After a severely disappointing season, the Patriots are now looking to the next one. 

The organization has expressed its devotion to Mac Jones, which is the smart choice. However, if Jones does not produce, his career in New England will likely be over soon.

The offense was the Pats’ biggest weakness last year, and looking at the roster, I see two positions that need to be addressed this offseason: wide receiver and tackle. The Patriot wide receiving corps is simply mediocre. We have seen great things out of Jakobi Meyers, but that’s about it. The rest of the receivers have seldomly impacted games and become liabilities in certain situations as they struggled to get open. 

I would not be surprised to see the Patriots use their 14th pick on a wide receiver. Unfortunately, the team’s first-round wide receiver track record is awful at best, so I’d prefer we stay away from the position until later rounds, especially with this deep and talented draft class. 

Additionally, there is not too much talent in free agency at the wide receiver position. The Patriots have two of their own becoming free agents: Nelson Agholor and Jakobi Meyers. Before they head to the market, the Pats must re-sign Meyers. Agholor had a very underwhelming season, so I’m okay with him leaving New England.

The Patriots would most likely look to the trade block to find an impactful receiver. According to Jordan Shultz of The Score, Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins has been rumored to be available for trade. The Patriots are a perfect landing spot for the Arizona star; Hopkins would lead the wide receiver corps on a team that has strong playoff aspirations with a talented quarterback. There are many directions the Pats could go to improve their air attack, but if one thing is certain, they need to make a splash this offseason.

Along with Mac Jones needing some help in terms of who to throw the ball to, he also needs some protection in the backfield. The tackle position was easily the worst position on the field for the team. The combination of Trent Brown and Isaiah Wynn is something that I hope to never see again. Brown allowed nine sacks and ten QB hits throughout the season. Wynn only played in nine games due to injury and allowed five sacks. Both players were among the most penalized at the position: Brown was penalized nine times, and Wynn was penalized eight times. Brown is still under contract for the next season, but Wynn will be a free agent, and I would be very surprised if Wynn suits up for the Patriots again.

The market for tackles this off-season is fairly scarce, but there is some talent in the likes of Orlando Brown Jr. Brown Jr. will be pricey, but the Patriots need to address the position. In a dream scenario, the Patriots would pick up Brown Jr. in free agency, trade Trent Brown for some draft capital, and use one of their picks to take another tackle. This scenario would hopefully address the Patriots’ worst position and lead to a stronger offensive attack.

The biggest question heading into the offseason revolves around the coaching staff: Who will be the offensive coordinator? This past season the Patriots were scrutinized for not having an offensive coordinator but instead an “offensive assistant” who called the plays. The Patriots have explicitly stated that they will hire an offensive coordinator, and frankly, I’m not as concerned as other people about which coach will fill that role. I would prefer Bill O’Brien, who is familiar with Belichick and this Patriot offense, but anyone is an upgrade from Patricia.

This offseason will be extremely important for the Patriots and their future. I hope they fill in their holes on offense and find themselves an effective offensive coordinator. If the Patriots do these two things, this team can be a contender for the Lombardi next season.

If I had to describe the Patriots’ season with one word, it would be “frustrating.” At their very best, I felt this team could be a dangerous playoff team, but most of the time, they looked like they were fighting for a top-ten draft pick. By the end of the season, they fell somewhere in between, sporting an 8-9 record and just barely missing the playoffs.

Overall, the Patriots appeared to be out of sync; even stringing multiple first downs together tended to pose a challenge. Whenever they had a good play, it looked like it was an accident. 

It was evident that Mac Jones and Matt Patricia had utterly different views on how to run an NFL offense: Jones wanted to throw the ball downfield, while Patricia simply would not let him. The offense was awful, and I cannot count how many times the Pats would go three-and-out with the sequence: run, run, and screen. 

Cardinals DC, Vance Joseph, described the Patriot offense as looking “like a defensive guy calling offense.” Joseph later apologized for his comment; however, I think he could not be more correct. Patricia seemed to be trying to stall the Patriots’ every drive with weak runs and obvious screen passes. 

Along with hurting the team, Patricia stunted Mac Jones’ possible growth as a second-year quarterback with the constant short passes. Because of the play calling, Jones could not showcase his ability. This lack of use was also unfavorable for the organization because they could not see the Alabama product’s true potential as a quarterback in the NFL. We saw the organization’s uncertainty at the quarterback position with the whole Zappe saga. 

