Even just to keep pace as a potential wild card team in the highly-competitive AFC, the Patriots are going to need to be a better football team this fall than the one that won 10 games under Bill Belichick’s leadership last season.
Given the departures of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Pro Bowl cornerback J.C. Jackson, veteran linebacker Kyle Van Noy and stud guard Shaq Mason, it’s hard to argue the fact that New England has had a net loss of both sideline brainpower and significant on-field talent this offseason.
So, in many ways, improvement in New England from 2021 to 2022 may need to come from within. As quarterback Mac Jones was fond of telling the "Merloni & Fauria Show" on WEEI in his weekly interviews last fall, he and his teammates really do need to “be better.”
Both Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft also acknowledged the focus on internal growth and improvement last week in their comments to the media at the NFL meetings in Palm Beach, Fla.
Belichick responded to his team’s lack of free agent spending by noting that the guys they signed at significant cost last spring are young and under contact.
Kraft went a step further, declaring that the Patriots have “talent that wasn’t tapped into” a year ago.
With that in mind -- and the Patriots just two weeks away from the April 18 start to the offseason program at Gillette Stadium that’s the first step toward 2022 action – here’s a look at five(-ish) returning players on the New England roster who absolutely must “be better” this season if the team is going to get the improvement from within the roster that both the head coach and the owner seem to be banking on.
1 – Mac Jones: The NFL is a quarterback-driven league and the race for success in the AFC is as tight as ever. Jones had a solid rookie season. But solid probably won’t be good enough this time around. He certainly should benefit from his year of experience and the addition of DeVante Parker.
But losing McDaniels and working with a rather suspect coaching staff that includes Joe Judge and Matt Patricia may be a challenge. Kraft even indicated to The Athletic that he’s crossing his fingers that Jones has the kind of jump in production in his second season that Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow did last fall for the Chargers and Bengals, respectively. There’s a lot being put on Jones’ right shoulder.
2 – Jonnu Smith: The tight end is the poster boy for disappointment from last year’s free agent class. He’s one of the highest-paid players on the team and at his position in the NFL. But he never was much of a positive factor and even made costly mistakes at times. Smith was envisioned as a guy who’d move all around as a centerpiece part of the passing attack and a dangerous weapon with the ball in his hands. He was none of that a year ago. He may never be worth his contract – which was given for what he could be based on his athleticism not what he had been for four years in Tennessee – but Smith needs to at least be a complementary contributor to help diversify the offense.
3 – Matthew Judon: Like Jones, Judon made the Pro Bowl a year ago in his first season in a Patriots uniform. Of course that was expected of the team’s highest-paid defensive player who was actually bandied about as a possible Defensive Player of the Year candidate at points during the 2021 season. But Judon fell off the map late in the year as the Patriots team fell apart as a whole. That’s not a coincidence. Maybe Judon was dealing with an injury. Maybe he ran out of gas. Maybe some of the flaws of his game were just exposed by talented opponents. Regardless, as the Patriots top defender, New England needs even more positive impact from Judon throughout the entirety of 2022.
4 – Christian Barmore: Given the questions about the cornerback position and back-end pass coverage, New England may need to lean on its pass rush a bit more. While Judon is a big part of that, the impressive rookie Barmore can also be an impact guy on the inside. Barmore was a revelation as an second-round pick and his upside is obvious given a unique set of physical tools and attitude. Not only can Barmore make plays, but he’s the kind of physical force up front who can make everyone around him better. The sooner he does that the better off the Patriots will be.
5 – Young linebackers: With Van Noy gone and Dont’a Hightower as yet still a free agent it looks like the Patriots linebacker corps is in the midst of a youth movement. Who, exactly, is going to join Ja’Whaun Bentley in that movement remains very much in doubt. Someone from the group of recent mid-round draft picks that includes Josh Uche, Anfernee Jennings, Cameron McGrone and Ronnie Perkins will likely have to step up their game to contribute to a second level of the defense that certainly could use some youthful energy.
Bonus – Coaching staff: The Patriots didn’t look like a well-coached football team a year. There were too many penalties/mistakes and too few impactful adjustments. Belichick is at the top of the power structure and gets the credit/blame accordingly. But he and his assistants must find a way to put a team on the field in 2022 that displays the consistent characteristics of a well-coached unit in all three phases. It’s on Belichick, Judge, Patricia, Nick Caley, Steven Belichick, Jerod Mayo, Cam Achord and the rest of the staff to make that happen.
