New England Patriots: Evaluating Patriots offseason moves

Michael DeVito

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - JANUARY 04: Julian Edelman #11 of the New England Patriots warms up on the field before playing against the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game at Gillette Stadium on January 04, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

New England Patriots grade for offseason team-building evaluated after the 2020 draft.

This article will evaluate how the New England Patriots have done so far in 2020 in three critical phases of team-building: free agency, the draft, and undrafted free agency.

Team-building in the offseason is in my view the most critical determinant of an NFL football team’s likely success in that succeeding season. You build in the offseason to win in the fall and winter. A poor off-season is a very good barometer of how an NFL team will fare in the upcoming season.

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Each component has a role to play in creating a team that can potentially win a Super Bowl, the ultimate goal of any season. While other teams do not have such lofty expectations, 20 years of a Tom Brady-led team have raised that expectation level for New England Patriots fans to those heights.

Now with Brady gone, the offseason team-building aspect has become that much more important. I have written previously that in the prior two decades, poor offseasons from the Patriots personnel operation have been covered up by the sheer excellence of their all-time great quarterback.

There is no such fallback position in 2020 for the Patriots. They decided that Tom Brady’s play had deteriorated to the point that they decided to let him leave in free agency. The ultimate safety valve as I have called him is no longer there to cover up for their mistakes.

The greater part of the 2020 offseason team-building is now complete. The bulk of free agency has come and gone, though players will still be available especially after June 1 should they be cut by their teams.

Yet, the opportunities to indulge in that aspect are now very limited by cap constraints under which the New England Patriots are currently operating. So it is not realistic to expect much relief from that pool of players though it cannot be ruled out.

In any event, three phases of the off-season have now been completed and it may be instructive to hypothesize on how the New England Patriots have fared in those aspects up to now.

New England Patriots 2020 free agency grade

There are two aspects to free agency. Whom did you lose and whom did you sign? Let’s take a quick look at some of the highlights and lowlights of that exercise for New England this offseason.

First, how did the Patriots fare in lost players? Grading that is pretty easy. They blew the offseason in not keeping free agents who were valuable contributors to the team.

New England Patriots 2020 draft and undrafted free agency grades

I have explored the draft in detail previously. I pretty much panned the draft for a couple of reasons.

First, I thought that the Patriots clear draft priority this offseason had to be on the offensive side of the ball. Including quarterback high up in the draft. I still do.

Yet, the Patriots first three picks were devoted to defense. That fact really overrode any other feelings about the success of the draft in my opinion.

But there is another side of the story. With their first pick, they chose a Division II safety, a really good one at that, in Kyle Dugger, of Lenoir-Rhyne. Dugger got rave reviews for his Senior Bowl week and performance. I saw the game but didn’t really feel he excelled. But, let’s hope he does.

The opportunity cost though for picking Dugger was too high in my opinion. I thought they had other, better options available on offense. There were some terrific offensive players available when the Patriots picked at No. 37.

Jalen Hurts, the RPO quarterback who runs like running back was there. He’d have been my choice. A foundation piece for the future.

Also available was the best all-around tight end in the draft, Cole Kmet of Notre Dame and his teammate wide receiver Chase Claypool.

Either of the Fighting Irish would have been really solid selections. Better selections. Two top running backs I had highlighted previously were also on the board.

Running backs Jonathan Taylor from Wisconsin and Cam Akers of Florida State. Either would have been preferable to a defensive back. Bigger backs with real talent. Missed opportunity.

Later in the third round, the Patriots traded up to select Josh Uche an outside linebacker from Michigan. Uche was a standout in the Senior Bowl as an edge rusher. I like him. But again, it was a pick on defense.

Among those the Patriots passed up were big running backs A.J. Dillon from Boston College and Antonio Gibson, a wide/receiver/running back from Memphis. Two potentially very valuable contributors on offense.

They followed that up in the third round by taking another linebacker, Anfernee Jennings from Alabama. There they passed up huge offensive tackle Matt Peart from Connecticut.

Now I had hyped Jennings to an extent before the draft, but not in the third round. I was thinking much later. So I thought this was a reach. But again, he might work out fine for the Patriots.

Finally, in the third round, the Patriots addressed an offensive position that needed addressing, tight end. Yet the two choices left me cold. Devin Asiasi from UCLA and Dalton Keene from Virginia Tech. I thought both were reaches. Keene a huge one. And Adam Trautman from Dayton, a better option, in my opinion, was there for both picks.

I did like their 6th round pick, guard Michael Onwenu, however, and have written that I thought he was their best of the draft. A 6th rounder.

One last thought on the draft before the grade. I also was dismayed that the Patriots invested serious draft capital on moving up to select a few of the players they took high in the draft.

They had many holes to fill and I felt that more picks were better than fewer for New England. They could just have done a much better overall job.

With those thoughts in mind, I stand by my draft grade of D+. They needed impact offensive players early in this draft, and they chose not to get them.

Final thoughts on undrafted free agency and my grade on the New England Patriots’ offseason to-date.

The Patriots’ undrafted free agency list of players was overall uninspiring. One player I liked and have highlighted previously was J.J. Taylor the running back from Arizona. But they failed to address running back in the draft as I felt they should have.

Yet, Taylor was productive college back though small of stature. He just might surprise. I give the group a C.

The Patriots haven’t made any trades. So, tallying up their offseason to-date is really not very difficult. They had a poor free agency. They lost the best quarterback ever due to inattention and also lost some other good, productive players. They landed no real impact signings.

The draft was a mixed bag. They drafted some pretty good defensive players. But they whiffed significantly in shoring up an offense that was deficient in 2019 and helped cost them a run in the playoffs.

And undrafted free agency, well, was undrafted free agency. It’s a crapshoot but don’t be surprised if they keep one of the players. (It helps get them signings in future years.)

So, to sum it all up at this point in the offseason when NFL teams’ and their season’s destinies are written, I give the Patriots an overall grade of C-. It just hasn’t been that productive where it needed to be productive.

Michael DeVito

Michael is a long-time New England Patriots fan. He closely follows the Patriots' offseason team-building activities, including the Patriots' Draft, Free Agency, and Undrafted Free Agency. Michael also follows all Boston sports. He is also a big fan of the Chelsea Football Club in the English Premier League.