New England Patriots: 5 worst offseason moves

What are the 5 worst offseason moves by the New England Patriots in 2020?

I have previously chronicled the 5 best offseason moves by the New England Patriots in the 2020 offseason, now it’s time to review their 5 worst. They overshadow the best by a lot.

Here are my 5 worst in descending order:

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Fifth, Losing Danny Shelton to free agency.

Danny Shelton when he left for free agency was one of the best nose tackles in the National Football League. While underperforming in 2018, Shelton bounced back with renewed conviction and dedication when he was re-signed for 2019 and he delivered the goods. He was terrific.

Shelton delivered 61 tackles and 3 sacks on route to probably his best season in the NFL. Unfortunately, the Patriots allowed him to leave for Detroit and now are faced with filling a key position in their defense. I don’t think they have.

Fourth, Losing Kyle Van Noy to free agency.

Kyle Van Noy was New England’s most versatile linebacker, and one of their two best along with Dont’a Hightower. Van Noy was tremendously underrated during his time in New England. His play spoke volumes as he was as versatile as they come. Rush the passer, stop the run. Cover.

Van Noy was a force for the Patriots in the linebacker corps and they have no one waiting in the wings to replace him. No one. His speed was unmatched among New England’s linebackers and he made big plays when you needed them.

I have no idea why New England allowed Van Noy to leave (especially to a division rival). But one thing is clear, they have no one on the current roster who can replace his contributions.

Third, not drafting Jalen Hurts in the second round (or any quarterback in any high pick) to be the quarterback of the future.

I have written about this previously, and I still believe it now, the Patriots made a major strategic error when they didn’t draft a prototypical RPO quarterback like Jalen Hurts to lead their offense in the post-Tom Brady era. And, in fact, they didn’t draft a quarterback anywhere in the draft.

Hurts has it all for the new NFL. It has been postulated by Max McAuliffe of si.com that the Patriots are constructing a defense to stop the RPO. So why didn’t they take an RPO offensive weapon themselves to provide problems for opposing defenses?

Who knows. But one thing is clear, the Philadelphia Eagles thought enough of Hurts to select him in the second round. And if you recall, the Eagles already have a top-notch quarterback in Carsen Wentz. The Patriots, after the unceremonious dumping of Brady, have, well, no one.

New England again, made a strategic error here. The league is changing. Offenses are changing. Yet, even while possibly trying to adapt defensively they eschew the opportunity to move forward with their own multi-faceted offense. Why? Who knows. But it’s a very bad decision.

Second, Not drafting offensive skill positions in the early draft picks.

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The Patriots had an offense in 2019 that even the greatest of all-time, Brady couldn’t get to work. So what did they do in their top 3 picks in the NFL draft to bolster their quarterback position and their offense generally? Well, nothing. Nothing at all.

The Patriots lost the best quarterback of all time. Did they draft a young quarterback, maybe an RPO-type to try to replace him? No. They didn’t draft any quarterback even to provide competition to the heir-apparent, Jarrett Stidham. None.

But there’s much more. The Patriots’ wide receivers last season, were, outside of Julian Edelman well, poor. The next guy in catches had 29 catches. 29!! How bad is that?

And supposedly, the greatest quarterback of all-time refused to even throw the ball to some of his receivers they were so bad. That’s bad.

So rather than tilting heavily toward wide receiver with their 11 picks after day one of the draft, the Patriots selected … no wide receivers. None at all. Evidently, their 35-40 man draft list didn’t contain any who were either available when they picked, or who were worthy at all, I guess.

Some consolation was that the Patriots finally selected a tight end in the third round. Two of them actually, both of whom they traded up for. My view, neither of them warranted trading up for since better players and tight ends were available. An OK decision on position, bad decisions on choices.

First, allowing the greatest quarterback of all-time to leave due to indifference.

In my view, losing Brady was an inexcusable and indefensible and all-time colossal mistake by whoever is calling the shots on such decisions for the New England Patriots. A monumental blunder.

This was an inexcusable error by New England’s hierarchy. They will almost certainly feel its after-effects this season and very likely beyond.

Who knows what the flimsy rationale for this non-action was. We may never know. But it was one which will haunt the franchise for the foreseeable future.

So there are my 5 worst offseason moves by New England. The die has been cast, so to speak, so we’ll all await the ultimate results of this offseason.

In my view, it was not a good one. And, for the first time in almost 20 years, the great safety valve, the inimitable Brady will not be there to make up for the mistakes.