I am somewhat happy with this year. But there is a lot of room for improvement.
So the rumor mill says that Mac Jones was nursing an injury of some type in his throwing shoulder? I wonder if we'll hear about some minor procedure to clean it up this offseason? That, combined with the knee injury he got in the preseason that caused him to play the entire year with a brace did not help him in the passing game.
I liked how they started Mac out with a conservative, run-based offense, but eventually, especially when playing from behind, you have to be able to throw the ball. They only had one 4th quarter comeback - against the pitiful Texans. The Texans? You needed a 4th quarter comeback to beat them? Yup, they did.
I don't think they necessarily need to go for a big name WR in free agency, as they rarely work out in New England's offense, which may also be part of the problem. The top 10 free agent WRs are either going to be very expensive (like Allen Robinson, Chris Godwin or Davante Adams) or too old (like TY Hilton, AJ Green or Emmanuel Sanders).
As for the offense in general, Josh McDaniels and his "It's 1st down - let's run the ball" offense was not working well this year and for all the money they paid for Jonnu Smith & Hunter Henry, they didn't seem to play much 22 package and when they did, they still ran the ball. Why even sign those two big-name FA TEs if you were going to use them that way?
I think their draft should be concentrated on the defensive side of the ball. Their defense was old, oft-injured and lacked depth. Look at the club Digger had to play with on his hand because their backup safeties weren't that good. They need some speed at LB - Hightower, Van Noy & Collins are old and too slow. It seemed like every mobile QB gave them trouble (again). Bentley is a tackling machine but only in runs up the middle. Devin McCourty has been a favorite of mine for a while but he needs to retire. He looked bad a few times this year with his inability to tackle a runner in the open field.
JC Jackson is the big question for the secondary. He will be due a big payday that I doubt the Patriots are going to want to pay. They may apply the Franchise Tag to retain him for another year but that is expensive and they don't have that much cap space, even when you subtract Hightower & McCourty's $$, especially if they want to sign a few free agents.
So while I was happy with the results of this year, I was not happy with the offense by the end. I have to hope they were protecting Mac Jones' throwing shoulder or else McDaniels has to go. The offense was just too predictable... and boring really. I know boring is OK if they win, but boring is just boring when they lose.
One last point - I also partly blame the 17 game season for some of the Patriots' late season problems. By game 15, they had a lot of vets that were out of gas and the injuries were piling up. Even Judon (COVID maybe?) seemed to slow way down as the season progressed. Then game 17 saw Dugger & Barmore go out with injuries. No game 17, and they aren't playing hurt for the playoffs. This 17 game season was a bad move. But it'll be here until long after I'm gone, so expect to see it affect more teams in the coming years. Maybe at some point, some stat-head will compile a list of players hurt in game 17 and the players themselves will fight back? I doubt it.
