The New England Patriots have hit rock bottom. They are headed for the No. One pick in the NFL draft, a dubious distinction. Yet, it’s no surprise. The course was set in the early months of 2024 and the blunders have continued.
The Patriots themselves are the reason for their downfall. They made major mistakes in the last six years, leading to their demise as a football team and franchise. And all this happened with full approval right at the top.
Here, we’ll only focus on the past 10 months and four major blunders that set the stage for playing out of the football version of a Shakespearean tragedy. And interestingly, worst of all, it probably never had to happen.
Patriots' hirings set the stage for failure
The Patriots' offseason began with the abrupt dismissal of future Hall of Fame coach Bill Belichick. Belichick was broomed as both Head Coach and general manager when it may have been advisable to just bring in a personnel person who knew what he was doing.
Owner Robert Kraft was the architect of Belichick's successors' firing and hiring. Kraft had an opportunity to right the ship. Instead, he whiffed. In a clear demonstration of his "he's nice young man" personnel management policy, he made two ill-advised appointments.
Kraft first hired Eliot Wolf to run the personnel team. Wolf had zero experience as a general manager. Additionally, since Belichick's personnel management was lacking, hiring perhaps his top personnel aide to replace him was ludicrous.
Kraft then added to the woes by appointing Jerod Mayo as Head Coach. Mayo had zero experience as a Head Coach at any level or as an official coordinator. Both hires have flopped in their respective roles, as we will demonstrate.
Better choices like successful Head Coach Mike Vrabel were there for the asking. A team of Louis Riddick as GM (or another experienced guy) with Vrabel as coach would have rocked. Instead, Kraft showed no understanding during his hiring and put the team's rush back to the bottom in motion. The results were predictable.
The 3 Patriots on-field flops that helped the 2024 season
Wolf flopped miserably in free agency. His top addition was Jacoby Brissett, whom he overpaid for. Brissett led the team to a 1-4 record as a starter, throwing a mere two TD passes in the process.
He also signed Chuks Okorafor, a right tackle who was benched last season in Pittsburgh, and floated the idea that he could play left tackle. He couldn't even play right and was off the team after two games. Free agency grade: F.
Wolf continued his blunders in the draft. After a brilliant first pick, brushing off ludicrous talk of trading down, he selected quarterback Drake Maye. It was graded A+++ here and occasioned serious hope.
Unfortunately, operating under the illusion that Okorafor, or fourth-round tackle (at least he took a tackle!), Caedan Wallace, another right tackle, could play left tackle, he neither signed nor drafted any. There were no left tackle(s), no nothing. After the first pick, the draft delivered zilch.
Mayo got into the act with his coaching decisions, the most egregious of which were the most obvious to some. Drake Maye won the quarterback job in training camp. He had uber abilities and, with the team's deficiencies, could help mitigate many.
By starting Brissett, Mayo instantaneously lost the season , leading to suggestions the team had tanked. Maye needed all the first-team reps in training camp and the entire pre-season. You learn by playing, not sitting.
Mayo also helped turn his solid defense into a powder puff. Certainly, injuries and Wolf's trading the team's best player, edge Matt Judon, undermined him. But Mayo added to the disaster by playing his current best defensive player, Keion White, out of position.
White is a pocket-collapsing nightmare inside on the defensive line in a gap, unblockable by one O-linemen. Yet, Mayo plays him a lot on the edge. While there's no one else there, his major impact is inside. White's pocket-collapsing is nullified on the edge, and mind-numbingly dropping him into coverage on zone blitzes (at 6'4" tall and 285 pounds).
There are four reasons why the 2024 Patriots are arguably the worst NFL team. This team with Maye at quarterback from the outset could have been 3-3 or maybe 4-3 after seven games. It's no stretch to say that.
Maye is lighting things up with five TD passes in two games as a starter. If he played from the outset, had an O-line, especially a left tackle, and a top receiver, he'd have turned this season around and had the Pats right in the thick of the AFC East race. That's the greatest shame of all.