NFL
By: Ryan Cooley
The New England Patriots have dominated the NFL for nearly 20 years. Since Brady decided to leave for Tampa Bay, they have more question marks than ever. Some have sparked the idea that New England could be on the road to tanking in 2020 in hopes of landing their next franchise QB.
Most Patriot fans think this is absurd, and they will be just fine without the QB that helped them win all six of their franchise’s Super Bowls. However, if you look into what they have done this offseason, tanking may not be that crazy.
They let go of a lot of key players this offseason and did not sign anyone that would have a big impact in 2020. Belichick traded out of the first round to gather more picks. The prospects that they drafted do not look to be instant impact players either.
Here are four reasons to believe the Patriots could tank.
Bill Belichick
Many will say Bill would never tank due to his ego and the fact that he is simply too good not to win a decent amount of games. While this could be true, you cannot deny the fact that some of his decisions and methods are unconventional.
He has let many star players go via trade or simply letting them walk in free agency. He has attempted to test the rules multiple times. Is it really that crazy to think Belichick could tank for a year to get a potential franchise QB?
He may look at this situation as a rebuilding year. The players he drafted look to be more of projects than anything. They have a lot of potential, but I am not sure they will be too impactful in their rookie year.
Jarrett Stidham
I am not sure I have seen so much confidence and hype surrounding a second year 4th round QB than Jarrett Stidham. Coming out of Auburn, Stidham was not one of the top QB prospects in the 2019 NFL Draft. A lot of scouts believed he should have stayed another year at Auburn after a disappointing 2018 campaign. He struggled with ball placement, anticipation, panicked while under pressure, and ended the year with a 57.8 grade by Pro Football Focus.
He did impress in the preseason this past year, but it was the preseason. Nathan Peterman in the 2018 preseason completed 80.5% of his passes and threw for 431 yds, 3 TDs, and only one INT. Playing well against second and third-string players does not always correlate to having success against starters in the NFL.
I am not saying Stidham is going to be a bad QB in 2020, but I am having a hard time understanding why so many people have complete confidence that he will be a great QB.
Roster
The Patriots on paper do not have a good team. This offseason they lost Tom Brady, Phillip Dorsett, James Develin, Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Danny Shelton, Elandon Roberts, Duron Harmon, Nate Ebner, and Stephen Gostkowski.
Their best player on offense is Julian Edelman, who will be 34 at the start of the season and is coming off a year in which he had three injuries and could have been placed on IR. Unless the young guys like Stidham and Harry can step up big time, New England will have to run a very conservative offense.
On defense, they lost several key players. Everyone knows how well the Patriots defense played to start the 2019 season. Their opponents only averaged a little over 7.5 points per game in the first eight games. However, the last eight games were a different story. When playing tougher teams, their opponents scored an average of 20.5 points per game.
Many fans will say their defense will easily get them 8-9 wins next season, but they fail to realize that down the stretch, the 2019 defense was not as good as they thought. On top of that, they have gotten worse this offseason with players leaving and bringing in almost no one notable.
Trevor Lawrence
Lawrence has had eyes on him since he stepped onto the field at Clemson. As a true freshman, he led Clemson to an undefeated season and a 44-16 victory against Alabama in the National Championship.
To say the least, Lawrence is going to be a top QB prospect in 2021. He will most likely be in the conversation of John Elway and Andrew Luck as far as how good of a prospect he will be. We saw the Dolphins attempt to tank for Tua in 2019. Even though it didn’t go exactly the way they thought, they still ended up drafting him with the 5th overall pick.
Lawrence would be a great fit in New England. If Stidham struggles early on, do not be surprised if the Trevor Lawrence to New England conversation begins to pick up.
Overall, no one knows what the 2020 Patriots will look like or if they have any intention of tanking. All we know is on paper, they do not have a good team. The most obvious question for them is the QB position. To expect Stidham to come in and there be almost no drop off from when Brady was there, is ridiculous. I have no idea how he will perform as the starting QB, but it does not make sense for fans to have the utmost confidence in a QB who has only thrown five passes in the NFL.
