A Cautionary Note

[PP2]

Please don't take this thread to be a negative one. Let's just call it a realists response to the positivity of the past few months.

Getting the positivity out of the way first. This has been a borderline perfect off-season for the team. Short of missing out on Ronnie Stanley and Chris Godwin, neither of which were the team's fault, there is almost nothing to be negative about in terms of roster construction from such a lowly starting point. I'm also excited by the coaching staff at the top and hopefully we've seen a corner turned on drafting.

Being a realist however, there are some things which give me pause (in no particular order):

1. Christian Barmore. The defensive line could be very different depending on whether he's fully healthy or not.

2. Depth. The roster transformation has been outstanding but depending on draft picks, the roster is still fairly shallow. This isn't something to blame Vrabel & co for, they could only do so much, but injuries will still be a problem.

3. The Draft Picks. No-one could be happier than I in what we did in the draft and UDFA, but let's face it, it's not very common for every draft pick to hit.

4. The interior OL. We didn't do much to address this. Hopefully Jared Wilson hits straight away either at guard or center because neither Strange (how's his injury status?) or Bradbury (better run blocker than pass blocker) move the needle in a positive direction for me.

5. Morgan Moses. Loved the signing but he does miss games. Did we do enough to back him up? There's a fair amount of pressure on Caeden Wallace here.

6. New playbooks/coaching. This speaks for itself. Things will take a while to bed in.

7. The WR Corps. We've made some good additions but we still have a receiving corps that is still in the lower half of WR power rankings. Diggs and Kyle Williams will both have to produce to make this corps even average in quality.

As I said, this thread isn't meant to be a negative one. If everything goes perfectly for us next season, I do think we have a shot at the playoffs, but the realist in me says that things rarely go that perfectly. I am more positive about 2026 and beyond, I'm just preparing myself for 2025 to underwhelm compared to current, understandable, expectations.

I think you underestimate the impact of coaching (#6). Just the change in coaching staff will have a huge difference in terms of professionalism and pure competence.

It's my opinion that a lot of people are underestimating what Vrabel brings to the table as a coach. In Tennessee (and I have repeatedly said this) Vrabel only had a polished turd to work with in Tannehill. Here, he has a superstar in the making.

One of the very few times I ever saw BB, as a coach, get flustered and really upset was when he got outcoached by Vrabel in in the '20 wildcard upset. Many of you will remember that as the game Vrabel ran almost 2 minutes off the clock without running a single play, leaving Brady 15 seconds (IIRC) to work with on the final drive.

 

[DarrylS]

I do not think it is unreasonable to have very realistic expectations for the Patriots. To assume they will make the playoffs is folly.
What I do think will happen this year is more competent coaching and a much better team than we have seen recently. The Pats will no longer be a "tomato can" instead they will be a team that will be respected by the rest of the league.
There will be significant improvement in all phases. This team has more talent, is faster, younger, more sensible/knowledgeable coaching and more aggressive than we have seen recently.
The Pats will win between 7-9 wins...

 

[Real fan 02]

I think you underestimate the impact of coaching (#6). Just the change in coaching staff will have a huge difference in terms of professionalism and pure competence.

It's my opinion that a lot of people are underestimating what Vrabel brings to the table as a coach. In Tennessee (and I have repeatedly said this) Vrabel only had a polished turd to work with in Tannehill. Here, he has a superstar in the making.

One of the very few times I ever saw BB, as a coach, get flustered and really upset was when he got outcoached by Vrabel in in the '20 wildcard upset. Many of you will remember that as the game Vrabel ran almost 2 minutes off the clock without running a single play, leaving Brady 15 seconds (IIRC) to work with on the final drive.

Thank you for mentioning this. Excellent post! coaching ...is something I will never underestimate again. I admit I didn't fully value the value of coaching last session after what we all witnessed.

If you tune in to team report's & player interviews they all seem charged up and engaged under Vrabel. Vrabel made his own lane as a coach outside of the BB circle. Vrabel's said himself he and Bill have a great relationship outside of football. Having the coaching upgrades alone is already an upgrade. Also Terrell Williams many may not understand how valued he is to Vrabel being a 20 plus year NFL veteran coach. We know full well what Josh can do for a young QB he made Mac Jones look like a real NFL QB his rookie season.

 

[Water Boy]

My thoughts:

I think its going to take time for the offense to come together.

A complicated new system for Maye and WR development is always a concern of mine.

We've had such a **** offensive line for years it's hard to have confidence in a major turn around. Fingers crossed that Campbell can get the job done. So true that we need MoMo to stay healthy.

