As I mentioned in one of the other NE threads, the longer the status quo remains in NE, the more people keep writing them off. Tom Curran said they will be a 5 or 6 win team and others that were with him said essentially "if that." The collected opinion was they have Gilmore and everyone else is below average, old, or probably wouldn't start on another franchise. No one in the media believes in Stidham, and all anyone wants to do is figure out which free agent NE will be signing and/or which hot shot rookie QB will be the starting QB. Very few people have been talking about Stidham as a solution . . . it's mostly talk about who else will be coming in to hopefully get them to 7 or 8 wins. Short of that, they should tank . . . or they will be so bad they won't even have to tank.
Obviously we will have to see how things play out and what happens during the season, but this is such a Bill Belichick wet dream scenario. A team that listens, takes to coaching, no superstar players (or very few), guys that are already peeved because they hear they only won because of Brady, and no big egos. This is do your job on steroids. We all salute you, Tom Brady, there will never be another player like you. Your years of service, leadership, and success are unparalleled. What you did for the franchise will never be matched. You earned the statue they will put out in front of Gillette.
But now Bill gets to really show what he can do . . . and he will be extra, extra motivated. You just know he is taking names, copying articles, saving links to expert predictions to give to his team proclaiming they are dead in the water and a bottom tier team. He will have his guys ready to storm Normandy and stake claim to the entire beach. They may not be the most talented team, but they will be there balling out every game (assuming there are games).
Vegas still has NE as the favorite to win the AFC East. Usually they are smarter than the average bear. I don't expect great things from the 2020 New England Patriots. They are not real contenders, but they should be competitive. They will probably lose some close games and have some growing pains. But I would expect by the end of the season they will find their mojo, and with an extra playoff spot, does anyone want to face a BB coached team in the playoffs?
They have 12 players coming back from injured reserve (and Harry and Wynn back healthy for now). Between this year and next, they are projected to have something like 25 draft picks.They are slated to have $105-110 million in cap space next year (as of this moment). They will probably still get 9 or 10 wins this year and make the playoffs and get bounced early. But I would expect them to be a force again in 2021. As I have said many times, no one manages the cap better and no one can coach up a team better than BB. Literally half the head coaches in the league have 3 years or less of head coaching experience. Over the years, how many opposing teams and coached made poor decisions when NE didn't? That isn't going to change just because TB12 left town.