Overlooked aspect of Patriots 2024 team is wrecking the offense

The 2024 New England Patriots are what they were expected to be: lousy. After a surprising win against a lackluster Bengals team, the Pats have reverted to their norm, a poorly-constructed
train wreck of an NFL team.

A terrible offseason, in which no left tackle was brought in either in free agency or the draft (among other gaffes), set up the Patriots' offense for failure. It was a key rookie mistake by the new Exec. VP of Player Personnel, Eliot Wolf. He should have known better.

The keys to the team's so-called "Cleveland Offense" were turned over to Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Thus far, though there are numerous additional reasons for the failure, that offense is a total debacle.

Yet, a little-mentioned aspect of the offense beyond its personnel deficiencies has garnered far too little attention thus far. Nevertheless, it's a major contributor to the Patriots' dysfunctional offense. Let's look at this little-cited reason why the offense is a total flop thus far.

Patriots' vanilla offense should have stayed in Cleveland

The 2023 Patriots' offense employed little deception at all. It was hand-off and run, or get into the shotgun formation or under center, look downfield, and pass. It languished then, and now a similarly vanilla offense is doing the same.

If you have a questionable or terrible offensive line with no offensive tackles at all, you'd better employ deception, and lots of it, to try to somehow throw opposing defenses off their game. The Patriots don't, and the results have been eminently predictable. They stink.

Let's face facts: If your personnel is substandard (as the Pats' is), you are in big trouble. That notwithstanding, if you don't try to deceive, befuddle, confuse, and flummox the defenses you face, then you have no hope at all. Witness the 2024 hapless New England Patriots offense.

What has the "Cleveland offense" ever won anyway? Basically, nothing. It employs almost no deception except an occasional play-action pass, and that's not very often. Again, if you have holes in your offense as wide as the Ted Williams Tunnel, you sure as heck better try to disorient and confound the opposing defense.

Patriots' offensive personnel decisions mattered most, but the system also counts

This Patriots team is terrible for many reasons, most of which are attributable to an offseason that graded D and was only that high because they drafted Drake Maye. The offense isn't the only downer. But if your offensive personnel is substandard, and you run vanilla when you need Harlequin or 500 Baskin Robbins flavors to mask those personnel deficiencies, you've essentially thrown in the towel.

The Patriots' general management failed this offseason. The coaches have added to the mess by keeping their best quarterback, Drake Maye, on the bench. He possesses lots of attributes like pocket-escapability, a strong arm, and the ability to run well that could help this dreadful offense.

They finally inserted the rookie in the fourth quarter of the embarrassing blowout loss to the Jets, and there were positives. Yet, all signs point to the fact that they've learned nothing and will go right back to Jacoby Brissett as quarterback against the 49ers.

Two things can turn around this ghastly Patriots' season before it irretrievably sinks. Those are, insert Drake Maye as the quarterback immediately, and revamp the lackluster "Cleveland offense" on the fly with a huge dose of unpredictability. Otherwise, the rest of the season is quite predictable. They'll finish in last place again in the AFC East and "earn" a very high draft pick.

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