Patriots Slammed With Harsh Reality Check

Considerable hype is building around the New England Patriots heading into 2025 thanks to a free-agent spending free and a new head coach in Mike Vrabel.

With all of the excitement brewing in Foxborough, it may be easy for fans — and even media pundits — to forget that the Patriots have gone 4-13 each of the last two seasons.

As a result, we may have to dial back expectations for New England just a bit, and Austin Mock of The Athletic recently did just that by running a projection model that ranked all 32 rosters in the NFL.

New England finished 28th in the rankings, which probably should not come as too much of a surprise given all of the issues the team still has.

"Similarly to Cleveland, the defense should be solid. The offense, on the other hand, time will tell," wrote Mock. "Second-year quarterback Drake Maye’s development will dictate much of this offense’s success, but every position group on that side of the ball projects as below average except for tight end. They appear to be keyed in on an offensive tackle with the No. 4 pick, and that makes sense. Still, even with an improved offensive line, I’ll be tempering my expectations for coach Mike Vrabel’s first year in New England."

Mock is pretty spot on in his assessment. The Pats still lack elite-level talent, particularly offensively. Yes, they signed Stefon Diggs in free agency, but Diggs is 31 years old and is coming off of a torn ACL. There is no guarantee he will produce at a high level in 2025, nor is there even any guarantee he will be ready to start the season.

The Patriots should be better next year. There is no doubt about that. However, we may want to cool it with the playoff expectations for a club that has qualified for the postseason just once in the last five years and clearly has a talent problem.