State of the Union - New England Patriots

Ok folks, let’s talk football. Ball, if you will. How did we get here? Some may say the state of the New England Patriots is a disaster currently, but I would tend to disagree and I’ll explain why. Obviously last year was awful in just about every way possible. From a bad coaching hire, to a relatively talent-barren roster, the season was essentially a disaster from week 2 on. A win in week 1 looked promising, until we learned the Bengals really weren’t all that good. Fast forward to the final game of the season (which I attended (not a big deal)), we had the #1 overall pick in our grasp until a meaningless win by Bazooka Joe Milton took that away. No slight to him or anyone else on the field that day though, players don’t tank. Not in the NFL anyways. So we bump down to #4 when the dust settles at the basement of the league, and head into the offseason looking to rebuild. That rebuild gets started quickly as Mayo is fired like an hour after the game, before I had even got off of Route 1. Now let me clarify, before the season started I liked Jerod Mayo and was extremely optimistic about him as our head coach and the successor to the great Bill Belichick (miss u). I liked Mayo as a player, and thought he had real potential to develop into a solid head coach. I’ve heard some say that we should have given him more time, and that he got dealt a shit hand with the roster he inherited and that may be true, but ultimately the Kraft’s felt he didn’t do enough to warrant keeping his job. As the season went on I found it hard to keep faith in him based on the decisions that he made and things he said in the media. On top of losing games and really bad performances throughout the year, he said things in press conferences that were puzzling at best. The Kraft’s mentioned when they let him go that it wasn’t just that we didn’t improve from last year, it was the fact that we actually regressed and got worse in a lot of areas, and I agree. I think moving on was a necessary first step in righting the ship of this team. 

Now, on to the Vrabel era. First off let’s just clarify, this was the only hire to make. Sure, Ben Johnson is a great coordinator and an exciting head coach prospect, but with the state the Patriots were in after firing Mayo they needed someone with proven stability that can build a winning culture. Vrabel is the guy for that. He’s already assembled a proven staff with multiple former head coaches, including Josh McDaniels, who I believe will be perfect for developing Drake Maye in his second year. People forget McDaniels made Mac Jones into a pro-bowler, not an easy feat. (Sorry Mac for the ricochet shot). With the coaching staff set and the right structure in place, the last piece of the puzzle is good players. And we need lots of them.

First let’s count the positions we have locked down with legit players. 1 - Quarterback. That’s it. That’s the entire list. You could make the argument that Corner is also locked down, but only halfway. Gonzalez is a legit top 5 corner in the league in my opinion, but we still need another to solidify that spot. So other than QB and half of CB, we need good players everywhere. We can all agree that the biggest need is offensive tackle to protect Maye, and WR to get him some playmakers who can catch the goddamn football. Those two can absolutely be helped within free agency, with a tackle like Ronnie Stanley on the open market, as well as the obvious WR available Tee Higgins. I think another name that has been thrown out that is super interesting is Cooper Kupp, who the Rams have said they intend to trade. Based on his age and injury history, I don’t think the price would be too high, and he could give a really stable presence to the WR room. Not to mention he has a genius football brain and would be amazing to have on the field with Drake Maye to lead the offense. I’ve also heard Deebo Samuel’s name tossed around, who I’d have interest in for New England but only for the right price. Based on the prospects coming out of the draft, there are 2 positions that stick out in this class. The overall class is being looked at as not very strong, but Running Back and Defensive Line are some of the more talented and deep groups in this draft. Because of that I think it is a must to get some help in these spots in April. Ideally if Abdul Carter is there at pick #4 you take him, and then later in the draft get a RB who can add some depth behind Rhamondre and Antonio Gibson. If Carter and Travis Hunter are both already off the board at #4 then I think you have to trade out and gather some assets, because we just need help everywhere and outside of those two players there aren’t any truly generational talents at the top of the board. 

More to come on the draft & free agency once the combine starts and free agency opens up next month, but those are my initial thoughts. I think I’m more of an optimist when it comes to this team, so while I know we need a lot of help in a lot of spots I do believe we have a solid foundation that we can build off of. Proven head coach, extremely talented young QB, and a lockdown CB on defense. Tons of gaps to fill in, but those are a few rock solid pillars to build a team around. Now let’s hope the Krafts were paying attention to the Eagles the last few years and how they built that roster, because that was a masterclass culminating in a complete ass-kicking of the best team in the league KC. Anywho, excited to see how we can improve this offseason and hopefully get back to playing some competitive football in Foxboro. Over and out.