Tom King

The letter was sent to New England Patriots season ticket holders less than 24 hours after their season ended.

“We can assure you,” it said, “that no one in our organization is satisfied with the results from this past season. In the weeks ahead, we will be making critical evaluations of all elements of our football operation as we strive to improve and return to the playoffs next year.”

First salvo fired from the Krafts to Bill Belichick: Clean up this mess.

Now we begin to closely examine the New England Patriots and their feeble 2022-23 season. We’ll bisect and dissect every roster move, decision, coaching move, and try to predict where the real blame lies and predict what the Patriots will do to reverse this lousy season.

And we’ll be doing it for months. So be prepared.

There was trepidation back in March when the Patriots didn’t hire a true offensive coordinator, and Belichick was telling us they wouldn’t be calling any plays for awhile. But when they began calling plays, the worst fears from outsiders (media, fans, etc.) came true.

Now they won’t be calling plays again for another seven or eight months.

“Our record is right around .500, which is what it’s been all year,” Belichick said this week. “With that, some good things, and some not so good things. Nobody’s satisfied with that. That’s not our goal. We need to try to improve on that.”

Who’s to blame? Really, it’s Belichick. He makes the calls. But he certainly spread the wealth in his season wrapup.

“Accountability everywhere, starting with me, coaching staff, players, each unit are all things that we will address,” he said. “That process will start probably later today.”

And, that process, Belichick said, will certainly involve ownership.

Yeah, no kidding.

“As we do every year, evaluate everything, and try to make the best decisions we can to move forward, to be more competitive, to have a stronger team in the future,” he said. “So Robert and I will talk about that, talk about that as a staff and certain individual conversations with many of the players as we always do…”

The Patriots are broken. In the three years since Tom Brady left they are 25-26 overall, including a playoff loss. But the slide really began before then, as after they won the Super Bowl in February of 2019 they are 37-27. Not dominant, but Kraft, Belichick & Co. would certainly settle for a 12-4 season.

The question is, can they attain that with the keys they have in place, namely Belichick calling the shots and Mac Jones at QB?

“Mac has the ability to play quarterback in this league,” Belichick said in a lukewarm statement of support. “We have to all work together to find the best way as a football team, which obviously the quarterback is an important position, to be more productive than we were this year.”

The Patriots are invested in Jones. It didn’t take much to be better than Cam Newton, whom he grabbed the job from as a rookie. But he almost in turn lost it to a rookie named Bailey Zappe. Not good. Belichick’s comments certainly showed the Patriots see they have to get the Mac Jones back that won the job in August of 2021.

Nor is it good that the outsiders were right in their concerns over the makeup of the offensive staff and the problems it would lead to. That became even more evident in training camp, which fans and media alike are able to see, and then it progressed through three-quarters of the regular season.

Tell us, what impact players do the Patriots have? We can name three – Matthew Judon, Josh Uche, and Rhamondre Stevenson. The first two on defense and Stevenson of course, on offense. Jakobi Meyers is right on the cusp, but not quite there. And he’s a free agent.

It was a good draft for New England, but as usual, the good rookies were more in support roles. Brenden Schooler was a top special teamer, as was Marcus Jones. Top pick Cole Strange struggled, as most rookie offensive linemen do, as did second round pick receiver Tyquon Thornton.

“We looked at our options and thought we picked the best one,” Belichick said of his decisions. “Some worked out and some didn’t. Some were good decisions, some were in retrospect maybe not good decisions …we’ll always do what we feel is best for the team.”

What’s hurt the Patriots is Belichick and the Krafts didn’t get as much of a bang for their buck in the Great Spending Spree of 2021. Nelson Agholor, Jonnu Smith, and Kendrick Bourne needed to do more the last two seasons (with Bourne, it may not entirely his fault). 

But Belichick certainly fired a salvo across the hall to the owner’s office when he said “Our spending in 2020, our spending in 2021, and our spending in 2022, the aggregate of that, was we were 27th in the league in cash spending. Couple years we’re low, one hear was high, but over a three-year period, we are one of the lowest spending teams in the league.”

Yikes. And this year the Patriots reportedly have about $54 million in cap space. And Belichick said “I thought in retrospect, the free agency, we added a lot of really good players to this football team. Some guys have been very productive for us, some guys have had less production than some of the highly productive player, but overall, we’re a much better football team with the players that we added…”

When the Krafts and Belichick sit down, the discussion should be, and likely will be, about the team’s coaching on the offensive side of the ball. New England’s offensive deficiencies were the worst since 2000, when they had just 28 TDs in 16 games (Belichick’s first year); this year they had 31 in 17. Ugh.

The Patriots will no doubt be saying good-bye to special teams ace Matthew Slater and defensive leader Devin McCourty; their emotional post-game press conferences Sunday pretty much told you where their heads are at. Receiver Nelson Agholor likely won’t be back, one of 18 free agents that include four offensive linemen,most notably Isaiah Wynn. The Patriots will need a revamped offensive line in 2023, it was clearly part of the problem. 

But they need a true blue offensive coordinator. Bill O’Brien? Fired Arizona head coach Kliff Kingsbury? 

Either way, the evaluations begin, and they are basically the same evaluations we were doing when the season started.

The head coach should have made those same preseason evaluations.

The fact he didn’t is not a good sign.

The 2022 season was, basically a wasted year for your New England Patriots.

Belichick can’t afford another one.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com