As optimistic as Robert Kraft sounded at the owner’s meetings last month, the job of repairing the Patriots remains far from complete.

To that end, Kraft placed a bullseye squarely on the draft, as in X marks the spot. As in, there’s considerable pressure on Bill Belichick and Matt Groh to deliver with their 2023 selections.

It’s debatable whether there’s an “or else” attached, but Kraft clearly sent a message.

Belichick and Groh, the team’s head of player personnel, have to put the finishing touches on the roster to ensure it will be good enough to not only get back to the postseason, but also take steps to ensure the Patriots will be in a favorable position for the future.

In a nutshell, that was Kraft’s edict.

“One of my beliefs … to be good in this league, you’ve got to draft well,” Kraft said. “Given the salary cap, and the value of people you draft, as opposed to hiring them as free agents, that’s where your greatest return comes from.

“So, we have a number of picks this year. We have done a pretty good job of drafting, especially when we won the Super Bowls. We always seemed to have 12 or 15 players who were really products of the draft. When you get them on rookie contracts, when you’re dealing with the salary cap, it allows you to compete better.”

Let’s do a little reading between the lines.

Specifically, in this day and age of the NFL, when you have a good quarterback on a rookie contract, it allows a team to compete better because the big money can be spent elsewhere or spread around.

At least, in theory, that’s been the case for several teams recently.

Just look at the Bengals, Eagles, Jaguars, Chargers and Dolphins, to name a few. Along with drafting well, they’ve been able to spend money in the right places and build impressive casts around their young quarterbacks. That’s allowed them to be competitive during the regular season and beyond.

The Patriots?

While they’ve done a bit better in the draft, they haven’t exactly taken the most advantage of Mac Jones’ rookie deal as of yet. They haven’t followed the formula, and time is running out.

As presently constituted, the Patriots are a fringe playoff team at best, and any idea of improvement largely comes from having a new offensive coordinator (Bill O’Brien) and offensive line coach (Adrian Klemm). Juju Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki are nice additions for the offense, but it’s hard to call them difference-makers.

They still need impact players and top-end talent in a variety of places, most notably offensive tackle, cornerback and wide receiver.

That’s where Belichick and Groh have to really score to give the Pats a better chance to not only stay out of the basement in the AFC East, but to sneak back into the postseason and win at least one round — the stated desire of the owner.

Kraft has clearly put an emphasis on reviving the team with the upcoming draft, which takes place April 27-29.

“I look to the addition of draft choices to make a difference,” said Kraft. “Just spending money two-three years ago, I think we spent more cash than any team or the two or three teams in the history of spending, and it didn’t get the value we hoped it would. So I think having a solid draft is the foundation to building a team and sustaining it.”

The spending spree in question netted Matthew Judon, Hunter Henry, Kendrick Bourne, Davon Godchaux, Jalen Mills, Nelson Agholor and Jonnu Smith.

The latter two got big money and were complete busts. Judon, meanwhile, has proven to be the only star from the group. The rest have been good in spots. And while the Patriots did get back to the playoffs in 2021, they went backwards last year.

So Kraft is doubling down on the draft.

The Patriots, as most know, piled up a number of drafts from 2016-19 that didn’t yield much, which in turn left the cupboard bare. Only recently have they started to turn that narrative around.

Given they’ve had losing seasons in two of the past three years, they really can’t afford to start another string of stinkers.

While Belichick continues to believe that good coaching is the ultimate difference-maker when it comes to making a middle-of-the-road team highly competitive — either that, or having Tom Brady — he still needs a roster that has a few elite players on both sides of the ball to do that.

And those are going to have to come from the draft, unless some unexpected fireworks go off and Belichick uses some of his draft picks – he’s currently armed with 11 in 2023 – to engineer a trade for a top receiver, or perhaps even a cornerback.

While the Patriots currently have enough in the stable at cornerback to be fairly decent with all of the Jones boys (Jon, Jack, Marcus), it still behooves them to find a No. 1 along the lines of a Stephon Gilmore or Darrelle Revis if they truly want to be a contender. Making a trade is another possibility, especially if one of the top corners (Christian Gonzalez, Devon Witherspoon, Joey Porter Jr.) doesn’t drop to No. 14, and/or, the Pats aren’t willing to move up to assure getting one of them.

Belichick has never had the appetite to pay top dollar for skill-position players. At the very least, if he lands a top flight receiver, or corner in the draft, they’ll be affordable for the next four or five years, depending on which round they’re taken.

“In the end, this is a business,” said Kraft. “You either execute and win or you don’t. So that’s where we’re at.”

In short, Kraft laid out the blueprint, and also threw down the gauntlet.

The rest is up to Belichick.

He needs to improve his batting average selecting receivers. He needs to score at tackle and cornerback.

And all of this assumes a better performance from Jones, Bailey Zappe, or whoever winds up under center.

