For nearly two decades the Patriots dynasty had reigned above all other teams in the NFL. Since the beginning of the Belichick-Brady era, the Patriots have won 6 Super Bowls, 9 AFC Championships, and 17 division titles. With that, the team has gone without a losing season across their 19-year dominance. However, when Brady left for Tampa Bay this past offseason, it made the Patriots look vulnerable for the first time this century. This, coupled with many other issues this past year has led to the Patriots missing the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.
The main and most obvious reason for the fall of the Patriots was the departure of Tom Brady. He was the face, heart, and soul of the Patriots franchise for years, and losing him was a big blow to the organization. Even though he had a down year in his last year as a Patriot, he still led them to a 12-4 record and threw for over 4,000 yards with a 3:1 touchdown to interception ratio. Brady was a free agent last year, but no one really thought that he was going to leave. Once he did, the wheels began to come off for New England. They got behind in the quarterback market and signed Cam Newton late in the offseason. However, more challenges would soon be caused by fallout from COVID-19.
New England has been built upon continuity throughout its dominance. They would find people who would buy into the “Patriot Way'' and mold them into great players. However, they lost a lot of their players to opt-out because of Coronavirus. A league-high 8 Patriots opted-out, including 5 starters. These players included Dont’a Hightower, Patrick Chung, Marcus Cannon, Brandon Bolden, Matt LaCosse, Danny Vitale, Marqise Lee, and Najee Toran. The losses of Hightower, Chung, and Cannon hurt the most for the Patriots, as they were all veterans who played a very important role on the team. These opt-outs forced younger, inexperienced players into action early in the season which hurt the team as they did not have their leaders to hold down the defense.
At the start of the season, before he missed a game, Cam Newton showed why he was the MVP just five years ago. However, since then Cam has become part of the problem for the Patriots, as he has thrown just 5 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. He has constantly missed open receivers and has not looked good over the course of the season. It has not been all of his fault, as the wide receivers have been some of the lowest grades in the league by PFF (Pro Football Focus). This has been compounded by Julian Edelmen’s injury that has forced him to miss most of the season. Overall, outside of Damien Harris, the entire offense has been a disaster this season. This is a significant reason why they aren’t a competitor for the Super Bowl this year.
In the future, the Patriots are going to have to go through a much tougher AFC East if they want to be Super Bowl competitors. Over the last two decades, the Patriots have started off with almost a guaranteed 5 wins each thanks to their divisional opponents. Tom Brady over the course of his career with New England had gone 29-3 against the Bills, 27-9 against the Jets, and 23-12 against the Dolphins. However, the division has gotten much stronger this year. The Dolphins just missed the playoffs and have a top-5 defense to go with a new quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa. They are going to be a playoff contender for many years to come. The Bills went 13-3 this year and are a Super Bowl contender behind Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. The Jets are still the Jets, but they have a young team that is going to be trending upward over the next few years. If they want to make the playoffs in upcoming years, Belichick and the Patriots are going to have to win in a much tougher division.
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