INDIANAPOLIS — If the Patriots finally land a No. 1 receiver this offseason, Mike Vrabel has a good idea how they’ll do it.

“You usually have to draft them,” Vrabel said Tuesday from the NFL Scouting Combine.

But if not …

“Then sometimes, based on circumstances, (they’re) available for trade,” Vrabel continued. “I think we’ll explore every opportunity that we can to add great players that we feel like are the right fit and we feel like and that can help us. There’s only so many options in free agency and in trade and the draft. We’ll explore all three of those.”

After years of whiffing at the position, the Patriots’ search for a game-changing wide receiver continues now at the combine, where they will meet with draft prospects and other teams. This year’s draft class is not considered particularly deep at wideout, a group headlined by Arizona’s Tetairoa McMillan. If the Patriots don’t select McMillan with the fourth overall pick, they will need to identify a receiver later in the draft with the potential to develop into a No. 1.

As the Titans’ head coach, Vrabel worked with a front office that drafted A.J. Brown in the second round of the 2019 draft and watched him immediately blossom into a go-to target. Brown posted back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons with 19 touchdowns to start his career, before eventually becoming a three-time Pro Bowler. But later, faced with a cap crunch, Tennessee dealt Brown to the Eagles in a draft-day trade in April 2022.

As the best receivers appear to come off the board in free agency — Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins and Tampa Bay’s Chris Godwin may both re-sign — and only a few first-round talents surface in the draft, a trade may be the franchise’s best path to landing a No. 1 receiver. Whether any come available remains to be seen, so the Patriots are trying to keep all options open — including the possibility they must, again, hurry up and wait.

“I think everybody wants to have (a No. 1 receiver),” Vrabel said. “We’ve won games in certain ways in the past. What’s ideal? I’m not going to sit here and tell you we can’t do something. The better players you have, the easier it is to win in this league. That’s the bottom line.”