No, it's not. What's more, you had to know that when you posted it.
Not making the playoffs at 11-5, was/is an aberation. Getting humbled in the wildcard round is sobering; but you forget and overlook that we beat the Ravens in the regular season. Plus this was the absolute depths of the rebuilding, having cut ties to the last four big Defensive SB players, in Seymour, Vrabel, Tedy, and Rodney.
1.) Going 16-0 was an aberration. Winning 3 Super Bowls in 4 seasons was an aberration. So what? These things still happened.
2.) I didn't forget about the regular season game. Frankly, that makes the loss worse if you claim relevance.
3.) The cutting of the ties is the whole point of at least half the discussion, so I don't buy into it as any sort of excuse, sorry.
Does this edition look to have anywhere near the questions of last year? Hardly. This Defense is very young and somewhat proven even now, and also potentially very deep, stocked with lots of high draft picks.
There are more questions this year than there were last year before Belichick decided to start playing "Let's make a deal" in the offseason. The good news is that the players who are possible answers to many of those questions would be younger than in much of the recent past.
I think there are young developing impact players here too. Meriwether, Mayo, Wilfork, TBC, have shown glimpses and Spikes, Butler, McCourty, and Cunningham/Crabel have the credentials.
No rookies have NFL credentials. Crable's only credentials would come from a medical facility. TBC isn't a young developing player, given that he'll be 30 years old before the season starts, and he's certainly not an impact player to this point in his career.
Y'all forget that the defensive stars were all 4 and 5 year vets before their impact plays became routine. Tedy didn't even move to ILB and start, until his fourth season; nor did Vrabel.
You making the claim that these things are forgotten does not make it truth. In reality, making that "4 and 5 year" argument undermines your assertions about many of the young players, for this season and the next couple of years. The logical inconsistency involved there damages, rather than helps, your overall position.