The Patriots are just a few plays from 5-4. They’re also a couple of plays from 0-9.

They’re most definitely not good. Not even average. The question is, are they horrific or merely bad? Irredeemable or mildly promising?

They may have had the least talented roster in the NFL entering the season and that was BEFORE the injury avalanche to some of their best players.

Two of their most prominent free agent imports on offense were Chukwuma Okorafor and K.J. Osborn. Chuks left. Osborn can’t get on the field.

Drafted wideouts Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker are on the Dalton Keene-Devin Asiasi track.

They can’t run it. (Their backs have averaged under 3.5 yards per carry in five of the last six games.) They can’t stop the run. (In eight out of nine games, opponents have averaged 4.0 yards or more.) Their propensity for ill-timed, momentum-killing offensive penalties is only exceeded by their ability to commit (or get called for) drive-extending penalties on defense.

They are the NFL’s Dr. Feelgood. Almost every team that’s down on its luck and feeling sad gets their frown turned upside down after seeing New England. The 49ers, after losing to the Rams, blasted the Pats. The Dolphins, on a three-game losing streak with Snoop Huntley at quarterback, edged the Pats. The Jaguars, after a near-mutinous loss to the Bears, bulldozed the Pats in London. The Titans, after a 38-point loss to the Lions, survived the Pats in OT.

Somehow, every single week, the Patriots wind up with the ball to end the half and then walk face-first into the slider. It’s actually become comical.

We figured the cobbled-together coaching staff with Jerod Mayo at the top and coordinators Alex Van Pelt and DeMarcus Covington on offense and defense would have fits and starts. So far, there have been way more fits than starts. After the rapid descent of the team in 2022 and 2023, they needed to ooze competency and organization. They have not.

This team that collectively bragged about taking the Bengals “to the hill” and into “deep water” after a season-opening win has been going downhill no brakes since that day barely two months ago. At 2-7, they are the ones now over their heads.

AND YET!!!! And yet! They do indeed have the quarterback. Drake Maye has been beyond what the team could have expected and if they tell you otherwise, they’re lying.

When they drafted him, he was viewed as a low-floor, high-ceiling project who needed EXTENSIVE work done on his footwork and fundamentals. He needed to learn to play under center and his limited time at North Carolina didn’t prepare him for the sophistication of NFL defenses.

He had every physical tool you’d want and -- more importantly -- had the toughness and intangibles you absolutely need to be the hood ornament for one of the worst teams in the league. Asking a 22-year-old to deal with the chaos that accompanies a ground-up rebuild piloted by inexperienced leaders is as tall an ask as you can make in professional football.

But Maye is – stunningly – up to it. Now, the onus is on the team to build around him. Urgently.

🔊 Patriots Talk Podcast: Maye's performance in loss to Titans shows the future is now for Patriots | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

Maye’s presence means the window is already open. You can look at Maye and see Josh Allen. But Buffalo was already getting good when they drafted him. They were a playoff team in 2017 before drafting Allen in 2018 with the seventh overall pick. They added around him and became an elite team.

You can also look at Maye and see Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 overall pick of the Lions in 2009. Detroit sunk when they drafted him and in 12 seasons there they went 102-111, went 0-4 in four playoff appearances and cycled through five coaches.  

Before the draft, I advocated for the Patriots trading down, adding picks and stabilizing their offensive line and wideout room. Get the team competent before plopping a would-be franchise quarterback down into an unsettled situation. As the Bills did. As the Chiefs did. As the 49ers did.

They went -- obviously -- in the other direction. You want a franchise quarterback, you find those guys at the top of the draft, and the upside of Maye was too rich to pass on.

It’s already apparent the Patriots got the right guy for the job.

Now, though, Eliot Wolf has to do HIS job with what will no doubt be a top-five pick and a massive stash of cash to spend on players next March. And Mayo and the coaching staff have to do their job in the final eight games of this year to become -- as Mayo said last week -- a team that nobody wants to play.

Excellence is a bridge too far. Competence shouldn’t be. After four starts, it’s obvious the Patriots have their hood ornament. Now they just need to put a car under him.