That's OK - Marcus Spears said earlier this week the Patriots were going to finish at the bottom of the AFC East.
This was from the thing I posted this morning:
New England Patriots news for Friday May 27, 2022. Obviously, training camp is less than two months away and that likely means a long stretch of hot-takes, which continued this week.
www.patsfans.com
ESPN’s Marcus Spears recently appeared on
FirstTake and he believes that the Patriots are on the verge of being at the bottom of the AFC East, largely, he claims, due to a lack of talent.
“Yes, they are,”
said Spears earlier this week. “They’re in danger because of one, the other three teams are becoming more talented. That’s number one and it starts there. Because people forget, that Bill Belichick, taking nothing away from him, great coach, great guy, put guys in position to have success. Bill Belichick had a bunch of Hall of Famers throughout his tenure with the New England Patriots, saw a bunch of elite All Pro, Pro Bowl level players. We get caught up in Tom Brady, but we forget the dominant defenses that he had, personnel-wise. I’m talking about that.”
“I’m not here to say that Bill Belichick is not the greatest coach in the NFL history…very well may be. Some people dispute that, I don’t. I think the championships and what he was able to do by putting those pieces in order to have success makes him the greatest coach in the NFL. But when you start … see, we’ve got to stop thinking like history gotta stop reverberating. This is not the same New England Patriots team. This is not the same team.”
“They have a second-year quarterback. They’re trying to figure out outside who their weapons would be so they can be an explosive offense and more importantly, they don’t know who the hell their offensive coordinator is going to be.”
“Now I get it, we can throw and dump on the Jets. The Jets had done phenomenal things from a personnel standpoint. Do they have to put it together? Absolutely. Miami, talent, more talented. They have a more talented roster than the New England Patriots right now. And we don’t even need to talk about the Buffalo Bills. So, are they in danger of being the last place team? Yes, because of talent on these rosters.”
“But, I have pause like everyone else because Bill Belichick is the head coach. But coaches can’t overcome if you don’t have the talent to execute the plan that you put in place and that is my concern with the New England Patriots going into this particular season. That doesn’t mean it will be that way going forward, but if I told Stephen A. Joe Judge and Matt Patricia may be your playcallers, you would tell me that don’t set up well for your team to play good football.”
Smith immediately stopped him.
“Something is wrong with you, bro,” replied Smith.
Smith believes that the Jets won’t be an issue, primarily due to a lot of the issues that happened under first-year coach Robert Saleh.
Saleh, who was a defensive guru in San Francisco, saw his club finish among the worst in the NFL defensively in 2021 in various categories. They were 32nd in the NFL in average yards per game allowed with 397.6. They were 30th in the NFL in average passing yards allowed with 259.4.
The Jets were also 29th in the NFL in rushing yards allowed with 138.3. They were also last in the league in points per game given up with 29.6.
That’s not a recipe for success, and Smith doubts they’ll overcome all of those issues to finish ahead of New England in 2022.
“He got the job with New York Jets,” said Smith. “They ranked dead last in points allowed. Dead last in yards allowed. Bottom three against the pass, and the damn rush. And defense is your signature?”
“I know it was his rookie year, but d%#*!@t, I mean, come on now.”
sports.yahoo.com
