Patriots receive worst possible news about their 2024 season

At this point last year, the Patriots were in the midst of a chaotic offseason, mainly stemming from the re-hiring of Joe Judge and Matt Patricia. Their presence led to plenty of issues on and off the field, all of which ultimately created another disappointing season.

As they were dealing with the early-on tension, the news came about the strength of their 2023 schedule, which was considered the most difficult in the league.

Unfortunately, they couldn't escape that fate for this upcoming season, as the latest reports indicate they will have the second most difficult schedule again.

The bad news was revealed by Warren Sharp, a well-known NFL analyst for FOX Sports who uses "his statistical acumen to create predictive football models." He publishes an annual article explaining the strength of schedule for each team in the league based on several different metrics.

Sharp Football describes how they determine their data for SOS by "using 2024 Vegas win totals" and says those stats are "much better than most widely used metrics that incorporate the previous season’s record."

It's not an exact science, but it has seemed mostly accurate in the past.

Although the Patriots should be in a better situation this year, with an all-new staff and a long list of roster changes, it doesn't help that they hope to be a competitive team again as soon as this fall and now know they'll have one of the most challenging schedules to overcome.

Patriots receive worst possible news about their 2024 season

Even without knowing how the schedule will be put together, we already know who the Patriots will face during the 2024 season.

Based on that, we can see that six teams were in the playoffs last year, five from the AFC, which doesn't help New England's chances of being successful in their conference or division.

Here's a refresher of who their opponents will be this season:

Patriots 2024 opponents

Considering how lackluster New England's free agency has been, maybe knowing how difficult their schedule will be could be reason enough for them to kick it into high gear in the draft or maybe make a blockbuster trade.

It might not change their approach at all, especially since they may embrace the idea of a slow rebuild similar to that of the Texans. But it feels like something that shouldn't be pushed to the back of the brain when building their roster and preparing for the 2024 season.

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