It's time for the New England Patriots to blow this thing up in 2023

One quarter of the 2023 NFL season is over, but it's clear that the New England Patriots need to begin blowing this operation up if they want to kickstart their future. After a 1-3 start, the New England Patriots feel like they are closer to picking very high in the 2024 NFL Draft than anything resembling the postseason.

It's been a pretty poor showing from the team thus far in 2023. Bill Belichick was handed the worst loss of his career in Week 4, and Mac Jones, and frankly the entire team, was inefficient. I don't really see where the Patriots go from here. If you are an optimist, the team does face two pretty bad teams over the next two weeks in the New Orleans Saints and Las Vegas Raiders, so perhaps the Patriots can scrape together two straight wins to keep their season afloat in the meantime.

But on the other hand, what good does that do? I mean, the roster itself is getting pretty banged up and it doesn't have nearly enough talent to make much headway in this talented AFC. The AFC East is being controlled by the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, who are both now 3-1 and have a two-game lead over the New England Patriots and New York Jets. A two-game lead in the NFL isn't nothing.

And after their next two games, they'll then face the Bills and Dolphins in the two weeks following that. They still have three total games left with their divisional foes in Buffalo and Miami. Those right there could easily be three more losses. They also face other teams like the Washington Commanders, Indianapolis Colts, and Los Angeles Chargers, who are all 2-2 and have all shown a good bit of fight thus far in 2023.

I think at this point, it's time to stop looking at opponents who are supposedly inferior to the Patriots. This Pats' team simply is not talented and is a bottom seven-ish team in the NFL. While 2023 was and is a crucial year for the club, it'd be better for their long-term future to begin to sell off some veteran pieces, acquire more draft capital, and build toward the future.