The Patriots Need to Establish an Identity This Year

If there were one word to describe the state of the New England Patriots franchise right now, it would be purgatory. After a solid twenty-plus-year run dating back to the mid-nineties, the Patriots look like a team stuck in the NFL’s proverbial purgatory. They’re not good enough to be a real contender yet in the AFC, let alone their division, and are not poor enough to be a team that can have a top-five to ten picks every year.

After winning seventeen division championships from 2000 to 2019, the Patriots have finished second once and third twice. The team is meddling right now, not in a tragic way but more in a way that this new core group is trying to find its own identity as a Patriots team. The early 2000s Super Bowl-winning teams were built on an elite defense, but the offense could go out and put some points up.

From 2007 to around 2012-2013, it was the offense carrying the team, with the defense having a bend but don’t break mindset. Then in the later years of the 2010s, the teams were built with a solid defense, but the offense shifted from the two tight ends and big plays downfield to a short passing game that utilized their receivers perfectly.

Get Back to That Defensive Identity as a Team

The team seemed to have a good identity in 2021, playing strong defense while quietly having one of the best offenses in Patriots history, scoring the sixth most points in a season in Patriots history, then that all took a U-turn last year. So if there is an identity for this team moving forward, it has to start on the defensive side of the ball because you will know how the offense will look once games are played. When you look at how the draft went this past April, Bill Belichick wants to instill that into this team.

With the first three picks being defensive players, the Patriots want to improve what was already a formidable defensive unit. With Christian Gonzalez, Keion White, and Marte Mapu all selected with the first three picks, the Patriots added two, if not three, potentially week-one starters depending on how things work out.

They have their compliment to their returning top cornerback Jonathan Jones in Gonzalez, hopefully, someone who will be able to compliment Matthew Judon rushing the passer in White, and with how the Patriots love to have big athletic linebackers, Mapu fits that mold perfectly. So defensively, there are no qualms about what will happen; the offense is worrisome.

The Offense Has To Embrace Bill O’Brien

The offense is all built on hope right now. Hopefully, Bill O’Brien can come in and instill life back into the offense. Hopefully, the new additions can make an immediate impact on the field. Hopefully, Mac Jones can look like the top pick he was and develop more this year. Hopefully, the offensive line can keep the quarterback upright more this year. All you can do for this New England offense is hope for the best.

I know OTAs are not a great barometer of how teams will look come late summer, but if all indications are correct, it seems like Bill O’Brien has instilled some of the discipline and focus that was missing last season. Mac Jones looks to be thriving under the new offense, while guys like Tyquan Thornton and Mike Gesicki look to be critical contributors to this offense. The offense has enough solid talent to be successful, but they only lack elite talent. They have about four or five receivers who are number two and three receivers, but they lack a definitive number one guy.

Hopefully, Tyquan Thornton can make a jump this year as he was a second-round pick last year and has some promise, or maybe it will be Devante Parker or Juju Smith Shuster leading the way, or hopefully, DeAndre Hopkins will sign with the Patriots and provide that. The only thing is there are so many question marks on offense that it’s tough to tell what will happen come week one.

The only thing the fans can do is hope Bill O’Brien can fix this fractured offense. The old saying, “Hope springs eternal,” applies to this team moving forward. Hoping for success is all we can do regarding the Patriots. The past is the past, and we look to the future.