We're such a different team

[40yrpatsfan]

It's like a 747 flew in an entirely new organization, different identity, a playoff team. Think of where we are:
1. Vrabel universally respected, demanding, high energy, smart, decisive
2. veteran organized coaching staff in Terrel Williams, Doug Marrone, Josh McDaniels
3. Wolf-Cowden front office that's absolutely killing it
4. on our 2025 schedule: TN, NYG, CAR, CLE, NO, LV, NYJ, NYJ, MIA, MIA, PIT, ATL
5. Drake Maye about to go nuclear
6. receivers Stefon Diggs, Kyle Williams, Mack Hollins, Pop Douglas, Boutte/Bourne, Henry/Hooper at TE, and take-it-to-the-house Henderson
7. two legit OT's and the stud center from Georgia fixes the OL
8. pound the rock with Rham, Henderson, Gibson, and 2 candidates for FB
8. solid/explosive DL with Barmore, Milton Williams, Tonga, Farmer
9. run-defending LB's in Spillane, Gibbons, Jennings
10. pass rush Landry, White, Chaisson, Swinson
11. plugged the DB holes with Carlton Davis and Epps/Woodson
12. got the best college kicker
13. and the cherry on top is a 2026 4th rounder

10-11 wins is a realistic goal. The talent and coaching are there, it's how quickly can we assimilate everything.

 

[AQPE]

 

[Toofy]

It's a 180 degree (edited ) u turn . Can't imagine how bad Mayo screwed 2024 season and 2025 draft pick . Thankfully bob realized it soon and got in Vrabel and this staff . Hats off to Kraft family for rectifying the error so quickly .

Now we just need to hope all the pieces gel in together . Maybe takes another year but we are definitely not a push over team. Bills do not get easy road to division this year. Their wr corps are worse than ours and are hoping on their running backs and some Josh magic . With our bolstered defense we stand a pretty good chance against them.

Let's see how tua kills us this year with the secondary we have ... 2 alpha dogs in Davis and gonzo and burner in Marcus Jones and an really speedy safety in woodson. They might just need to do smaller screens and with our pass defense that's gonna be difficult too. If barmore is healthy we are gonna be a beast on defense similar to eagles...

 

[manxman2601]

I'd add that hopefully we'll see a better season from Keion White who'll no longer be the only DL opposing offences need to worry about. If he can come close to the production he had in his first two games over the course of a whole season, we'll be laughing.

 

[Steve102]

It's a 360 degree u turn . Can't imagine how bad Mayo screwed 2024 season and 2025 draft pick . Thankfully bob realized it soon and got in Vrabel and this staff . Hats off to Kraft family for rectifying the error so quickly .

Now we just need to hope all the pieces gel in together . Maybe takes another year but we are definitely not a push over team. Bills do not get easy road to division this year. Their wr corps are worse than ours and are hoping on their running backs and some Josh magic . With our bolstered defense we stand a pretty good chance against them.

Let's see how tua kills us this year with the secondary we have ... 2 alpha dogs in Davis and gonzo and burner in Marcus Jones and an really speedy safety in woodson. They might just need to do smaller screens and with our pass defense that's gonna be difficult too. If barmore is healthy we are gonna be a beast on defense similar to eagles...

180 degrees, my man. 360 puts us back where we were.

 

[Water Boy]

I'm very excited about the defense. I'm bracing myself for offensive struggles (Maye included) given the installation of the McD offense. A sophomore slump isn't out of the question.

 

[Uptown]

Didn’t McDaniels allude to changing/simplifying/modernizing the offense, due to studying the many different collegiate systems during his time away from NE? If so, hopefully it won’t be too difficult for the rookies & newcomers to absorb the playbook this time around.

 

[Hugepatsfan]

They've upgraded the depth chart to where it's not laughably bad at any position. They seem to have a good coaching staff. That should keep them competitive week to week.

The thing that's going to make or break them is the fact that they still don't have any elite players besides Gonzo really. He's the only non special teamer on the team who's ever made a pro bowl/all pro team (not counting injury replacements). Maybe Barmore or Williams grow into that on the DL, but on paper they really lack guys who can just take over a game.

Think Jeffrey Simmons last year in our game vs. TEN. Sure, part of that is a bad matchup with our totally inept offensive line which they've addressed, but end of the day that's just a flat out beast going against guys who are overmatched. We're still underwhelming on the line where Campbell will be a rookie, Strange and Bradbury have been average at best, Onwenu is inconsistent and Moses is only solid and aging. We're still weak enough that if we go against a gamewrecking talent with his switch turned on that day, we're suseptible to just being overmatched. Our WRs are still so underwhelming that a team with great coverage is going to be able to totally shut down our passing game. Our LBs and Ss are so weak in coverage that someone will be able to abuse it. So on and so forth.

Our top end talent is still quite easily worst in the NFL on paper entering this year and while the depth chart is improved across the board, it's still mostly in the below average to a bit above it range as opposed to really good at too many spots. Pretty much every week they're going to be faced with multiple matchups where the other team can simply beat us like a drum all day long. We're constantly going to have to compensate for things like that and it's a tough way to play football. It sets you up to be in a lot of close games that the other team has a guy who simply makes more plays than you can keep up with.

I'm expecting 6-8 wins this year with a lot of visible on field progress that has it looking like a team poised to breakout next year with another strong offseason. Many will think that's negative, but IMO, this represents a really positive step for us and I view this offseason as a huge success so far, even though many will think I'm poo-poo'ing it.

