Romeo Doubs Explains Why He Signed With Patriots

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Romeo Doubs was reportedly choosing between signing with the New England Patriots and the Washington Commanders. In the end, he inked a four-year contract worth potentially $80 million with the Patriots for 2026.
For the former Green Bay Packers star, it's a chance for him to blossom in an offense that impressed the league last season.
"I know I’m going to be around a great group of guys," Doubs told reporters at Gillette Stadium last week. "Going to be around a great young quarterback in Drake, great coaching staff in coach Vrabel and (offensive coordinator) Josh (McDaniels). And even just from a defensive standpoint, I know I’m going to come across some great people, and I just look forward to it."
The 25-year-old Doubs became one of the Packers' top pass catchers during his four seasons in Green Bay. Last season, he reeled in 55 catches for 724 yards and six touchdowns. He'll be asked to do similar things in New England -- working both inside and outside -- with young quarterback Drake Maye. Doubs said he already met Maye that morning, and was impressed by the MVP runner-up.
"I spoke with Drake. He’s an amazing person to be around," he said. "I love his personality, and I just love who he is as a person."

Doubs now comes into the Patriots organization set to replace Stefon Diggs as the top target in the passing game. That work ethic that would require him to replicate Diggs' statistical output from a year ago (he was New England's first 1,000-yard receiver since Julian Edelman in 2019) was already on display.
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Executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf said that he had to pull Doubs away from his team-issued iPad to sign his contract, saying he was buried in his new playbook.
"I think he has a really cool skill set," Wolf said. "I think he can play outside, inside, he blocks, he can play Z, he can play X. He’s good on the short routes, he’s good on the deep routes, he’s good with the ball in his hands. He has a lot of route variance that we liked — strong for the ball. There’s some things that he can improve upon that we’ll try to help him with. But overall, just the competitor, the person."
Doubs has plenty of big shoes to fill. The Diggs-sized hole in the offense. The No. 87 uniform he's wearing. For the young wideout, he's not worried about anything other than trying to fit into his new home.
"I’ll be really honest with you, I would love to stay true to just understanding where I am and coming into a new system under our offensive coordinator," Doubs said. "And yeah, I wouldn’t really specify that I’m gonna go in with this amount of targets or that amount of targets, because I’ve come from a place where that didn’t really mean much, and I give credit, obviously, to New England welcoming me with open arms and Green Bay just based off their history and the situation that we were in while I was there."

Ethan Hurwitz is a writer for Patriots on SI. He works to find out-of-the-box stories that change the way you look at sports. He’s covered the behind-the-scenes discussions behind Ivy League football, how a stuffed animal helped a softball team’s playoff chances and tracked down a fan who caught a historic hockey stick. Ethan graduated from Quinnipiac University with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in journalism, and oversaw The Quinnipiac Chronicle’s sports coverage for almost three years.
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