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Patriots: 3 way-too-early predictions based on NE’s 2021 schedule

By Adam Weinrib

CLEVELAND, OHIO - APRIL 29: Mac Jones poses with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell onstage after being selected 15th by the New England Patriots during round one of the 2021 NFL Draft at the Great Lakes Science Center on April 29, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OHIO - APRIL 29: Mac Jones poses with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell onstage after being selected 15th by the New England Patriots during round one of the 2021 NFL Draft at the Great Lakes Science Center on April 29, 2021 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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FOXBOROUGH, MA – DECEMBER 28: Josh Allen #17 of the Buffalo Bills looks to throw the ball during a game against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium on December 28, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images) /

2. Opponents’ Rest Will Finally Bite Patriots vs Buffalo

Bad news? The Patriots face three teams coming directly off bye weeks in 2021, which seems difficult to comprehend.

Better news? Those three contests won’t be huge disadvantages.

One of them comes against the Colts in Week 15, but the Patriots will also be coming off a Week 14 bye heading into that contest. No harm, no foul.

The other two? The Jets in Week 7 and the Chargers in Week 8, two teams New England blitzed last season. If Bill Belichick had the chance to pick a pair of rested opponents, it’d probably be those two.

Regardless, the chart spelling out exactly how much the Patriots’ rest differential will suffer in 2021 doesn’t look pretty, even after you fill the names in.

Unfortunately, we’re predicting one instance where a rested opponent actually comes back to bite New England: their showdown with the Bills on Monday Night Football on Dec. 6.

Entering that game in Buffalo, the Bills will have just sat for a full 10 days worth of rest, following a battle with the Drew Brees-less Saints in New Orleans. The transition from the Dome to the frigid turf of Orchard Park…that’s tough. We sure 10 days is enough? Let’s give the Bills 11 days, just to make sure they’re comfortable.

All in all, the “rest differential” excuse seems like the type of thing Patriots fans would typically laugh at the rest of the league for using, but it might finally come back to burn them when a fired-up Bills team emerges from the tunnel to take down their division rivals in primetime.

After all, the previous Sunday, the Patriots will get the Titans at home, which is no picnic either.

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