Patriots Gameplan: Who Are the 2017 Pats?

Ahhh, the bye week. A time to relax and reflect without a football game to worry about.

The 2017 campaign so far has been interesting to say the least. Let’s face it, they’re always interesting in unexpected ways. But the headline, as always, are injuries. Injuries define NFL seasons now, and the Patriots are not immune and this year they’ve been hit as hard as ever.

Usually injuries are the only thing that stands between the Patriots and a last-possession game in the Super Bowl that could go either way. In 15 seasons together, Brady and Belichick have played in AFC title game 11 times.

2005 was one of the years they bowed out in Denver. That team had critical injuries (Matt Light, Rodney Harrison) and was one of Belichick’s worst Patriots defenses. But even then the problem in 2005 was not getting a bye. If that Bronco game was in New England it probably would’ve had a different outcome. In 2009, there was the backbreaker injury to Wes Welker in the last meaningless game. In 2010, it was the Jets bouncing back from a 45-3 beatdown to execute the perfect game that exposed a flawed defense that had survived on turnovers.

That was the last time the Pats weren’t playing in the conference championship game, seven long years ago.

My point is this — Does this Pats team have some of the injury issues those teams had? Yup. Will their (currently improving) defense be exposed at home by the right team? We’ll see.

Losing Rob Ninkovich, Julian Edelman and Dont’a Hightower says it all. Those guys were the playmakers of the last four seasons. The guys who made big plays in big moments, and that isn’t easy to replace.

The good news? There is plenty of promise on the Patriots defense. Trey Flowers has lived up to the bar he set late in 2016. He’s starting to show up in the key moments more and more. Dietrich Wise has emerged into a right defensive end to build around. He’s already showing how disruptive he can be and has plenty of room to grow. Malcom Brown has taken the next step in his third year. Rookie Adam Butler is disruptive. And Kyle Van Noy seems to get better each week.

There are pieces to build around up front, and once the secondary decides to all play a full game they should look pretty good.

Trading Jimmy Garoppolo finally puts to rest the Brady-Garoppolo storylines. Now we can just focus on finishing out Tom Brady‘s career in New England without immediately worrying how things will have to play out. There’s no team clock now. It’s just Brady Ride or Die and there’s a peace not having to worry about Jimmy G breathing down his neck. Jimmy deserves a shot and I’m glad he’s getting it, across in the country in the NFC.

Now that he’s gone where do we stand on the offense and its future?

Brandin Cooks has been everything we hoped and expected. Chris Hogan has showed how tough and versatile he is. Danny Amendola has even more firmly carved out space in our Pats Fan Hearts. The running backs have been very good, but still seem to be clawing toward that electric big-play breakout game. If they all stay healthy the Patriots are going to be near impossible to stop in any kind of conditions.

For number six, they might just ride their ground game to it. And really, that’s probably what it will have to be. I believe the defense is good, but the great unknown is how this new group will perform in the playoffs. On that we’ll just have to experience it together. But I am once again sure they’ll go down swinging no matter what.

So now the travel and AFC East gauntlet begins. The bottom line — the 2017 Patriots need to get and stay healthy. They can’t afford to lose anyone else at a number of key positions, including OT, DT, WR, and TE. And QB obvs.

It’s November, when the good NFL teams start playing their best football. Are the 2017 Patriots one of them, despite their flaws? Absolutely.

There won’t be many of these TB/BB seasons left even with Jimmy gone and we all know that. Seeing another chapter in football history written should be the same emotional roller coaster it always is. Hang on!