Listening and reading a lot of the analysis on the New England Patriots coming out of last Thursday night’s loss at MetLife, you would think we’re at the midway point of the season and that what we’ve seen so far is a small sample of how the rest of this season will play out.

One of the big topic of discussions coming off of last Thursday night’s loss has been the performance of Alex Van Pelt, who is dealing with a fair amount of issues during his first real tenure as an offensive coordinator.

“What I would say is that we did a poor job keeping them in the pocket, and that comes down to discipline.” – Jerod Mayo

Aaron Rodgers picked apart the defense, and the Jets’ QB completed 27-35 for 281 yards and two TDs. He feasted on quick slants and crossers

This is a short week and a big advantage for the Jets playing at home on Thursday night.  This is also the Jets Home Opener after playing the first two weeks on the road.   Both teams come into the week 1-1.

The Patriots’ passing game has been mired in neutral thus far, and they have been unable to get the wide receivers involved. That’s bad news

Seattle’s two outstanding wide receivers combined for 22 catches for 246 yards and a TD.. Patriots’ WRs caught 3 passes for 19 yards and a TD

“That’s one of the cooler moments in my career, everybody in the huddle saying, ‘Let’s take ‘em to the hill,’” Brissett said

This week’s opponent is the Seattle Seahawks.  They are coming off a win at home against the Denver Broncos and rookie QB Bo Nix.

A few notes about the game versus Cincinnati.  The Patriots weren’t nearly as good as it appeared, and they had to rely on a stingy and opportunistic Defense to win the game.

Stevenson gained 118 yards after contact. On the final drive, where the Bengals were selling out trying to stop the run, was impressive.

“They came out on fire. We challenged those guys. Everyone was talking about how explosive Cincinnati’s offense is. They answered the call “

So little is expected from the 2024 Patriots. Some experts have the Patriots winning as few as two games this year. Las Vegas has the Patriots winning only four. A Globe article this morning cautioned all of you to prepare for a biblically bad season.

I care more about their growth and their development more than anything. I say players win games, and coaches lose games. – Jerod Mayo

The Patriots open at the Cincinnati Bengals.  The Bengals are led by QB Joe Burrow, who is healthy after a shady 2023 season, with two separate injuries.  He started the season with a calf strain and later had a torn ligament in his wrist that kept him out for the last 7 games of the season.  He is reported to be completely recovered from the injury and ready to start against the Pats.

Look for Cincy to prioritize stopping the run, stacking the box, using run blitzes to stop the run, and daring Jacoby Brissett to beat them

The Patriots will be working with a first-time head coach, Jerod Mayo, an offensive coordinator who hasn’t been a full-time play caller since 2009, Alex Van Pelt, a first year Offensive Line coach, Scott Peters, and a quarterbacks coach with just one year of experience in the role, TC McCartney.  To help with the Quarterback tutelage and game day decisions is former Giants Head Coach Ben McAdoo.

This the 2nd of 3 Season Preview posts.  We will concentrate on the Defense and Special Teams.  Tomorrow I will complete the Preview with the Coaches and Season Projection.  Look for a preview of their Opponent the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday.

To look forward to the 2024 season you first have to look back at the 2023 season and how we got to this point.   Warren Sharpe, an NBC Football Analyst, had this to say about 2023 “Looking back, perhaps Bill Belichick simply wanted to get out of coaching so he could get into dating 24-year-olds, but this was absolutely lousy coaching.”

“nothing bad can happen with Drake Maye starting as the backup this year. Nothing bad in his development can really happen.” – Brian Hoyer

It’s been a strange couple of weeks for New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo, and he finally put to rest some uncertainty ahead of the club’s Week 1 match-up against Cincinnati.

It has been a busy couple of days in Foxborough with players coming and going.  Here is a summation of those transactions.

After spending the last two seasons on the practice squad, along with seeing some time on the field during these last two seasons, Bailey Zappe’s moving on to a different team in 2024.

I had 48 of the 50 players I named, make the final 53.  The big surprise was RB Kevin Harris getting cut. I can see that he is redundant to Stevenson and Gibson as all three are big backs.  Harris lacks breakaway speed.  His pass catching ability is greatly improved as evident by his TD catch and run against Washington, but that was not enough to save him.

The New England Patriots pared down its roster on Wednesday, with the club getting down to the mandatory 53-man roster limit ahead of the 2024 NFL Season.