Like a good horror movie villain, the Patriots will show signs of life (beat the Jets) in the last frame of the film, setting up the inevitable come back in the sequel.
What if the Jets end up back on pace for Lawrence, and then Belichick *actively* throws the game against them, to ensure they don’t get him? Maybe he finds a way to expose his entire team to covid, effectively benching all of them. =O Facing an entire team of backups, the Jets *might* be able to squeak out a win.
I would call this season an absolute failure for the Patriots, for the one reason that was blatantly obvious from the jump:
You can’t let a guy like Tom Brady walk with zero plan at QB. You just can’t. Cam was a haphazard hail mary signing and it failed. Miserably. They missed the playoffs because of inconsistent QB play, and the worst part is that they got eliminated with little shot at landing a top 10 pick. They’re in no man’s land.
The sad part for me is that I knew this was going to be the end result. They won for so long that the thought of tanking was outrageous, so when there was a real possibility they would go 3-13 or 4-12 with Stidham, they tried to find another bargain bin elite QB like they had with Brady. And it’s likely going to stay this way for long time.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. I guess I can enjoy Tom’s last couple of years as a Florida man. After that.. woof. Gonna have to get used to being poverty lmfao.
naw man, they had problems beyond QB, pretty much the whole offense. remember last year? even if TB had stayed, one playoff win was their absolute ceiling. no way they were beating the chiefs. i really think people are underestimating BB. he’s right, they sold out to get their last few ringz. they may not be a lock for the AFC game every year, but they’ll be contending again soon enough.
I truly want to agree with you here but I honestly can’t. The issues on offense start and end with QB play. What I see more often than not every week is guys like Meyers getting open and creating separation and Cam Newton either completely missing them on an overthrow or throwing the ball into the dirt. The WR corps is not good by any means, but as much as I want to blame them for Cam’s failures, I honestly can’t. Cam is making Meyers and Byrd look worse than what they actually are, not the other way around.
I mean really analyze this offense and compare it to last season. The receiving corps that was near the bottom of the league in creating separation last season is now around the middle of the pack. That corps is also near the bottom of the league in dropped passes and drop% this year, whereas they were near the top of those lists last year. The offensive line has played significantly better than they did last year. They’ve dealt with injuries here and there, but the return of David Andrews greatly improved that unit, and they’ve been able to protect Cam fairly consistently outside of the game against Denver. On top of that, they’ve been able to open up huge holes in the run game and get guys like Damien Harris going. Even without Harris against the Dolphins, Sony Michel looked like his 2018 self, popping some huge runs and getting good yardage on his touches. They weren’t doing any of this last year with Brady.
Then of course there’s the defense. It’s regressed from last season, and their DVOA ranking reflects that. They’re not good against the run and they give up yards like hell. Still, they’re 7th in points allowed this season. They’re a typical Pats D we saw throughout Brady’s prime. Largely mediocre, sure, but still capable of pulling stops when they need to. More often than not we’re still in games, and outside of the Seattle game, they’ve mostly held their ground all year and fought to keep New England afloat.
What I’m trying to say is that this team is nowhere near as bad as what people are making it. This is a salvageable roster, but they lacked the one piece needed to keep them in playoff contention.
I agree that had Tom Brady stayed, they likely would not have won a Super Bowl, but that doesn’t excuse letting him walk when you have no backup plan. Brady wouldn’t have put up the numbers he was putting up down in Tampa Bay, but he would have been leading us to wins more consistently. He would have been able to make it work with this unit. We wouldn’t be eliminated from the playoffs with 2 games left in the year. I get letting Brady walk given his old age, but you can’t think that you’re gonna get lucky and sign another elite talent for relatively cheap. It’s unrealistic.
I’m not gonna entirely give up on Belichick over one bad season, but when you look at how the last couple of years have played out, you can’t help but worry. They’ve been in constant decline every year since 2017, Tom Brady dipped as soon as the bottom completely fell out from under them. That’s usually a very bad sign of things to come.