If Strange, Robinson, Sow and Wallace can't get Their **** together then purge them all and continue to draft OL until the cows come home.

 

[Triumph]

Making the 2025 playoffs would be akin to reaching the Super Bowl for this franchise at the moment.

The 2025 Pats are rising up from the ashes like a phoenix. I expect them to win games that they shouldn't and lose games that they were suppose to win. Its just sports. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

 

[Huckleberry1]

Please don't take this thread to be a negative one. Let's just call it a realists response to the positivity of the past few months.

Getting the positivity out of the way first. This has been a borderline perfect off-season for the team. Short of missing out on Ronnie Stanley and Chris Godwin, neither of which were the team's fault, there is almost nothing to be negative about in terms of roster construction from such a lowly starting point. I'm also excited by the coaching staff at the top and hopefully we've seen a corner turned on drafting.

Being a realist however, there are some things which give me pause (in no particular order):

1. Christian Barmore. The defensive line could be very different depending on whether he's fully healthy or not.

2. Depth. The roster transformation has been outstanding but depending on draft picks, the roster is still fairly shallow. This isn't something to blame Vrabel & co for, they could only do so much, but injuries will still be a problem.

3. The Draft Picks. No-one could be happier than I in what we did in the draft and UDFA, but let's face it, it's not very common for every draft pick to hit.

4. The interior OL. We didn't do much to address this. Hopefully Jared Wilson hits straight away either at guard or center because neither Strange (how's his injury status?) or Bradbury (better run blocker than pass blocker) move the needle in a positive direction for me.

5. Morgan Moses. Loved the signing but he does miss games. Did we do enough to back him up? There's a fair amount of pressure on Caeden Wallace here.

6. New playbooks/coaching. This speaks for itself. Things will take a while to bed in.

7. The WR Corps. We've made some good additions but we still have a receiving corps that is still in the lower half of WR power rankings. Diggs and Kyle Williams will both have to produce to make this corps even average in quality.

As I said, this thread isn't meant to be a negative one. If everything goes perfectly for us next season, I do think we have a shot at the playoffs, but the realist in me says that things rarely go that perfectly. I am more positive about 2026 and beyond, I'm just preparing myself for 2025 to underwhelm compared to current, understandable, expectations.

I think this is completely realistic, and it’s going to take another offseason like the one they just had to get this team to the level everyone wants it to be at. They couldn’t get everything they wanted and had to make tough calls, like the debate over the guard Savaineea and Henderson, but imo they made the right call, as getting a guard is easier than getting the talent they got in Henderson. And their overall approach to the offseason, defense in free agency and offense heavy at the top of their draft was right on the money, fortunately they should be positioned to repeated it in 2026, with plenty of cap space available in free agency, and 10 draft picks.

 

[BTTA]

Another take: most of what they've acquired this offseason IS depth players, if a championship roster is to be built. Next step is to bring in three or for star players to take three or four units to the next level. OL, WR, LB, Edge would be my choices, unless Barmore is done in which case DL jumps LB in priority.

 

[Real fan 02]

I think this is completely realistic, and it’s going to take another offseason like the one they just had to get this team to the level everyone wants it to be at. They couldn’t get everything they wanted and had to make tough calls, like the debate over the guard Savaineea and Henderson, but imo they made the right call, as getting a guard is easier than getting the talent they got in Henderson. And their overall approach to the offseason, defense in free agency and offense heavy at the top of their draft was right on the money, fortunately they should be positioned to repeated it in 2026, with plenty of cap space available in free agency, and 10 draft picks.

While you're right. We have to focus on the here and now. We significantly upgraded the roster. Simply by the coaching and restructuring of the organization. What has hindered things post Brady is the QB position. We've had solid defenses ( save for the short lived mayo era) but the offense has been the hindrance. With a championship OC helping Drake, and his continuing development We are in far better shape. From this point on it's about the roster coming together, and players carving out thier roles by thier camp performances. What transpires between the hash marks is what they will be judged on.

 

[Real fan 02]

My thoughts:

I think its going to take time for the offense to come together.

A complicated new system for Maye and WR development is always a concern of mine.

We've had such a **** offensive line for years it's hard to have confidence in a major turn around. Fingers crossed that Campbell can get the job done. So true that we need MoMo to stay healthy.

If Strange, Robinson, Sow and Wallace can't get Their **** together then purge them all and continue to draft OL until the cows come home.

