The New England Patriots' 2025 season could already be termed a "comedy of errors," but to Patriot Nation, it isn't that funny. The Patriots could arguably be 3-0 and right on the heels of the really good team in the AFC East Division, the Buffalo Bills. Shallow as that standing would be, if you're 3-0, you're 3-0. Period.
Unfortunately, largely due to their own ineptitude, aka mistakes, they find themselves a mere game ahead of the truly inept Miami Dolphins and New York Jets. Regardless, you are what you are, and right now, the Patriots are a mistake-prone 1-2 team.
At times like this, leadership is important. When things are turning sour, it's always a good thing to have a player try to bolster his teammates. That happened for the Patriots in the game against the Steelers.
The question is, how important is all that if the poor play continues and players who may be able to help aren't on the gameday squad?
Morgan Moses stepped up to try to get his teammates motivated
In the midst of what became a brutal collapse, Moses spoke about the words of encouragement he shared with his teammates during the game. It might not have helped turn things around at the time, but it was just the latest demonstration of the kind of leadership the young Patriots team needs.
“Everything that we were doing, it wasn’t them, it was us. Just not being ourselves. Sometimes you need that reminder like, ‘Hey, calm down. It’s a 7-point game and we’re in it. It just takes one opportunity to get the ball going. It doesn’t have to be anybody specific; it takes all 11.
Stop waiting around to see who’s going to make the play. Be the one to make the play.’ We just kind of needed that at that moment. Things weren’t going our way. We were still consistently moving the ball up and down the field.”
Mark Daniels of MassLive went further behind the curtain with Moses' statements, who was stepping up to bolster his Patriots teammates after another devastating fumble against the Steelers.
"Morgan Moses could see the level of concern from his teammates. That’s why the veteran decided to speak up on Sunday. Following Antonio Gibson’s fumble, which marked the fourth turnover on the afternoon, the Patriots right tackle gave a passionate speech to his offensive teammates. At that moment, the Patriots were trailing the Pittsburgh Steelers 14-7, and Moses wanted to see his teammates respond the right way.
The Patriots responded after listening to Moses. In the next drive, the team converted twice on fourth down, including Drake Maye’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Henry. That score tied the game, 14-14, before another turnover ultimately doomed the Patriots in Sunday's loss against the Steelers. After the game, Maye credited Moses for bringing the offense together in that moment of adversity. In his 12th NFL season, the veteran has taken a leadership role in the Patriots locker room."
The narrative by Daniels is a nice one. Moses was signed to be a stopgap right tackle. At 34 years old, his longevity in the NFL isn't great. Yet, as a player who plays injured or not, and a well-respected veteran who'd be a huge improvement over 2024's right tackles, Mike Vrabel's signing of Moses was a sound one. And Moses exerting that leadership against Pittsburgh was a good thing.
The Patriots need leadership, but they need clean play more
Moses' leadership is a valuable commodity for a New England Patriots team that was overhauled in the offseason, with almost half of the roster being new. All of the 2024 captains saw the door. Vrabel not only had to rebuild his roster, but also had to establish a leadership till. Moses wasn't named a captain, but his veteran presence and the respect around the NFL spoke volumes.
Therefore, it was no surprise that at a critical moment when things looked poor, the veteran stepped up and took charge of trying to inspire his teammates to do better. While that is of great importance, other considerations are more important. How you perform your duties as a player on the field ultimately has more impact than all the speeches in the locker room or on the sidelines.
The New England Patriots' problems in their first three games under Vrabel do not stem from a lack of leadership. Instead, the most pressing issues confronting the team are in on-field performance and coaching.
Good performance obviates the need for a lot of speech-making, inspiring or otherwise. The Patriots' problems thus far are in the execution of their roles as players and coaches. It's their shoddy blocking and tackling, their committing too many penalties, and fumbling the ball all too often. And not to be discounted, it's also in their coaching.
The offensive game plans don't at all suit the abilities of their best player, quarterback Drake Maye. The second-year quarterback is a dual-threat player who can run and pass with equal excellence. Yet, any running aspect of his game now is mostly accidental, not programmed.
This is a coaching gaffe that threatens to derail the 2025 season before it even gets untracked. The reality is that the Patriots have to block better and not allow sacks. They have to stop fumbling the ball. They have to tackle better and make stops on third down.
Those are the real and fundamental issues plaguing the 2025 New England Patriots after Week 3. Moses' leadership is all well and good, but unless and until both the playing and the coaching improve, expect the same results, losses that should be wins, and disappointment.