the Patriots by saying that they are "in on everyone." 

New England was unable to land Godwin, and have continued to struggle luring a top receiver to Foxborough. The Bengals placed the franchise tag on Tee Higgins, DK Metcalf was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cooper Kupp remained on the west coast to sign with the Seattle Seahawks. 

The Patriots did host free agent receiver Stefon Diggs on a visit, but he left without a deal. The two sides plan to stay in touch.  

Head coach Mike Vrabel said that the Patriots were going to be aggressive in free agency, and if they truly were the team that was writing a "blank check" to Godwin, he did that. It just didn't work out.