The 2020 New England Patriots offseason has been suspect and it doesn’t seem like there will be a lot of hope for the regular season.
I have a keen interest in the offseason team-building aspect of the New England Patriots. It’s a complete bore to some I know, but not to this writer.
Offseason team-building is where it’s at. The essence of the team’s success in the upcoming season is built in the offseason.
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Some fans tend to completely ignore this aspect of their team’s next season. It’s baffling to me that they can just brush aside and ignore everything that goes on between February and September.
They throw this process under the rug like dust and blissfully ignore all the most critical elements of their teams’ potential success. How can they ignore all this?
To ignore this aspect of the process is like ignoring the ingredients of preparing a great meal. If you get a poor choice of meat, fish or vegetables and poor seasonings, you’re not going to be satisfied with the results. You have to do the prep to be able to see the best results.
Key aspects of the team’s success the next season are determined during these months. Which free agents are re-signed, who leaves and who enters in free agency?
And then, there’s the draft. Which positions in the NFL draft are addressed that will fill team needs and address the team’s weaknesses in the previous season? Which undrafted free agents will be signed after the draft and will a gem like Malcolm Butler or J.C. Jackson emerge from this group?
This is a great opportunity to remedy a team’s weaknesses if manipulated right. Will your team make the right positional determinations and the best players at those positions to do the job?
These are some of the offseason aspects of teambuilding that must succeed if your team is to do well, make the playoffs, and even compete for a Super Bowl title.
So, how have the New England Patriots done in their critically important first post-Tom Brady offseason?
New England Patriots’ free agency failures
Previously, I commented on the pre-draft activities of the Patriots personnel department, whoever they may be in providing the team with talent upgrades to enhance their prospects in the 2020 season. This commentary includes the April 2020 draft in that evaluation.
I didn’t think the Patriots did much with their free agency opportunities. They lost a slew of players to free agency. One of them was the greatest quarterback in NFL history. Enough has been said about that. But that miscue alone was enough to give them an F grade in my view.
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Elsewhere, they also lost several key defensive players to free agency like Kyle Van Noy and one versatile backup interior offensive lineman. Now one might argue that the Patriots were limited in free agency by their salary cap situation. True enough.
Reportedly, they can’t even sign their first-round draft pick because of that difficulty. Obviously, that will have to change. But who put them in that bind, anyway? They did it to themselves.
Yet, there are always ways to mitigate that situation through restructuring contracts or more drastic personnel actions like releasing players who count significantly on the cap. We may very well see that in June.
Agreeing to an injury settlement with Mohamed Sanu would save millions on the cap. Dilemma solved. Sanu wrecked his ankle on a meaningless and ill-advised (by the coaching staff) punt return for the Patriots last season.
He needed offseason surgery to correct it. He’s only now getting into rehab. An injury settlement solves the problem and who knows if/when he could return anyway. If he can later on in the season, he could be brought back then maybe.
New England Patriots draft deficiencies
At an early age, I was enthralled with the draft. How will the Patriots do? Whom will they select? It has always been an exciting (and too often disappointing and discouraging exercise) with the Patriots.
It was really difficult early on when the Patriots just didn’t have the resources to pay the bonuses to sign the best draftees. Then, at times they were just plain incompetent in their selections.
Now, for the past 20 years or so, it just seems that on many selections they choose a player just because nobody else rates them as highly as they evidently do. That’s called arrogance.
Why do players that no draft publication, no keen observers and nobody else rates highly (or even at all, hello Tavon Wilson) on their draft boards wind up as second-round or other picks for the New England Patriots?
I think it’s this particular type of their draft incompetence that irks me the most out of all of the other versions. The Patriots have blown draft pick choices that were so obvious even a rank amateur could see it. Like their not drafting Jason Taylor who went on to torment Tom Brady for over a decade with Miami.
The main problem with their 2020 draft was the entire strategy behind it. That’s a pretty strong statement and indictment of their personnel operation. It really wasn’t as simple as saying the Patriots draft picks this season were all duds. No, it really wasn’t that.
In my view, this draft above-all had to be devoted to the offensive side of the football. That side cost them their season in 2019, above all other considerations. And, quarterback had to be at or the very least near the top of the list. They passed.
I’ve written before that even the greatest quarterback of all-time couldn’t get this group to work for him in 2019. Enough said. They just weren’t that good. Take Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, and James White out of that group, and they were a bottom 5 offense. Now that great quarterback has left.
What went wrong in the draft? First, the Patriots drafted defensive players in their first three picks. Two in the second round and one, their first of 3 in the third round.
So, making this clear, the Patriots had 5 premium picks (picks in the first 3 rounds) to rebuild their ineffective offensive skill positions. And, after day one, six more picks to fill in elsewhere. Five players could really have made a difference. They blew it.
They took a Division II safety as their first pick in the second round. Their track record in the second round with defensive backs under Bill Belichick has been abysmal. Then they took defensive ends/outside linebackers with the next two picks.
I’ll say again, all three of these players may turn out to be decent, productive players. Maybe. The problem I have with all of those picks is that they were totally mistargeted. They should have been offensive picks. And especially, offensive skill players.
