The NFL is a business, you need to attract people to work for the business. If the place has a low reputation, they end up needing to either pay good players a premium or accept bad players that can't find work anywhere else.
It's pretty obvious now that the allure of the GOAT QB is gone and players don't think they can have a career year here and get a good contract somewhere else, that players have no reason to flock to New England because they don't run a top end org.
For all of Jerry Jones' problems, the Cowboys roll out the red carpet for players so they always seem to get top end talent. We've been coasting off of selling a magic ring winning culture that no longer exists.