If you read all the speculation re the initial 53 roster, you see the same somewhat narrow range of of questions/options we are left with at this point. If you step back and look at what the roster is likely to be, however these relatively few choices fall, what do you see? What is the pattern of strengths, weaknesses, depth or lack of depth, upside, and so on? To me, this is just a badly constructed roster, reflecting several years of bad performance on the part of the GM in anticipating needs and drafting/trading/dropping/retaining players. We have two NFL tight ends and no backups, and one of those is not a tight end at all vis-a-vis the responsibilities traditionally signed to that position. The WR's are a bunch of maybe OK younger players and a couple of creaky old fellas unlikely to last the season. The RB backups are marginal. There is a baffling imbalance in the quality of the offense vs the coach's son's defense. We don't really know whether our #1 QB is really up to the job. Our backup QB has stunk out the joint this preseason. We probably can't take on the intriguing Cunningham, because our roster is so clogged up with maybes, we-don't-knows, old binkies, situations in which we must keep Mutt because though he's not very good, he just might be better than Jeff who might not be any good either but we don't know what to do so..... 'round and 'round. The defense is much ballyhooed, but if you look closely at what they really were last year and at some worrisome issues this preseason - have they looked competent against the run, are the linebackers really adequate, how did they do last year against worthy opponents, which of that cloud of so-so CB's is going to work out, and so on. How good is the defense really, and can they - could any? - defense compensate for an offense so weak.
I have been a Pats fan since they were the Boston Patriots. I remember as a kid sitting at the breakfast table listening to some cigarette-voiced guy interview Babe Parilla. I remember Jim Nance, Gino Cappelletti (I still miss him on the radio.). Unlike fans whose experience has spanned mostly the Golden Brady Years, I know from direct experience that the team is not always good, not guaranteed to be competitive re the Championship nor maybe even in its own division. Part of being a fan is the pleasure of hopefully reading the tea leaves as a team develops in its inevitable down times, speculating, as in this thread, as to what might transpire on the upside. Those are the pleasures available to us in such times as these. We will inevitably err at such times on the side of optimism on occasion, and when we say to ourselves, "Hey now, this might just all work out; all this stuff might just fall right," that is what we are doing. This roster has few stars and woeful backups. It's fine to see, even to imagine (This really is all just for fun, after all. Right?), instances where hope is in order, but such happy speculation has to be against a back-drop of honest evaluation. This is a .500 team, it seems to me, and I don't think even that is guaranteed.