The New England Patriots might begin to tear it all down in the 2023 NFL season

The 2023 NFL season might not even finish before the New England Patriots begin the process of a full tear-down, potentially ending the Belichick-Brady era officially. The first important piece of information to know is that there is reporting to indicate that Bill Belichick is indeed on the hot seat.

Someone of Belichick's pedigree being on the hot seat doesn't seem like that could happen, but his seat is flaming hot, and for good reason. Ever since 2019, the New England Patriots have simply not looked like a legitimate contender like they were for nearly two decades before. Between BB's suspect drafting at best and some free agent mistakes, the Patriots are left playing catch-up with their roster.

Tom Brady was able to cover up some of the major roster issues for years that Belichick was the architect of. His tenure as a GM hasn't been all that great, and I do think Brady was much more important to the success of the team over the last two decades than Belichick was. Well, at this point, 2023 seems to be an all-in season for the franchise.

Now, when I say all-in, I'm clearly not saying that the Patriots are all-in on needing to win a Super Bowl this year, but some actual growth from the disastrous 2022 season could help this current operation continue. I think at minimum, the New England Patriots are probably needing to finish with a winning record if Bill Belichick and the current organizational set-up wants to remain for another year.

Well, the Patriots play 10 games before their bye week. Ten games is probably a good enough sample size for the team to see whether or not they're in a position to chase a playoff spot. Four wins or less feels like the number for me. A 5-5 Patriots' team at the bye week is certainly not a total loss. The 2023 bye week comes on October 31st, so the team will have played eight games at that point.

Anything less than four wins feels like a position where they'd need to be sellers at the trade deadline. Being 3-5 or worse at the deadline feels like a lost season, especially when you consider the Patriots would still have games against the Giants, Chargers, Steelers, Chiefs, Broncos, Bills, and Jets. The truth is that this team is going to have a rough time this season unless I am simply way off about the 2023 New England Patriots.

If they are not as competitive as they'd like to be in 2023, they should not try to make it work like they did in 2020 and should begin to embrace a total teardown.