*SLAMS FIST* NOOO!! Don’t you understand?! It’s like Venom! The symbiote left New England… it’s in Tampa Bay now. This is progress, but there is no celebrating until it, too, is eliminated. Thomas Edward Halfwit Messiah Dip@#$ Brady Jr. III must be eliminated before I will be at peace. Only then will the Cult of Brady moan to the skies about how the Bucs were so talent-deprived that even the mighty Chosen One could not deliver them unto the promised land. How the defense let him down time and time and time again… how Bruce Arians backstabbed the Holy Messiah! How could he – the greatest athlete of any athlete to ever athlete – succeed with such a dearth of talent around him?!? They only have, what, 3-5 pro bowl caliber receivers? SCRAAAPS!
I’d say Dave’s comparison to a divorce in the last post was kind of a perfect summary of the situation. Like yeah, Tom Brady technically ‘won’ the divorce, but what did he really win? He’s probably not going to win a Super Bowl with the Bucs and these last 2 or 3 seasons for him are going to mean virtually nothing for him in the long run. It’s like an overachieving college student taking a final exam to raise his average from a 97 to 99 in a class where his lowest test score gets dropped. If Brady sucked this year, it was more than likely due to age. If he had insane success, I mean come on, that just shouldn’t be possible at this point. We saw Peyton Manning flounder in his final season and a half in Denver with a stacked WR corps. They can’t do anything if the QB can’t make the throws to begin with.
To me, all this season really proved is that if you pair Tom Brady with downright bad coaching, you get okay results. And if you pair Bill Belichick with downright bad QB play, you get mediocre results. It takes two to tango, and that Brady-Bill combo was the key that made everything click. The rest of the NFL can rejoice knowing those two decided to call it quits and cut each other off.
100% agree with you, I just have too many people in my life that I can’t cut bait with (sadly) who will tell me with a straight face that if Brady wasn’t “stuck” on such a bad team, he’d be performing better than Mahomes and Rodgers. As if he didn’t pick his situation and has no blame for their failures. =/ Since he’s only performing well in pristine conditions with 0 pass rush, I presume he won’t go far in the playoffs. But still. Until he is *officially* dumped out of contention, I will not celebrate, because these chucklebeeps will continue spouting nonsense to me. XD
I honestly feel bad that you’re stuck talking to mouthbreathing Brady cultists that actually think that way. I’m extremely partial to Tom Brady and I will fully admit that, but anyone that insists that the Buccaneers’ offense is bad and trying to use that as an excuse for Brady is a moron, I’m sorry. I get the coaching excuse because Bruce Arians is an incompetent hack posing as a head coach. He has no game planning skills and he’s incapable of taking accountability. That’s a valid excuse. Calling three all-pro Wide Receivers bad? A solid rushing attack with Jones bad? A decent OL bad? A top 5 defense bad? Do they not realize that the endless excuses are probably why people don’t think highly of their golden boy? I’m sorry for the rant, it just irritates the mess out of me when I see stans that refuse to hold their guys accountable.
Honestly now that I think deeper about it, that divorce analogy might be perfect. Tom Brady comes off like the entitled wife that got the better end of the stick in the divorce settlement. He demanded the big house in Florida, the nice cars, the kid, the family dog, alimony and child support, and even ran back to his ex-boyfriend that does nothing but party all the time. Meanwhile Belichick was left trying to pick up the scraps and figure things out on his own. I love the guy but I mean come on, you can’t help but laugh at all that.
Minshew to the Saints is my guess. They can’t get out of Hill’s contract until it terms in 2022, and even if Brees retires they’ll still be teetering on the edge of a cap cliff. They need a cheap, viable option until they can clear their books and get something better and Minshew would cost them only about $1.8M total in 2021 and 2022.
I’d also be cool with the Bills doing it because it would be funny to see them lose their fifth Superbowl. Best case scenario is Buffalo vs Minnesota in the biggest chokeoff in history.
While the Browns sucked, at least someone kept Pittsburgh and Baltimore from winning any more Lombardis’
Like a good horror movie villain, the Patriots will show signs of life (beat the Jets) in the last frame of the film, setting up the inevitable come back in the sequel.
What if the Jets end up back on pace for Lawrence, and then Belichick *actively* throws the game against them, to ensure they don’t get him? Maybe he finds a way to expose his entire team to covid, effectively benching all of them. =O Facing an entire team of backups, the Jets *might* be able to squeak out a win.
Stop it. You’ll give him ideas.
