Patriots Nearly Landed Buccaneers Star

The New England Patriots have been very active when it comes to acquiring new offensive talent to surround quarterback Drake Maye. To start, they added two new offensive tackles, signing veteran right tackle Morgan Moses from the New York Jets and drafting LSU left tackle Will Campbell to be their new franchise blindside protector. In addition, New England drafted running back TreVeyon Henderson out of Ohio State and wide receiver Kyle Williams out of Washington State.

The big splash, though, came back at the end of March when the Patriots signed former Buffalo Bills and Houston Texans wideout Stefon Diggs. The All-Pro wide receiver is coming off a torn ACL, and has already made less-than-optimal headlines over the last number of days when he was filmed on a boat passing a bag of a pink substance to a woman - something many fans assumed to be the day-drug tusi. However, Diggs showed up to OTAs and reportedly looked fantastic during his first showing in a Patriots helmet, so that story left as quickly as it arrived.

With that in mind, Diggs wasn't the only receiver the Patriots had their eyes on this offseason. According to Dan Pompei of The Athletic, New England was one of four teams in on Tampa Bay Buccaneeers wideout Chris Godwin, and were one of two teams, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, leading the pack.

“Four other teams wanted Godwin, with the Patriots and Steelers at the forefront, according to Godwin,” Pompei writes.

Godwin, like Diggs, is coming off a season-ending injury. He suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the Buccaneers' Week 7 Monday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens. And while many thought he would sign elsewhere this offseason, he signed a three-year deal to stay in Tampa alongside Mike Evans. The Penn State product has 579 catches and 39 career scores.