Bill Belichick did not do a good job setting up the 2020 New England Patriots for success. His depth chart is thin — everywhere. He admitted as much, and pointed to salary cap constraints, a problem he created through dead money with Tom Brady’s and Antonio Brown’s contracts, among others. The lack of talent is also due to poor drafting, with too many misses in the first and second rounds in recent years.
Remember Duke Dawson? Dominique Easley? Cyrus Jones? Joejuan Williams?
Not really? Exactly.
New England seemed to be doing its best to support Brady in his final years with the team, which would also help “The Next Guy” step seamlessly into that role. The Patriots drafted a skill player (Sony Michel) in the first round for the first time since 2006 — and then did it again (!?) the next year (with N’Keal Harry). Even with those first-round investments and left tackle Isaiah Wynn, a 2018 26th overall pick, Brady looked ill-equipped in 2019. And Cam Newton has looked the same in 2020.
That’s all thanks (or no thanks) to Belichick.
From an offensive standpoint, he seems to have whiffed in just about every avenue of team building, with the receiver position looking like an unfortunate case study: trade (Mohamed Sanu, Josh Gordon), free agency (Brown, Dontrelle Inman, Marquise Lee) and the draft (Harry).
Part of the Patriots’ struggles this year are due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Belichick had an abbreviated offseason to acclimate Newton. New England was also greatly impacted by opt-outs: tackle Marcus Cannon, linebacker Dont’a Hightower and safety Patrick Chung. The team also had an outbreak, which came in the middle of their current four-game losing streak. So 2020 has come with unique adversity that goes beyond losing the greatest quarterback of all time.
So we’ve covered the doom and the gloom. How do the Patriots get better?