I would call this season an absolute failure for the Patriots, for the one reason that was blatantly obvious from the jump:
You can’t let a guy like Tom Brady walk with zero plan at QB. You just can’t. Cam was a haphazard hail mary signing and it failed. Miserably. They missed the playoffs because of inconsistent QB play, and the worst part is that they got eliminated with little shot at landing a top 10 pick. They’re in no man’s land.
The sad part for me is that I knew this was going to be the end result. They won for so long that the thought of tanking was outrageous, so when there was a real possibility they would go 3-13 or 4-12 with Stidham, they tried to find another bargain bin elite QB like they had with Brady. And it’s likely going to stay this way for long time.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. I guess I can enjoy Tom’s last couple of years as a Florida man. After that.. woof. Gonna have to get used to being poverty lmfao.
naw man, they had problems beyond QB, pretty much the whole offense. remember last year? even if TB had stayed, one playoff win was their absolute ceiling. no way they were beating the chiefs. i really think people are underestimating BB. he’s right, they sold out to get their last few ringz. they may not be a lock for the AFC game every year, but they’ll be contending again soon enough.
I truly want to agree with you here but I honestly can’t. The issues on offense start and end with QB play. What I see more often than not every week is guys like Meyers getting open and creating separation and Cam Newton either completely missing them on an overthrow or throwing the ball into the dirt. The WR corps is not good by any means, but as much as I want to blame them for Cam’s failures, I honestly can’t. Cam is making Meyers and Byrd look worse than what they actually are, not the other way around.
I mean really analyze this offense and compare it to last season. The receiving corps that was near the bottom of the league in creating separation last season is now around the middle of the pack. That corps is also near the bottom of the league in dropped passes and drop% this year, whereas they were near the top of those lists last year. The offensive line has played significantly better than they did last year. They’ve dealt with injuries here and there, but the return of David Andrews greatly improved that unit, and they’ve been able to protect Cam fairly consistently outside of the game against Denver. On top of that, they’ve been able to open up huge holes in the run game and get guys like Damien Harris going. Even without Harris against the Dolphins, Sony Michel looked like his 2018 self, popping some huge runs and getting good yardage on his touches. They weren’t doing any of this last year with Brady.
Then of course there’s the defense. It’s regressed from last season, and their DVOA ranking reflects that. They’re not good against the run and they give up yards like hell. Still, they’re 7th in points allowed this season. They’re a typical Pats D we saw throughout Brady’s prime. Largely mediocre, sure, but still capable of pulling stops when they need to. More often than not we’re still in games, and outside of the Seattle game, they’ve mostly held their ground all year and fought to keep New England afloat.
What I’m trying to say is that this team is nowhere near as bad as what people are making it. This is a salvageable roster, but they lacked the one piece needed to keep them in playoff contention.
I agree that had Tom Brady stayed, they likely would not have won a Super Bowl, but that doesn’t excuse letting him walk when you have no backup plan. Brady wouldn’t have put up the numbers he was putting up down in Tampa Bay, but he would have been leading us to wins more consistently. He would have been able to make it work with this unit. We wouldn’t be eliminated from the playoffs with 2 games left in the year. I get letting Brady walk given his old age, but you can’t think that you’re gonna get lucky and sign another elite talent for relatively cheap. It’s unrealistic.
I’m not gonna entirely give up on Belichick over one bad season, but when you look at how the last couple of years have played out, you can’t help but worry. They’ve been in constant decline every year since 2017, Tom Brady dipped as soon as the bottom completely fell out from under them. That’s usually a very bad sign of things to come.
*SLAMS FIST* NOOO!! Don’t you understand?! It’s like Venom! The symbiote left New England… it’s in Tampa Bay now. This is progress, but there is no celebrating until it, too, is eliminated. Thomas Edward Halfwit Messiah Dip@#$ Brady Jr. III must be eliminated before I will be at peace. Only then will the Cult of Brady moan to the skies about how the Bucs were so talent-deprived that even the mighty Chosen One could not deliver them unto the promised land. How the defense let him down time and time and time again… how Bruce Arians backstabbed the Holy Messiah! How could he – the greatest athlete of any athlete to ever athlete – succeed with such a dearth of talent around him?!? They only have, what, 3-5 pro bowl caliber receivers? SCRAAAPS!
