2 reasons the Patriots 2024 season is already on the brink

The Patriots were humiliated by the Philadelphia Eagles in their joint practice session Tuesday preceding Thursday's pre-season game. The Eagles racked up 14 sacks in practice against the Pats' QBs. It was an ominous but not unexpected turn of events.

The Eagles are a Super Bowl contender, but the Pats aren't. It's as simple as that. Yet, all this was potentially avoidable and may still be if a couple of things change, but as of now, this season is on the brink of collapse before a ball is kicked in anger.

Two significant reasons loom large as causative for the impending disaster season awaiting Patriot Nation. Both emanate from the top, but not with owner Robert Kraft this time. It's the football operation and coaching that are in focus. Let's explain how they've made a mess of things thus far.

Eliot Wolf's rookie mistakes are ruining the Patriots

Reason No. 1 is the rookie mistakes at the very top of the football operations pyramid by Eliot Wolf, the newly christened vice president of player personnel. He replaced Bill Belichick at the top of that function. (Note: Wolf and some others were Belichick's right-hand-men previously, however.)

Wolf's first efforts in free agency were a weak D+. He failed to add a No. wide receiver, a top offseason priority. He also neglected to add a left tackle, the team's second-most-important position, though he did add a less-than-stellar-performing right tackle in Chukwuma Okorafor.

In addition, in the draft, Wolf inexplicably also refrained from adding a left tackle (LT) at all. He did add tackle, a good thing for depth, but again, it was a right tackle. The argument was that one or both could step in at left tackle. Such transformations are difficult at best and unlikely. Both have flopped at the position, leaving the team with 4A types to attempt to play LT. It seldom works.

While Wolf did draft QB Drake Maye, an A+ move, and two promising young wide receivers, he again failed at securing the second most important addition, a left tackle(s). It's a mistake that borders on football personnel negligence. It kept the draft from being a huge success.

Patriots' Coach Jerod Mayo has missed the boat on Drake Maye

The second huge gaffe was made by new Head Coach Jerod Mayo. Mayo, if he agreed with Wolf's ludicrous assumption that you can transform right tackles into lefts (two totally different positions) overnight a la Cinderella, hadn't learned much about offense from Bill Belichick. Even Belichick, for the most part, always had a solid LT on hand.

In addition, Mayo has botched Drake Maye's handling thus far to a fare-the-well. It's been stated in public that he's deferred completely to Alex Van Pelt on a critical offensive issue. The new Offensive Coordinator reportedly was handed the reins to develop Drake Maye, i.e., to determine his playing time. Thus far, it's been a disaster.

Maye had no reps with the first-team offensive line (such as it is) and was totally relegated to working with the second in practice. That means he had little activity with anyone likely to see much of an NFL field in 2024.

Additionally, the rookie top draft pick, Maye, only played the rookie two series (six plays) in the first of three exhibition games. Most of the reps went to Bailey Zappe, who's a long shot to make the team, and fellow rookie Joe Milton.

Whether anyone thinks Maye is the next great NFL sensation or not, he was the team's third-overall pick in the first round and needs to start in practice and real games. If he shows well, great. If not, he can sit for a while. Yet, thinking the team can "ruin" a young player (as the conventional "wisdom" says they did with Mac Jones) by throwing him right into the fire is just so much nonsense.

If a young QB has it in him, he'll get off the turf, reset, and move on from setbacks. Talent is talent, and grit is grit. You need both to be a winner. Maye has the talent; it will show if he has the grit. If not, it's best to find out sooner rather than later. If not, after a sufficient sample size, you move on.

These blunders have set the 2024 New England Patriots up for another last-place finish. "Rebuilding" is just another name for acceptable losing. There is no meaningful "rebuilding" because nothing in the future is guaranteed. The only season that matters is 2024, this one. Any other thought is an illusion.

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