New England Patriots: What lies ahead for Bill Belichick’s squad
A rough 2020 offseason for the New England Patriots has led to a disappointing season.
Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots are closing out a less than successful season.
For the first time in over a decade, the Patriots have been eliminated from the hunt for the playoffs.
On March 17th, 2020, Tom Brady announced he would be leaving the New England Patriots, and shortly after he signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers officially ending the Belichick-Brady Dynasty in New England.
Despite losing Brady, there was still hope for the New England Patriots. Before the season kicked off, Belichick was able to sign mobile quarterback, and former MVP, Cam Newton. Patriots fans were excited about this signing as they felt it was the best option for the Patriots.
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New England wanted to create a more dynamic playbook and adjustment for Cam Newton now that Tom Brady wasn’t in the picture.
The new playbook solution:
It did not seem as though this new playbook worked for Cam Newton, Bill Belichick, and the New England Patriots offense.
With Tom Brady, the New England Patriots were notoriously a pass first offense. There were a lot of plays that focused on isolating defensive backs who were guarding tight ends.
Notably, the dynamic duo of Rob Gronkowski and Tom Brady was able to exploit the defense’s weak links.
With Newton, the Pats’ offense was based on runs, play action, and option plays with more than half of the Patriots’ offensive plays were runs or option plays.
Teams saw the New England Patriots were weak in wide receiver depth, tight ends, and lacked powerful running backs.
It was also seen that Cam Newton did not show pass accuracy much as deep passes were rarely successful. His stats this season were less than adequate as he only threw 5 touchdowns, had 10 interceptions, and 11 rushing touchdowns.
Where things went wrong for the New England Patriots
A lot went wrong for the New England Patriots went wrong. Bill Belichick tried to create a successful dynamic playbook, but frankly this did not work out well as opponents were able to quickly pick up on the playbook and determine how some of the run-pass-option plays would look.
The Patriots were abysmal in the Red Zone this season. They had a 51.11 percent touchdown rate within the opposing 20-yard line. This was the fourth worst Red Zone scoring percentage in the NFL this season.
As of right now, the Pats are 6-8 on the season, but Cam Newton is not the person to blame. He was pretty much set up to fail as his team was unsuccessful during the season. The team did not adjust to the new playbook as well as the should’ve.
Bill Belichick felt that a different order of the plays would do the trick. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
Belichick’s offensive game plan continued to improperly show how well this offense could do. In doing so, the Patriots were losing games, players were getting injured, and struggling to be successful which led to a season to not get close to the expectation set for the franchise in Foxboro.
What did this season prove? What does the future look like?
Bill Belichick was unprepared for the challenge of having a new decision maker on offense with Cam Newton. He had to go through a long and grueling transition from a pocket quarterback to a more versatile run-pass quarterback.
For many, this completely derailed any notion that winning could be done without Tom Brady.
The upside is that Cam Newton only signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots, so it might be time to ship him off and try someone new.
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The turnaround might be difficult, but it will with the right staff and right roster for the future.
The question that Belichick needs to get answered is who will be his Quarterback next season. Could it be a current veteran QB such as Matthew Stafford, Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston, or will it be a rookie guy such as University of Florida’s Kyle Trask or BYU’s Zach Wilson, or another prospect in this NFL draft?
These questions will be answered during the NFL offseason as a lot of decisions will be made about the future of the New England Patriots, Cam Newton, and Bill Belichick.