Patriots Roster: A multi-year rebuild is the only way to fix the team

When a team rebuilds, there are no shortcuts. Teams have tried and failed to cut corners on a roster rebuild, and a team like the New England Patriots certainly cannot do this. Trying to re-tool a roster all while remaining competitive is not a good formula in the NFL. To me, NFL teams fall into one of three tiers.

The first tier are the true contenders who have finished their own rebuild or whose roster is good enough to win a Super Bowl. The second tier is what I call the "irrelevant middle" where the roster might be good, but there are some serious questions about other parts of it. I'd put a team like the New Orleans Saints into this tier.

The defense is really good, but a massive question at quarterback will keep this team in that irrelevant middle tier. The final tier is the "true rebuild" tier. Teams like the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers fall into this tier. Clearly, the teams are multiple years away from finishing their own rebuild, and it's pretty well-known that the team isn't really trying to win a ton of games.

For the New England Patriots, they've been in that irrelevant middle tier for a few years now, and at this point, they need to embrace the full rebuild tier.