Their situation at offensive skill players is dismal. Julian Edelman, their best offensive player this season, will be 34 years old. James White, their great receiving back is 28. Outside of those two players, the Patriots’ skill players were terrible in 2019.
The 2020 draft should have been used exclusively in the first 5 picks the Patriots had to rectify (or at least attempt to) these deficiencies at skill positions on offense. They needed a quarterback to replace or at least compete with Jarrett Stidham for the starting position after Brady left. They punted.
They needed at least two wide receivers to bolster that awful position in terms of production in 2019. They didn’t draft any, anywhere. They needed a big back to get them a yard or two in short-yardage situations they couldn’t get in 2019. They totally passed.
And they needed to bolster the tight end situation which was invisible in 2019. Lo and behold they addressed it in the third round with two picks. Unfortunately, I felt that better options were on the board when they were selected and they reached/overdrafted both of them. One by maybe 3 rounds.
All this added up in my view to a failed draft. They blew it. The players they chose maybe be OK, but they failed to make the absolutely critical, major investment in offensive skill positions that were unquestionably necessary. The draft was a strategic failure.
New England Patriots team-building and injuries
Offseason team-building determines the success or failure of a team the next season. But even a great job in those phases can be derailed by injuries. Injuries are the great equalizer.
Injuries hurt the New England Patriots dearly last season on offense. The offensive line took a lot of hits. David Andrews serious situation and the injuries to Isaiah Wynn and to a lesser extent Shaq Mason were huge obstacles, and truly terrible in-season trades did nothing really to alleviate them.
Also, the wide receiver corps had injuries. Major ones. As well as a lack of talent. They just weren’t that good. An injury to Mohamed Sanu, a good acquisition actually, was ruined by a dubious coaching decision. Rather, a pitiful coaching decision.
Sanu was called upon to return a punt last season. He’s not a punt returner. He wrecked his ankle and was ineffective for the entire rest of the season.
In addition, he had to ultimately have surgery on the said ankle and is only now beginning his rehab thereon. Will he be able to play effectively for the Patriots this season? Who knows.
Sanu’s silly injury is reminiscent of the decision in which New England’s coaches put their great defensive end Richard Seymour (now a Patriots Hall of Famer and hopefully an NFL Hall of Famer in the future, as well) in the game to block as a fullback. Seymour wrecked his knee on what was probably the last of those foolish plays and was never the same again.
In addition, in-season trades last season failed miserably to rectify problems in the offensive line that were very costly. Building depth in the off-season is essential.
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The Patriots added depth late in the draft to the offensive line, but it was the skills positions that need to be addressed more urgently. They failed to address those needs.
Summary: A huge bore
First, in their greatest faux pas of all time, the New England Patriots sent Tom Brady packing through indifference and insult. This was not only a terrible football decision, but it was also bad optics for New England.
Brady was still playing at a high level. Mosty of his offensive teammates, well, weren’t. Even Brady couldn’t make the tired, injured, talent-deficient 2019 offense go. Now he’s gone. So Jarrett Stidham will make it work? Please. This type of logic just defies explanation. It’s bizarre.
The rest of free agency was also a bore. Really. Just like many of their draft picks have been over the past twenty years. This year’s draft was also, well, a bore.
The draft was underwhelming. They went defense with their top 3 picks. Defense! When their offense was atrocious last season. So bad, that even the greatest of the great, Tom Brady was totally frustrated by them and couldn’t do what he wanted with them.
With 5 premium picks they could have made a real difference in offensive skill positions. Revolutionary. But they failed to draft a quarterback high up. Strike one. They failed to draft any wide receivers when their next highest receiver’s total catches after the great Julian Edelman was 29 catches. Strike two.
Then, they failed to add a big back or any back in the draft, when their running back room was mediocre at best (outside the terrific James White). Strike 3. Then to add insult to injury, they finally drafted 2 tight ends, but reached for both and missed the boat. Strike 4.
Their additions in undrafted free agency were also non-descript except for one, J.J. Taylor from Arizona. He’s a small but very good running back. But quite small.
All-in-all, the New England Patriots offseason performance to-date has to be graded as a D+/C-. It just hasn’t been very good. For years, such performances were glossed over, though if you were paying attention, you knew. This offseason’s inadequacies won’t be overlooked so much or overcome.
They were glossed over because they had the greatest quarterback of all time to bail them out of their personnel inadequacies. I’d called Tom Brady the “Great Safety Valve”. Mess up free agency? No problem. Botch the draft? It’s OK. Fail to build a solid offensive line? Fine.
Always, there was No. 12 to cover up for all the mishaps. Well, that safety valve is now gone south to Tampa Bay. The Patriots poor performing personnel operation is now on their own. I don’t see that they have taken the proper steps to ready the team for the post-Brady era. Far from it.
I can’t see this team scoring more than about 15 points per game. And that’s not good enough. The dynasty is over. And downtimes are ahead. I see this year and next before the next football leadership team is set in place. I hope I’m wrong. But I doubt it. We’ll see.