It’s a tough feeling watching the Super Bowl and wondering what your team needs to do to get there themselves. It’s probably uniquely challenging when your team used to be a fixture in the big game for much of the past two-and-a-half decades.
Alas, that’s where the Patriots and their fans have been the last four years: watching from the couch. On Sunday night, they saw the NFL’s best two squads duke it out for the championship – each built differently but both equally far above where New England is now.
The Eagles somewhat remind of the first Patriots dynasty of the 2000s: a strong roster from top to bottom with a young ascending quarterback learning how to elevate the already great situation around him to loftier heights.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, have what made New England a three-time champion in the 2010s: a combination of the best player in the sport and one of the greatest coaches ever consistently turning good teams into championship contenders.
As the Patriots embark on a crucial off-season with a third-year quarterback still on his rookie deal, one might see a fork in the road seemingly approaching as free agency and the draft draw nearer. Should they look to build a powerhouse team around a quarterback they believe they can win with (ostensibly Jones), or must they go all-out for that rare breed of quarterbacks capable of taking a team to the playoffs (maybe even the Promised Land) on his back?
The answer feels clear, though. The Patriots should, and almost certainly will, take the Eagles route in 2023.
In some ways, the similarities between the 2021 version of Philly and their 2022 Foxborough counterparts are striking coming into the off-season: an “okay” team with the makings of a good one and a soon-to-be-third-year quarterback from Alabama that people aren’t sold on as the future of the franchise.
Rather than chuck their quarterback out with the bathwater to chase a better one, the Eagles built around Jalen Hurts, who just showed out on the Super Bowl stage with four total touchdowns, trading for star receiver A.J. Brown, putting the best offensive line in the league in front of Hurts and constructing a top-notch defense to complement the offense.
Sure, they didn’t win the game, and you’re allowed to have questions about how much they were challenged on their way to that 14-3 record in the NFC. But they made it to the Super Bowl, which you can’t say for 30 other teams (including the Patriots).
With more than $28 million free to spend in free agency, New England can afford to grab Mac Jones some offensive line help and a top-tier weapon while adding the talent needed to turn a good defense into a great one. Not doing so is simply ignoring the trend we’ve seen every good team follow with their third-year quarterbacks in recent years, and you’d hope Bill Belichick (aided by Bill O’Brien) wouldn’t miss on that now.
But what if you’d rather go the other way, ditch Jones and roll with a new quarterback entirely? Well, you can try. The question: how can you be sure the grass will be greener?
You can certainly swing for Lamar Jackson in a trade with the Ravens, assuming they franchise-tag him. He’s an unbelievable talent that would take the Patriots to the playoffs right away. But if you’re giving up multiple first-round picks and paying him top dollar, how much faith do you have that New England will make his situation any better than Baltimore’s is?
New England could always bring back a familiar face like Jimmy Garoppolo or a solid option like Derek Carr, who will soon become available to sign. But is paying them $20-30 million to do what Jones more or less already does for about $4 million worth it?
As for selling out for a rookie in the draft or just taking the best one that falls and building around them while trading Jones away? Great, you’ve restarted the rookie clock! But also: great…you’ve restarted the rookie clock.
Grabbing Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson or any of these young talented quarterbacks from the draft – not that the Patriots will have the chance to take most of them – would keep the position cheap for a few extra years and add more dynamic talent than Jones has. But they’d also have to be developed from Square No. 1, and Belichick, who only likely has a few years left in the game, probably isn’t interested in Square No. 1 right now.
There’s also something to be said for zigging while the other teams in the division zag in this case.
The Patriots can’t get a Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen this year, so why not build as strong an overall team as you can so as to take advantage of the top-heavy Bills where they’re weakest? Additionally, though Miami and the Jets are stacking their rosters with cheap young quarterbacks themselves, their actual quarterback positions arguably have even more questions attached to them than New England’s.
Long story short: there’s an avenue for the Patriots to make the playoffs and even win a playoff game in 2023 if they go all-in on supporting Jones with the best roster they possibly can. That means no skimping on the receiver, offensive tackle and corner positions and getting at least one more beastly pass-rusher to create havoc on defense -- none of which the Patriots did last year.
New England can’t be the Chiefs, Bills or Bengals right now.
But if the Patriots play their cards right in 2023, maybe they can fly like Eagles.