The New England Patriots are collapsing like the Roman Empire, from the inside out

Adam on 09 27, 2009

Asante Samuel, Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Teddy Bruschi, Rodney Harrison, and Ellis Hobbs. This is the list of defensive starters
that have departed from the Patriots in the past two years. Two are future hall of famers (Seymour and Harrison) three were pro-bowlers
(Samuel, Vrabel, and Bruschi) and Hobbs was nothing if not solid.

The Patriots have always been able to bring in new players and somehow fit them to their system perfectly. Everything the Patriots
do seems to work, perhaps until now.

You can’t underestimate the loss of 6 above average to elite players from one side of the ball in a span of two years. The patriots have had amazing success stories like Wes Welker, reforming Randy Moss, getting great production out of an aging Corey Dillon, and winning eleven games with Matt Cassell. They have always been commended, and perhaps revered for the strength of their system, which seemed to maximize every player’s potential.

But just maybe The Patriots have begun to drink their own kool-aid. The media can praise a team all it wants, but once that team begins to believe the hype, a bad seed has been planted. The Patriots are arrogant; they believe that there is no such thing as a priceless
player.

As invincible as the Patriots have seemed over the years perhaps their flippant treatment of great players is finally going to bite
them. By no means is this team in serious trouble in the long run. They had 4 second round picks this year, and acquired the Raiders
first round pick in 2011. They will be able to replenish their nucleus and continue to develop good young players.

But there are concerns. The Patriots may have some good young players and promising future draft picks, but what happens when Tom Brady needs to be replaced? You can have as many draft picks as you like, but Tom Brady is a once in a generation player. If you have Tom Brady you don’t build for the future, especially after seeing him go down for a whole season.

Championships are the only thing that matter in professional sports, and especially to the Patriots. So why are they building for the
future when they have Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and Wes Welker right now? The window will not stay open forever in New England.

The Patriots appear to be building for a future where they can be a solid to good team, at the cost of winning championships now. That begs the question, would you rather win one or two more Super Bowl’s over the next four years, or be relatively competitive over the next ten years? The Patriots seem to be favoring the latter.

I disagree with that approach. Nothing matches a championship, if you have a good opportunity to win today, you don’t think about
tomorrow, especially in the no guarantees world of the NFL.

Think of where the Patriots stand now because of their personnel moves. Brady is still shaky coming back from knee surgery, so the
offense is not yet the juggernaut it was expected to be. The defense is no longer dominant (or even very good), and thus is unable to
compensate for the offenses’ struggles. Not only that, but the Patriots best defensive player (defending rookie of the year Jerod
Mayo) is out 6-8 weeks with a bum knee. They don’t have the depth to make up for Mayo’s absence. They can’t rely on Richard Seymour, Mike Vrabel, Asante Samuel etc. to pick up the slack.

To add to the Patriots plight they have upcoming games against a very good Atlanta Falcons team, the bruising Baltimore Ravens, the Tennessee Titans, and the perennially great Indianapolis Colts. The Patriots could be 1-3 before you know it, and having to play catch up for the rest of the year. This team does not have the defense to win a super bowl this year (although I believe Brady and Belichick will get this team to the playoffs). And pretty soon the offense will be too old to be dominant. We have seen the championship window close on great teams in all sports, but it’s rare to see a team close the window on themselves.