Sunday’s soup-to-nuts incompetence in Miami undid four weeks of minor Patriots progress.
Not that the post-Jacksonville stretch against the Jets, Titans, Bears and Rams was reason to break out the sheet cake. But it was a candle in a cave. A hint that -- against teams in similar or worse straits -- New England could compete.
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Which, after the London embarrassment to a Jags team that was itself in the process of quitting, was desperately needed.
And now? Right back where they were. With less time to rectify and a much harder string of opponents to deal with.
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At 3-9 with five games to go between now and January 5, the only area in which the Patriots are better than they were in 2023 is at quarterback. Which is great. But they were -- by CHOICE -- rolling out Bailey Zappe as their starter at the end of last season. It was a low bar to clear. Thankfully, the Patriots cleared it by a mile with Drake Maye.
But the presence of Maye -- an honest-to-God, can’t-screw-him-up, surefire franchise messiah -- only adds to the urgency of the next six weeks.
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Yes, Bill Belichick left the organization wrecked and smoking in a ditch. But very little progress has been made in getting the car out.
Aside from Maye and some increased offensive production that’s ENTIRELY linked to his presence, there is literally nothing for the team to hang its hat on as inspiring optimism.
Not one position group is appreciably better than last year.
They’ve been lit up in the passing game by Geno Smith, Matthew Stafford, Tua Tagovailoa, Aaron Rodgers and C.J. Stroud.
They’ve had the ball run through their collective faces by the Jets, 49ers, Dolphins, Texans, Jaguars and Titans. They have 13 sacks in their last six games. Nine of them came against the Bears, who promptly fired their offensive coordinator the next day.
Except for the opener against Cincinnati, they’ve gotten hammered every time they see a veteran coach/quarterback combo. And two of the three times they’ve been matched up with new staffs, they’ve lost (to Seattle and Tennessee).
Take out Belichick's 50-year expertise, Steve Belichick as defensive play-caller and Jerod Mayo’s undivided attention on stopping offenses, and replace them with a first-year DC in DeMarcus Covington? Then take out Ja’Whaun Bentley, Jabrill Peppers, Christian Barmore and Matthew Judon? Surprise!!! They’re not very good!!!
Meanwhile, the offensive line is so poorly staffed, you can’t even get mad at it. I mean, you can. And you do. But everybody there except Michael Onwenu is a temp. And none of them can be benched because the guys behind them are worse.
At wide receiver? Of the 11 wideouts taken in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft, only one has fewer catches than Ja’Lynn Polk's 12: Ricky Pearsall, who has 11.
Pearsall has only played in five games after getting shot at the end of August. Fourth-rounder Javon Baker still doesn’t have a catch.
The Patriots need edge rushers, cornerbacks, offensive tackles and wide receivers. Aside from quarterback, those are the four most coveted and highly-paid positions in the NFL. And there is absolutely no evidence that personnel fellas Eliot Wolf and Matt Groh -- who had to have some say in player acquisition from 2021 to 2023, since we kept hearing there was more collaboration -- are equipped to staff those spots.
Oh, yeah. And the players keep committing stupid penalties. And Mayo is usually good for one, “Why’d he do that?” in-game decision each week.
So the Patriots are badly staffed, poorly coached and lack focus.
Ownership tried to thread the post-Belichick needle. They didn’t expect the 2023 nosedive. And they didn’t want Bill to run another rebuild.
But after two decades of success (followed by four seasons of deterioration), the seismic change of moving on from Belichick was all Robert Kraft wanted to handle. The promising people who were being stifled would step to the fore -- Wolf and Mayo being the primary figures. Their ascension was a year earlier than projected, but Kraft wanted continuity because, well, it was only the most successful run in pro football history.
New coaches taking over a bad roster? A disappointing record was to be expected. But the kind of boobery on display Sunday is enough to give pause. Because if the players weren’t going to be better than they were last year, at least they needed to be smarter and more disciplined. They ain’t.
There are nine horrible teams in the league: the Jets, Patriots, Browns, Titans, Jags, Raiders, Giants, Bears, and Panthers. They’re all bobbing on the waves in the middle of the ocean.
Among those nine teams, the Patriots have one of the three worst rosters. But they have the best quarterback who’s still working on a rookie contract.
In Drake Maye, the Patriots actually have a flotation device.
Between Maye, another top-five pick and a huge amount of cap space, there’s absolutely a way for the franchise to get back to dry land.
But this franchise hasn’t shown a shred of urgency since the start of 2017. Head-in-the-sand, we-got-this, don’t-forget-we’re-the-Patriots behavior was seen in the Brady divorce, the drafting, the free agent spending, the coaching succession plans and the exile of Mac Jones.
You can look at 2024 as a continuation of that. Or you can look at it as ownership just trying to take a beat to figure it out.
But the time for what needs to be radical change is almost upon them. Five games and six weeks remain, but the Patriots have been swooning since December 2021 with a record of 16-35 since that wind game in Buffalo. Sixteen. And. Thirty-five.
On Monday, Mayo said, “I think it would be a disservice to get to the end of the year and not know exactly what we have from a player or coaching perspective, and that has to be our focus.”
The Patriots -- and that’s all players, all coaches and all execs -- have five games and six weeks to make a case that they have a place with the team beyond this 2024 "trial year."
