I title this, (im just saying 12 wins, really). Its just my offseason questions to myself;
Will Mac's new oline members be as good as last year? No time, no offense.
Fullback gone? Need a new one?
Redzone attempts inside the 20, Brady had 120 last year, Mac had 41 last year. Why?
2 minute hurry up offense, to me, dissmal last year, will it improve?
Defense, #1 shutdown cornerback? Who? Effective against elite WR'S? Who plays opposite him?
Which linebacker will replace Dante?
Last 3 games the Patriots played the opposing team had a whopping
51.61% chance of converting there 3rd downs.
Yikes.... Any actions the team has made to solve this..... crickets... Believe in 12 wins, i'm trying reaaally!
Some fair questions, some others that have already been answered.
Regarding the fullback - this was answered quite some time ago. The Patriots appear to have phased out a traditional FB role and I'd expect we see very little 2x personnel (meaning 2 tailbacks on the field simultaneously), perhaps with the exception of goal-line and via some psuedo 2x looks, where Jonnu, Montgomery, or a similar player may end up in the backfield via the formation or motion.
No idea why McDaniels didn't let Mac throw the ball more in the red-area last season. I expect Mac will do a lot more of that this year. His ability to throw with touch and accuracy should make for some sweet touchdowns.
If I remember correctly, the 2-minute offense last season was fairly efficient (as was the offense on the whole throughout the season), but the lack of a meaningful deep threat, combined with an inconsistent OL, made chunk-plays extremely hard to come by, which are critical to successful offensive drives late in halves. The margin for error of the offense was razor thin, they faced a ton of stacked-boxes, single-high ... at times all 11 defenders were within 10-12 yards of the LOS because there was no legitimate vertical threat from anywhere on the field, both in terms of personnel and offensive philosophy. That lack of ability to generate chunk plays was brought into sharp relief during 2-minute drives. Fortunately they've added personnel who can threaten the deeper parts of the field, and it appears the offensive philosophy is being reworked/tweaked.
Your last point about 3rd down percentage over the final three games of the season and the "crickets" regarding actions to solve this ... I think you're being a bit too cynical. Three games is a small sample size and one of those games was the Buffalo Wild Card matchup, which was a statistical outlier and will severely skew an already small sample size. That's not to say there weren't legitimate problems to solve during that Wild Card game, there absolutely were, but a single, standalone game will never be a consistent, reliable way of drawing conclusions and making decisions because there are so many variables that affect the outcome of any given single game in a vacuum.
I do think they've added defensive speed, instinctiveness, and guys who can play in space. A list of defenders, in no particular order, who are likely to play this season but didn't in the Wild Card matchup:
LB: McGrone, McMillian, Wilson, Uche
DB: Peppers, Jones x3, Butler, Dugger (played with a hard cast on his wrist that game, so he effectively played with 1 arm).
With any luck, maybe one of Henry Anderson, LaBryan Ray, or Sam Roberts make a splash and become an effective, versatile, disruptive DL who can defend the run and rush the passer next to Barmore.