Patriots OC Josh McDaniels tweaking offense for Drake Maye, veteran says

The Patriots offense is changing to fit Drake Maye. What will it look like?

www.bostonherald.com

 

[Steve102]

It's great to feel like things are finally moving forward. That said, as fans the weight of unrealistic expectations can only lead to disappointment. My expectation is the Pats will field a competitive team, one that's hopefully tough to play against that opponents won't want to see on their schedule in December. That would represent a hella improvement and put us in good position for '26

I’ll hoist a chalice to this, good sir. .500 and “in the hunt” after thanksgiving would be great.

 

[Real fan 02]

I’ll hoist a chalice to this, hood sir. .500 and “in the hunt” after thanksgiving would be great.

Agreed. I suspect we will have a above .500 division record as well.

Can we go 1-1 with the bills?
2-0 with the Jets and dolphins?

 

[signbabybrady]

20-0

 

[40yrpatsfan]

This was always going to be a multi year rebuild. Just want to look like a team that deserves to be on an NFL football field. Then keep building. Start to really reap the rewards in Maye’s 3rd-5th years

Multi-year rebuild starting when? You could say that we've gone through year 1, acquired Drake Maye, and now we're in year 2. To me this seems similar to Belichick & Brady's 2nd season when we won a SB with a young QB and a grizzled veteran defense. The bonus we have is an extremely weak schedule - there's a lot of bad teams and we play every one of them. Therefore our potential (and my expectation) is 10 wins and a playoff berth. We won't be ready to roll into KC or Baltimore and win that type of playoff game, but we're past the "rebuild" phase at that point.

 

[Clonamery]

We had the worst roster in the league. Not gonna turn it into one of the better ones in one offseason.

But we also had the worse coaching in the league (Reality rated). Just about the worst owner (Player Union rated). The worst de facto GM (Results rated).

We were this close to #1 and we couldn't even get that right (Sanity rated).

 

[jimnance]

Good post, OP. Think the vast majority of us agree with you.
The future looks so much brighter but it don't happen overnight.
One thing I think we can all expect this year is that they will be a much better team late in the season as opposed to early.
Entirely new coaching staff with new lingo to learn plus a lot of rookies and young players who will be heavily leaned on.
By seasons end they should be playing much freer w/o having to think as much on the field.
How well Barmore and Diggs recover and how they perform will have a large effect on how good the Pats will be this year.
With a healthy Barmore our DL will be bestial.
And with Diggs healthy, the wr corps will at least be decent

 

[mike_usagisan]

As we've seen, the offensive line is so thin that injuries is the true killer. I think we have much better depth now, but we'll have to see it in action.

 

[Real fan 02]

Good post, OP. Think the vast majority of us agree with you.
The future looks so much brighter but it don't happen overnight.
One thing I think we can all expect this year is that they will be a much better team late in the season as opposed to early.
Entirely new coaching staff with new lingo to learn plus a lot of rookies and young players who will be heavily leaned on.
By seasons end they should be playing much freer w/o having to think as much on the field.
How well Barmore and Diggs recover and how they perform will have a large effect on how good the Pats will be this year.
With a healthy Barmore our DL will be bestial.
And with Diggs healthy, the wr corps will at least be decent

Agreed. Barmore looks dam good in the clips I've seen of him.. he looks stronger and healthier. I've been fortunate to have seen enough patriots football as you have to sense if the team will be good. So many positives are in thier favor. The AFCE isn't as daunting nor is thier schedule. They will be in every single game this season win or lose. Coaching is the biggest advantage I feel like we can have..

 

[Real fan 02]

As we've seen, the offensive line is so thin that injuries is the true killer. I think we have much better depth now, but we'll have to see it in action.

In the words of patriots HOF Rodney Harrison all that matters is what's done between the white lines...

 

[maust]

In the words of patriots HOF Rodney Harrison all that matters is what's done between the white lines...

To paraphrase the words of a former coach, "Can't help you there"

 

[signbabybrady]

Multi-year rebuild starting when? You could say that we've gone through year 1, acquired Drake Maye, and now we're in year 2. To me this seems similar to Belichick & Brady's 2nd season when we won a SB with a young QB and a grizzled veteran defense. The bonus we have is an extremely weak schedule - there's a lot of bad teams and we play every one of them. Therefore our potential (and my expectation) is 10 wins and a playoff berth. We won't be ready to roll into KC or Baltimore and win that type of playoff game, but we're past the "rebuild" phase at that point.

I do think we are in a similar spot to 01 but I would not say we have a grizzled veterans on our D. I think the longest tenured Patriot is Dugger drafted in 2020.