The New England Patriots made a lot of moves during this offseason, but missed out on one of the biggest possibilities. 

Despite having visited with the New England Patriots in June, DeAndre Hopkins is reportedly signing with the Tennessee Titans, sources told A to Z Sports on Sunday. 

So while the Patriots are now without a star receiver, one ESPN analyst explains a deal New England was able to close that should help improve the offense. 

"They did make a huge move on offense that is not mentioned here," Adam Schefter said on ESPN's Get Up. "They hired Bill O'Brien as their offensive coordinator and I think they believe that's going to elevate this offense whether or not they have DeAndre Hopkins. They've got somebody in there that can boost that offense back up and I think they are confident that Bill O'Brien can get that done."

The Patriots brought back Bill O'Brien in January after not having an official play caller last season. With Matt Patricia appearing to be calling the plays, Mac Jones took a serious decline and New England finished with a 8-9 record. 

The former Alabama OC knows the Patriots organization quite well after moving up throughout the organization from 2008-2011 before leaving to become head coach for Penn State. 

Since they brought him back, there was some uncertainty whether the Patriots would sign DeAndre Hopkins due to potential bad blood. O'Brien and Hopkins spent time together when the current Patriots offensive coordinator was serving as head coach for the Houston Texans from 2014–2020. He was ultimately responsible for trading Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals.

Yet, it was reported that O'Brien wouldn’t be opposed to working with Hopkins again.

However, Bill Belichick and the Patriots weren't willing to give the star receiver the contract he wanted, resulting in him going elsewhere. 

"DeAndre Hopkins was looking for, in his own words, a roster or a team with stable management. Well, (Ran) Carthon was just hired as the GM. Mike Vrabel, DeAndre Hopkins knew already and has been there for a while. He's looking for a quarterback who loves the game, well they have Ryan Tannehill, and he was looking for a championship caliber defense," Schefter said. "The one thing that the Titans were able to do that no other team was willing to do was give him $12 million in the first year of that contract." 

Hopkins deal is reportedly worth $26 million over two years, but he could earn more than that through incentives.

Former NFL QB believes not signing DeAndre Hopkins was a “missed opportunity” for Patriots

The Patriots were a potential landing spot for the star receiver until today

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