As the last big splash, home run type of impact receiver went off the board, you could almost hear the collective groans in Patriot Nation.

The New York Giants, who just traded superstar Odell Beckham Jr. to the Browns, landed Golden Tate. That meant the six-time world champions came up short once again.

It took a four-year, $37.5 million deal with $23 million guaranteed for Tate to go to the Big Apple and spurn the Patriots, a team he professed much love for only a few weeks earlier.

It’s somewhat of a head scratcher, because Tate is going to a team that doesn’t have a prayer of winning any time soon, and it’s not a huge deal.

Nonetheless, on the wideout scorecard, the Patriots have now whiffed on Adam Humphries, who they reportedly offered up around $9-10 million per season, Cole Beasley, and Tate, who was the prize catch of the free agency group of slot receivers.

What does all of this mean in the big picture for the Patriots?

An all-too-familiar script.

After re-signing Phillip Dorsett Wednesday night, they added another pair of receivers, Bruce Ellington and Maurice Harris Thursday. Both are capable of playing in the slot, but neither qualify as being stars, or even remotely coming close to that category.

While they’ve filled some holes up front on the defensive line, they remain thin at receiver. The Patriots have a 42-year-old quarterback, and by the looks of it, they’re going to once again ask him to win with a bunch of bargain basement parts at receiver.

Maybe they can still get Randall Cobb (still available as of Thursday) to take some of the pressure off Julian Edelman, help preserve the 32-year-old Super Bowl MVP and have him play slot, but it’s still relatively the same theme of doing more with less, and getting away with it.

After seeing what happened with rest of the AFC, and the change of the landscape with all the big-time moves being made, the Pats had to figure at some point they needed to up their talent pool, particularly at receiver.

Maybe they could outthink and outsmart everyone with their less-talented roster in years past because of having Bill Belichick and Brady. It’s a well-proven formula. But at some point, you have to add more talent to the recipe.

They’ve done that before, with 2007 coming to mind with the additions of Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth.

Can they really rely on a running game and defense to win it two years in a row?

Watching the playoff games, particularly against the Chargers and Chiefs, Brady can still throw the ball. He just needs people who can get open beyond Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, (he returns) and his running backs.

There’s the argument about not having the “cap space” to make the needed splash. Well, if they made a strong push for Humphries, reportedly offering him more than the Titans (four years, $36 million), they obviously had the space. They also have the ability to create other space.

So beyond adding Cobb, or Michael Crabtree, or barring a trade, they’re now pretty much looking at the draft for receiver talent. But they’ve swung and missed more times than Dave Kingman at finding one in that pool.

They had to draft a quarterback (Edelman) to find one of their best receivers. The last good one they drafted (Malcolm Mitchell) had a bad set of wheels. But they can’t leave the position dry. Maybe they’ll have a change of luck and draft a stud wideout.

But it sure looks like the same old script, different year.