Don’t fear about tanking, the Patriots are unhealthy sufficient to do that on their very own

Patriots

The Patriots did not tank for Trevor Lawrence two years in the past, however they’re in place to tank for Caleb Williams now.

COMMENTARY

Only a observe earlier than we start; when you’re studying this from Chicago, Jacksonville, Arizona, Buffalo, the Meadowlands, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Miami, Carolina, Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, or Houston, then it’s important to perceive: it’s been 30 years since we’ve had to do that kind of factor. Forgive the naiveties. 

There was a short interval solely three seasons in the past on this house after we steered the observe of tanking the season for the NFL’s No. 1 draft choose. However even led by the decrepit Cam Newton, the Patriots may solely handle to be the league’s Fifteenth-worst workforce by season’s finish. They have been even within the hunt for the postseason as late as December. It was horrible.  

There’s a lesson to be realized there. 

By no means thoughts the moral dilemma it presents, touchdown a top-five choose within the 2021 draft would have taken some intentional and, maybe blatant, choices to throw video games. The Jaguars gained solely as soon as that season. The Jets, twice. The 7-9 Patriots, solely of their first season with out Tom Brady, couldn’t (realistically) compete with that. 

The excellent news is, the 2023 Patriots are a lot, a lot worse than that workforce. 

Sure, good information. It’s been purgatory in Foxborough following twenty years of unprecedented greatness, an period that was additionally preceded by one other promising stretch spent pulling the franchise out of the apathetic gloom that outlined it. The final time the Patriots had the No. 1 choose they needed to resolve between Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer. The final time they’d a top-five choose was one yr later (fourth total), in 1994, which changed into Willie McGinest. 

These 1-4 Patriots, led by a petulant prodigy and the presence of a coach who has seemingly stop attempting to determine how the sport has handed him by, are actually unhealthy sufficient to warrant entry into the Caleb Williams sweepstakes. The USC quarterback, tabbed as the primary “sure-thing” since Trevor Lawrence three years earlier, would possibly find yourself together with his second-straight Heisman Trophy later this yr. He’s a secure choose for a franchise’s future, the uncommon Elway/Luck/Manning out there just for the league’s worst workforce. 

We will think about if the Patriots had tanked in 2020 and landed Lawrence simply how a lot better they could be immediately. However the actuality is, based mostly on how they’ve ruined Mac Jones, New England would have been the second-worst state of affairs for Lawrence to stroll into throughout his rookie season (he had his personal coach, City Meyer, to thank for the worst). However in 2021, we thought Belichick nonetheless had a hearth for the sport (on reflection, perhaps the canine was making the picks) and was competently capturing for the ultimate landmark of his incomparable profession, shoving it in Don Shula’s face one, closing time. 

That document doesn’t actually matter to Invoice although, does it? Not as a lot as gathering that (reported) $25 million paycheck. I believe that’s fairly apparent now. 

So, put Lawrence in the identical mess as Mac Jones and also you’re prone to have the identical consequence. As we speak, the Jaguars quarterback has an offensive line and Calvin Ridley. They’re one of many AFC’s most-promising groups. 

Jones has JuJu Smith-Schuster (part-time). 

In different phrases, the timing was all fallacious. Not solely was the workforce not unhealthy sufficient to warrant such a dialogue, the system presently in place would have performed him no in a different way than Mac Jones. Why would they’ve constructed round Lawrence any in a different way? As we speak, the workforce is terrible, trademarked by lazy teaching and gamers who’ve already stop on the season. It has already misplaced its two finest gamers (Matt Judon and Christian Gonzalez) on a defensive unit that has even but to undergo by its “bogeymen” stretch of the season. 

No, this workforce wants not fear about tanking. On Sunday night time, simply earlier than the 49ers embarrassed the Dallas Cowboys on nationwide tv, announcer Mike Tirico tried to mood expectations for the Dallas protection, which has had an amazing begin to the season. However the Cowboys have additionally solely performed the Giants, Jets, and Patriots, Tirico famous, formally labeling New England as an NFL footnote. 

The 42 factors the Cowboys allowed was another than the workforce had surrendered over its first 4 video games of the season. That features final week’s win over New England, a 38-3 walloping that wound up the worst lack of Belichick’s profession. 

He solely needed to wait one week for his second-worst, Sunday’s 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints. 

The six-time Lombardi trophy winners are a laughingstock of the league. However they’re additionally lastly unhealthy sufficient to immediate change. 

Williams has overtly talked about becoming a member of the NFL with a youthful coach and seemingly has an affinity for the Dolphins, who don’t precisely appeared primed to land the No. 1 choose. He and his father have additionally checked out conditions he would possibly land in, like in Arizona, and steered that if the state of affairs isn’t proper for him, Williams could be wonderful heading again to USC for one more yr. He did, in any case, make $2.6 million in NIL earnings for 2023, which is a lot better than I managed my junior yr. 

So, even the “positive factor” isn’t a sure-thing. There’s additionally the issues that lie in groups just like the Broncos, with one win on the season and now losers to the Jets. The Cardinals are higher than their 1-4 document reveals. The Bears might need the highest two picks within the draft (they personal Carolina’s as effectively) and never draft a quarterback. The Giants and Raiders would possibly each be as unhealthy as you’re. Are the Patriots unhealthy sufficient to go winless the remainder of the season? 

Have you ever been watching? 

Which is why we’re formally allowed to start the dialogue, which isn’t precisely the place you wish to be in Week 6 of the NFL season. But, right here we’re, burdened with a novelty that may be the norm elsewhere. 

If the Patriots are within the place to land a participant like Williams, they might achieve this into a brand new teaching system, a clear sweep in Foxborough that might give good reason for hope and promise. New beginnings all over the place all through the constructing. 

Or, they may win a number of video games and find yourself solely unhealthy sufficient to wind up with Drake Maye, Quinn Ewers, or JJ McCarthy, any one in every of whom could possibly be the subsequent Mac Jones, Trey Lance, or (gulp) Zach Wilson. 

Don’t fear about that. This workforce is terrible and Belichick gained’t be round to commerce the highest choose for worth. 

What time are USC video games on anyway?