I still need to find out if I believe in Jones or not. He finished 18th in passing yards and in the bottom third of quarterbacks for touchdowns and interceptions. Jones’s best statistic was his completion percentage, where he tied for 16th; however, it could be more of a product of the playstyle, which featured a plethora of short passes. Nonetheless, the situation for Jones was not ideal, with subpar wide receivers and awful play-calling. This next season will be a “make or break” year for Jones, but he should have some more help, so only time will tell.

In addition to the abysmal offense, special teams for the Patriots was also frustrating. Belichick-coached teams have been known for their special teams; however, this year, it was a disaster outside of the emergence of rookie Marcus Jones, who received first-team All-Pro honors and a Pro Bowl selection. The Patriots’ struggles with this unit came to fruition in the last game of the season against the Bills, where they gave up two touchdowns on kick returns. Special teams arguably lost the Patriots this game, and in a must-win situation, their playoff hopes as well.

Given all these negatives, it is hard to look on the bright side. Yet, there were some things to be optimistic about, specifically on the defense. The Patriot defense was second in the NFL in forced turnovers and led the league in defensive touchdowns. It also featured multiple young impactful players, such as rookie defensive backs Jack and Marcus Jones and third-year players Kyle Dugger and Josh Uche. In addition, defensive end Matthew Judon tied for fourth in sacks and was selected for his second consecutive Pro Bowl. This defense was impressive, but it was not enough to carry the Patriots through their offensive woes.

With the 14th pick in the upcoming draft, it will be interesting to see how the Patriots will try to turn things around and make it back to the playoffs and their accustomed winning culture. Nonetheless, the 2022-2023 season was indeed one to forget.

In 2019, N’Keal Harry was a standout, first-round wide receiver talent out of Arizona State. Standing at 6’ 4,” his size and big-play ability intrigued NFL scouts and personnel leading up to the 2019 Draft. Harry was selected as the 32nd pick by the New England Patriots. This pick was a surprise to some as Bill Bellicheck was known for questionable selections, while this one seemed quite reasonable. The Patriots wide receiving core lacked depth and talent for the most part, and it appeared as if Harry would be an instant-impact player for a contending team with Tom Brady as their quarterback.

Fast forward three years and N’Keal Harry has recently been traded to the Chicago Bears for a seventh-round pick. This rapid decline of a seemingly exceptional talent raises the question: What happened to N’Keal Harry?

In the wide receiver’s first year, Harry played in seven and started just five games as he suffered an ankle sprain in the team’s preseason against the Lions. That season he recorded a mere 12 receptions for 105 yards, highlighted by a controversial 13-yard catch against the Chiefs in which all New England, including myself, thought Harry did not step out-of-bounds before the endzone. If this catch was ruled a touchdown, I could be writing a different story about N’Keal Harry, but it was not. This season was an extreme letdown for the Patriots as they lost in the Wild Card game. Harry’s play only made matters worse for the Pats as he was unable to cement himself as the second wide receiver behind Julian Edelman. Then, Tom Brady left.

There was little hope for the team in 2020 with Cam Newton as the quarterback, but fans and the organization still hoped that Bellicheck’s first and only opening-round wide receiver could develop into a star. There were positives and negatives in Harry’s second season with the Patriots. A positive: he only missed two games. Negatives: everything else. He accumulated a disastrous 309 yards on 33 catches. Harry was unable to develop any chemistry with Newton and looked out of place for the second year in a row—rumors of him being cut surfaced.

Harry was not relieved of his duties, and heading into his third year; no one had any expectations of him to make an impact on the roster. Despite the extreme lack of talent among Patriot’s wide receivers, it seemed like he slowly faded away. In 2021, the Patriots’ top wide receiver was an undrafted player from the same draft as Harry, Jakobi Meyers. Once again, N’Keal Harry did nothing to help to Patriots, finishing with 12 receptions for 184 yards to pair with three injuries.

N’Keal Harry’s time in New England was pretty eventful, and by eventful, I mean it was astonishingly uneventful. Harry’s play on the field was subpar at best, leaving Patriots fans putting him at the top of their list: Greatest Busts in Patriots History. Harry’s abysmal play, a return of a seventh-round pick, and the fact that Harry’s draft also contained players drafted after him like DK Metcalf, Terry McLaurin, and AJ Brown, only rubbed salt in the wound.

I believe it is safe to say that Patriots fans are quite upset with how their first-round pick panned out. It aches me to think about the possible players the Patriots could have right now, but I am also grateful the Patriots received a seventh out of N’Keal Harry.