I’d say Dave’s comparison to a divorce in the last post was kind of a perfect summary of the situation. Like yeah, Tom Brady technically ‘won’ the divorce, but what did he really win? He’s probably not going to win a Super Bowl with the Bucs and these last 2 or 3 seasons for him are going to mean virtually nothing for him in the long run. It’s like an overachieving college student taking a final exam to raise his average from a 97 to 99 in a class where his lowest test score gets dropped. If Brady sucked this year, it was more than likely due to age. If he had insane success, I mean come on, that just shouldn’t be possible at this point. We saw Peyton Manning flounder in his final season and a half in Denver with a stacked WR corps. They can’t do anything if the QB can’t make the throws to begin with.
To me, all this season really proved is that if you pair Tom Brady with downright bad coaching, you get okay results. And if you pair Bill Belichick with downright bad QB play, you get mediocre results. It takes two to tango, and that Brady-Bill combo was the key that made everything click. The rest of the NFL can rejoice knowing those two decided to call it quits and cut each other off.
100% agree with you, I just have too many people in my life that I can’t cut bait with (sadly) who will tell me with a straight face that if Brady wasn’t “stuck” on such a bad team, he’d be performing better than Mahomes and Rodgers. As if he didn’t pick his situation and has no blame for their failures. =/ Since he’s only performing well in pristine conditions with 0 pass rush, I presume he won’t go far in the playoffs. But still. Until he is *officially* dumped out of contention, I will not celebrate, because these chucklebeeps will continue spouting nonsense to me. XD
I honestly feel bad that you’re stuck talking to mouthbreathing Brady cultists that actually think that way. I’m extremely partial to Tom Brady and I will fully admit that, but anyone that insists that the Buccaneers’ offense is bad and trying to use that as an excuse for Brady is a moron, I’m sorry. I get the coaching excuse because Bruce Arians is an incompetent hack posing as a head coach. He has no game planning skills and he’s incapable of taking accountability. That’s a valid excuse. Calling three all-pro Wide Receivers bad? A solid rushing attack with Jones bad? A decent OL bad? A top 5 defense bad? Do they not realize that the endless excuses are probably why people don’t think highly of their golden boy? I’m sorry for the rant, it just irritates the mess out of me when I see stans that refuse to hold their guys accountable.
Honestly now that I think deeper about it, that divorce analogy might be perfect. Tom Brady comes off like the entitled wife that got the better end of the stick in the divorce settlement. He demanded the big house in Florida, the nice cars, the kid, the family dog, alimony and child support, and even ran back to his ex-boyfriend that does nothing but party all the time. Meanwhile Belichick was left trying to pick up the scraps and figure things out on his own. I love the guy but I mean come on, you can’t help but laugh at all that.
Bruce Arians is a good coach the heck you talking about
Wait til the Patriots trade for Carson Wentz…
yes after one regressed qb didn’t work why don’t they trade for another
That will be the Colts. Belichick isn’t going to trade value and then pay $25M per year for a project QB.
they’re gettin men’s shoes. minshew, sorry. i hope.
Minshew to the Saints is my guess. They can’t get out of Hill’s contract until it terms in 2022, and even if Brees retires they’ll still be teetering on the edge of a cap cliff. They need a cheap, viable option until they can clear their books and get something better and Minshew would cost them only about $1.8M total in 2021 and 2022.
Can we make sure this version of The Lion King gets 49 consecutive annual sequels
An era has passed. From today onward the sun shines a little brighter
Huzzahs from the crowd!
Thank you for recognizing that the Texans still exist.
Thanks Dave, for getting that song stuck in my head.
Well… there’s always next year. I literally can’t remember the last time I said that.
Here’s to Reid and Mahomes winning going on a massive SB run!
I want to see them fail hard to Brown town.
I’d also be cool with the Bills doing it because it would be funny to see them lose their fifth Superbowl. Best case scenario is Buffalo vs Minnesota in the biggest chokeoff in history.
feels a bit “moses on mt sinai”
So everything is about to go horribly wrong?
yep tom brady is going to win the super bowl with tampa
Nice
You’re welcome, everyone.
This is a bit of an odd comment, but I _really_ like the landscapes/backgrounds you did for this comic.
…aaaaaaaand now watch them win 7 out of the next 10 Super Bowls with their surprise 2021 UDFA QB Brom Tady
This could be the most popular thing you have ever posted.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the Patriots are fourth in cap space for 2021 and second in 2022 (they have $170M, when the median is $95M).
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT FOR 20 YEARS!!!