So I’m curious, what do we need to be a competitive team again?
And to be clear, I’m not talking about in the AFC East but at the very least the Divisional Round or AFC Championship game. I also get that this will take a few seasons but taking the current roster to let’s say 2025 or 2026 what do we need to acquire or part with at the very least? Here’s my opinion and questions:
QB: I was a Mac guy before this season but we need a number one. Mac can stay if he wants to be a number two or he can leave but he is not the guy.
RB: We’ve lacked options here for a few years now. We can’t just keep using Stevenson, we need another back and Zeke is not our long term option.
WR: Do we need 2, 3 or 4 new receivers? Do we clean house?
TE: Gesicki does nothing for me but Henry offers variety. I think we need another blocker/receiver to compliment Henry.
O-Line: I love Andrews and Onwenu, the rest I’m not so sure. What would you do with Sow, Mafi, Strange? I think Trent has to go, personally. This area of the game I’m admittedly not too knowledgeable about.
D-Line: Keep Wise, Guy (if he’s still plays), Barmore and Godchaux. I like these guys.
DE & LB: I love White and Judon but are we light outside of them? Bentley and ???. Jennings is alright, Tavai I still have questions about but I feel like we have some serious gaps here. Who goes and who stays?
Safety: Peppers & Dugger. I like them but may need a young guy to start stepping up for the years to come.
CB: When fit…I think we are ok but when fit.
Open discussion, let me know what you would do. Don’t think about trades or draft picks, just say what we need and don’t turn this into your dream fantasy team. Just what we need from our current position
Go Pats!
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Pharaoh Brown is the future
All he does is go for 20
A meteor shower that destroys 31 other teams
Bare minimum is a Pro Bowl caliber QB, WR, and LT. More likely they need at least two of them to be All-Pro caliber.
We need an offense.
I don’t think we’re that bad.
Oline Onwenu and Brown are fine at tackle. Sow, Andrews, Reiff are probably good enough inside. Not world beaters but that group doesn’t kill you.
Our TEs and RBs are fine.
Bourne and Pop are good enough IMO for wr2 and wr3.
On offense we need a wr1 and a QB. Those are really the only missing pieces.
Our line has been so injured. And the most important position QB has been so bad this year we forget that the offense isn’t this complete black hole.
All of our defense is fine when healthy.
I honestly think if we made no changes other than being healthy next year and finding a league average QB we’d have a middle of the pack offense and a good defense. Maybe not contenders but a playoff team.
Realistically I think defense is sufficient as is. Luxury pickups but not strictly necessary would be a true FS, another solid CB with JC not looking too hot and Jack gone now, and then another EDGE(White taking a step forward could solve this tho).
Even offense I don’t think we’re actually missing that many pieces from being a really good offense, but they’re pieces that aren’t easy to find.
Immediate/high priority needs are a QB(Mac isn’t as bad as his past 2 years suggest imo but he’s clearly not the guy either), WR1 that defenses actually need to account for(re-signed Bourne to go with Pop then Parker/Boutte is otherwise ok depth) and then just a LT and/or LG.RB doesn’t “need” anything special with Mondre still here tho some late round picks do rebuild depth would be good.
TE same deal if we re-sign Henry, no immediate need but could use a project TE to hopefully eventually replace Henry.
People are acting like we need a whole new line but we’ve got a lot of good parts to work with still. Andrews is good, Onwenu is good(assuming we re-sign), Sow has looked quite promising once we moved him back to his natural RG position tho he’s still got some stuff to clean up(not surprising for a mid round rookie). Left side is where the issue is. Brown is typically a good LT when healthy it’s just that he’s not been as healthy quite as often as you’d like from your starting LT so re-signing him is 50/50. If he’s back and healthy there isn’t necessarily a pressing need at LT but at the same time I wouldn’t say no to still bringing in ATLEAST a mid round project or even Fashanu or Alt if the board doesn’t fall our way on draft day.
LG is arguably our weakest position on the OL right now. Strange hasn’t been worst G in the league but he’s severely under performing his draft position and is routinely getting bullied on the field. Sadly the other guard we drafted this year, Mafi, is miles worse. Mafi has been so bad I’d rather see Ferentz out there and I’m no Ferentz fan. The thing is though that while Strange is the weak link I doubt they’ll move on from him this early so we’ll have to suffer with that same chink in the armor next year as well.So TL;DR assuming we re-sign Onwenu, Brown, Dugger and Henry then I don’t think it’s crazy with “just” a franchise QB, WR1 and a good LG for us to be serious playoff contenders.
Defense? I don’t think you change much. Good unit. Can keep elite teams to under 21, bad teams to under 10 if everyone’s healthy. Makes it easy.
Offense? I agree with you at QB. Mac is a backup at best.
TE I also agree. Pharaoh Brown looks GOOD though.
WR? You gotta keep Bourne and Douglas. They’re perfectly fine WR2 and 3s, even on a really good team. We could use a solid #1 guy with some height and/or speed. Could also use some depth for sure. If we had an AJ Brown/Rob Gronkowski type of threat who can go up and make holy crap catches against single coverage, meaning you effectively can’t play man to man with no help? That’d make things easier.
O Line? Need a big overhaul. Need to draft a tackle- and high. Need some help at guard too. Owenu and Brown and Andrews are good but that’s not enough depth.
RB? Mondre and Zeke are actually pretty fine. Upgrading at RB is a luxury thing we don’t really need to do yet.
Purdy hasn’t made a single throw tonight that Mac, or really any halfway decent QB, couldn’t make.
We need OL and playmakers. We need a line that can reliably pass block and guys that can get open quickly and generate YAC. Douglas is a good start, we need more. Watching the 9ers is just so different than our offense. Brock basically hasn’t thrown the ball more than 10 air yards tonight and yet they move down the field at will. Dump offs, screens, motion and they have 4 super athletic YAC monsters on the field.
QB: I’m more a fan of taking a QB in the 2nd or trading up to the late 1st. Take MHJ or Fashanu with our 1st. Or a 1 year bridge guy. Let them have a QB battle in camp.
RB: Wouldn’t hate using a 4th on a receiving RB like James White or Vereen.
WR: Draft MHJ and sign Higgins. Bourne and Pop as the 3/4
TE: Re-sign Henry. Draft TE in the 3rd maybe
OL: needs to be better. If not Fash/Alt in the 1st, re-sign Brown and Mike O, put Onwnenu at RT. Hope things look better with a full offseason of the starting 5 getting reps together. Better WRs will make them look better too.
DL: Hope Judon comes back healthy. We don’t have the room to draft/sign another stud here as 90% needs to go towards offense. Maybe see if Uche will take a friendly deal. If not, hope White takes a year 2 leap.
Everything else on the defense is fine as is. CB should be loaded next year with Gonzo back. Re-sign Dugger.
I good QB
Mac is fucking horrible but Pats fans literally can’t recognize bad QB play it took them almost 3 years to figure this out. Also the media did not help, they have a hardon for Bill’s demise because he ignores them and only gives them canned answers.
So we have a situation where some of our best defensive players are hurt, and with that unit not able to carry the team we are fucked.
Get healthy, get a QB that does not suck and we can win a playoff game I swear.