Belichick, who is celebrating his 71st birthday, probably doesn’t take too much stock when Asante Samuel rips him on social media. The former Patriots cornerback is a registered Belichick-basher. So no surprise there.

When Tedy Bruschi is critical, however, Belichick probably takes notice.

The ESPN analyst, who typically sings the praises of his former head coach, voiced some consternation at a comment Belichick made at the owner’s meetings last month.

Bruschi was perplexed by Belichick’s response to the following question: Why should fans be optimistic about the upcoming season?

After a brief pause, Belichick smugly answered: “The last 25 years.”

Bruschi was taken aback because it wasn’t the type of response Belichick had built his reputation on. That wasn’t the Belichick he knew, the one who coached him to three Super Bowl wins over the course of his 13 seasons with the team.

The Belichick he knew never lived in the past, or pointed to past success, whether he just won a Super Bowl, or didn’t make the playoffs. And that’s how he expected his players to conduct business.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve been in meetings with Coach Belichick and the very first meeting is, ‘I don’t care about anything in the past. We win Super Bowls, last year doesn’t matter. Pro Bowls don’t matter. All-Pros don’t matter. Everything you’ve done last year doesn’t matter. It’s about who we are going forward.’” Bruschi said during a recent “Get Up!” segment.

The Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker went on to say Belichick was clearly “off-message” with that remark.

Speaking with Devin McCourty recently, he wasn’t bothered to that extent over the remark.

In fact, he laughed when he heard it.

“I get the other side. I was on with Tedy (on ESPN) that day. We talked about what he preaches, about not living in the past, but to me, that message doesn’t change in the locker room.

“What he says at the owner’s meeting in March, has no bearing on what he’s going to talk to the team about. That’s the focus. Not this. I didn’t see it as a big deal, like everyone else. I thought it was funny.”

Former Patriot James White also wasn’t bothered by the remark. White, however, said if a current player had said something like that to the media, “(Belichick) would be pissed.”

Ted Johnson, another former Patriot, was more aligned with Bruschi. He wasn’t thrilled hearing it.

“That was a shock to me when I heard him say it,” said Johnson, host of “The Sunday Football Show” on The Sports Hub (98.5) . “As Patriots, you believed in these tenets and ideologies. We all bought in. Then when you hear Bill contradict a lot of things he used to preach to us, it feels like all of that was made up.”

There have been recent reports about the Patriots being highly “intrigued” by Texas running back Bijan Robinson.

The Athletic’s Jeff Howe wrote: “They’re building the running game around Rhamondre Stevenson and have quietly shown interest in adding another bluechip back in the draft.”

Robinson could very well be the blue chipper in question.

But would they take him at No. 14? The NFL Network’s draft guru Daniel Jeremiah seemed to think they would, as he had the Patriots taking him in that spot in one of his mock drafts.

How realistic is that?

Former Patriots running back James White, who has been appearing regularly on SiriusXM NFL radio, can’t see Bill Belichick making that move at 14.

“It would kind of surprise me if they took him at 14,” White said when reached recently. “But if he’s available and they took him, I wouldn’t necessarily blame them.”

Why not?

White considers Robinson a special talent, one who could complement Stevenson if the Patriots wanted a run-heavy attack.

“He’s a great player. I love watching him. His tape jumps off the charts,” White said. “He’s the best running back in this draft based off of his college tape. He’s a really good runner, he makes guys miss. He’s explosive, he can catch the ball, I just think he can be a generational talent.”

In recent years, running backs have rarely been taken in the first round, although there have been exceptions. The Patriots, in fact, drafted Sony Michel in the first round of the 2018 draft and won their last Super Bowl that season.

White suggested if the Pats really wanted Robinson, they might move back in the first round and acquire more assets before taking him.

“If they trade back, and they’re picking in the 20s, I don’t know how you can pass up on a guy like that if you’re picking the best player available. He’s a real playmaker.”

Intriguing, indeed.

There have been various reports floating around that Nick Caserio was leaving the Texans after the draft and heading back to New England.

Will it happen?

Don’t bet the farm on it.

Caserio, who left the Patriots to run the ship in Houston as the Texans G.M., has three years remaining on a deal that pays him $5 million a season.

It’s hard to see him walking away from that, unless some of his power to make decisions has been usurped. As for Texans ownership, word is that they’re pleased with the job Caserio has done, especially in wake of all the Deshaun Watson turmoil.

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa spent a few minutes talking with reporters during his “Luau with Tua” event Monday at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida, which benefited his foundation.

Reporters noted that Tagovailoa, who is listed at 6-foot-1, 217 pounds, seemed to have added more muscle during his down time.

“Offseason training’s been good,” said Tagovailoa, who dealt with several head injuries last season. “Been working on strength in many areas and been chipping away at things that I felt like I needed to work on to get to where I feel I can get to in the later parts of the season.”