 

[maust]

Unlike a teenager's party, a football team's future becomes more promising when there are adult professionals in the room

 

[zimmy]

Couple the roster and coaching improvements with the far easier schedule and this team should have a winning record next year.

 

[Brotherblues]

It's a 360 degree u turn .

 

[manxman2601]

Didn’t McDaniels allude to changing/simplifying/modernizing the offense, due to studying the many different collegiate systems during his time away from NE? If so, hopefully it won’t be too difficult for the rookies & newcomers to absorb the playbook this time around.

I think Maye will be more forgiving of rookie WRs than Brady was. I've always thought that the WR struggles here were partly because Brady was so unforgiving of receivers who couldn't get the system down immediately. I understand that, because precision and being on the same page as Brady were such a critical part of his success but Maye strikes me as more gung-ho and less reliant on being perfectly precise. I think that'll make for a better environment for rookie receivers.

 

[TomPatriot]

Feels like last year, they were just playin’ around.

This year it seems like they ain’t playin’ no more.

 

[The Gr8est]

It's a 360 degree u turn . Can't imagine how bad Mayo screwed 2024 season and 2025 draft pick . Thankfully bob realized it soon and got in Vrabel and this staff . Hats off to Kraft family for rectifying the error so quickly .

Now we just need to hope all the pieces gel in together . Maybe takes another year but we are definitely not a push over team. Bills do not get easy road to division this year. Their wr corps are worse than ours and are hoping on their running backs and some Josh magic . With our bolstered defense we stand a pretty good chance against them.

Let's see how tua kills us this year with the secondary we have ... 2 alpha dogs in Davis and gonzo and burner in Marcus Jones and a really speedy safety in woodson. They might just need to do smaller screens and with our pass defense that's gonna be difficult too. If barmore is healthy we are gonna be a beast on defense similar to eagles...

Really, without Bob Kraft righting the wrong of the Mayo hire for whatever reason (realized his mistake, listened to others and didn’t dig in his heels, or other), there was real talk on this board about fans moving on if Kraft kept Mayo, and I think it wasn’t just posturing.

If Kraft keeps Mayo this is a whole different conversation, and not a pleasant one.

 

[The Gr8est]

They've upgraded the depth chart to where it's not laughably bad at any position. They seem to have a good coaching staff. That should keep them competitive week to week.

The thing that's going to make or break them is the fact that they still don't have any elite players besides Gonzo really. He's the only non special teamer on the team who's ever made a pro bowl/all pro team (not counting injury replacements). Maybe Barmore or Williams grow into that on the DL, but on paper they really lack guys who can just take over a game.

Think Jeffrey Simmons last year in our game vs. TEN. Sure, part of that is a bad matchup with our totally inept offensive line which they've addressed, but end of the day that's just a flat out beast going against guys who are overmatched. We're still underwhelming on the line where Campbell will be a rookie, Strange and Bradbury have been average at best, Onwenu is inconsistent and Moses is only solid and aging. We're still weak enough that if we go against a gamewrecking talent with his switch turned on that day, we're suseptible to just being overmatched. Our WRs are still so underwhelming that a team with great coverage is going to be able to totally shut down our passing game. Our LBs and Ss are so weak in coverage that someone will be able to abuse it. So on and so forth.

Our top end talent is still quite easily worst in the NFL on paper entering this year and while the depth chart is improved across the board, it's still mostly in the below average to a bit above it range as opposed to really good at too many spots. Pretty much every week they're going to be faced with multiple matchups where the other team can simply beat us like a drum all day long. We're constantly going to have to compensate for things like that and it's a tough way to play football. It sets you up to be in a lot of close games that the other team has a guy who simply makes more plays than you can keep up with.

I'm expecting 6-8 wins this year with a lot of visible on field progress that has it looking like a team poised to breakout next year with another strong offseason. Many will think that's negative, but IMO, this represents a really positive step for us and I view this offseason as a huge success so far, even though many will think I'm poo-poo'ing it.

They have seemingly done a 180 turnaround on the roster, but there will be growing pains as they evolve into a cohesive unit.

 

[Brotherblues]

Unlike a teenager's party, a football team's future becomes more promising when there are adult professionals in the room

Depends on the adult professional

 

[maust]

Really, Bob Kraft righting the wrong of the Mayo hire for whatever reason (realized his mistake, listened to others and didn’t dig in his heels, or other).

There was real talk on this board about fans moving on if Kraft kept Mayo, and I think it wasn’t just posturing.

If Kraft keeps Mayo this is a whole different conversation, and not a pleasant one.

That's a great point that doesn't get the play it should. As much as Krafty Bob gets dumped on for the Mayo hire he deserves some credit for owning the mistake and moving rapidly to mitigate it. We all know there are owners out there whose egos would dictate a double down on a bad hire (lookin' at you in particular Jimmy Haslam), we should be thankful Kraft isn't one of them.

 

[Toofy]

D

 

[maust]

They have seemingly done a 180 turnaround on the roster, but there will be growing pains as they evolve into a cohesive unit.

Where previously the operative word was pain, it's been supplanted by growing. Some eggs are going to land on the floor before this omelette is successfully made. As long as the team is growing and moving forward intelligent fans will get behind it, the rest we'll hear from... endlessly.

 

[patsinthesnow]

Maye

Campbell
Robinson/Strange
Wilson
Onwenu
Moses

Williams
Diggs
Douglas
Henry
Henderson/Stevenson

That’s their best offense on paper since 2018. Between Maye’s legs, the WRs & Henderson they can beat man coverage. It’s also their fastest offense arguably since 2017.

There are still concerns obviously with the OL & no #1 WR. However, this unit finally has upside after years of having no chance personnel wise.