Local British Patriots fans at Wembley Stadium, who haven’t been able to see their team with any regularity, got a pretty accurate picture of what the 2024 version of the New England football experience has been during Sunday’s 32-16 loss to the lowly Jaguars.
Like this season, which began with their upset of the Bengals, there was a promising start that inspired optimism. The offense, led by shiny rookie Drake Maye looked terrific on the first drive. They scored more points (7) and amassed more yards (68) than the Patriots did in their opening drives in the first six weeks combined.
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The Patriots forced a punt and then came back and scored a field goal, but unlike against the Bengals, when they turned a 10-0 lead into a win over Cincinnati, this simply gave them a high perch to fall from.
And fall flat they did.
The Patriots gave up 25 straight points to a team that came in averaging just 18.8 per game. They got speed-bagged by a 1-5 Jaguars team who came in with both its quarterback and coach on the hot seat.
It felt like things couldn’t get worse last year as they slogged their way to a 4-13 record. But at least that felt like a cleansing fire headed toward a fresh start. As things went on, it became clear that Bill Belichick was likely on his way out and that Mac Jones would certainly be gone. Change was coming. Plus with the likelihood of a high pick, fans could daydream about drafting a high-profile quarterback.
That’s not the case now. They’re likely going to select high again, but New England has already picked its quarterback and draft anticipation isn’t nearly as fun for a left tackle, or more likely, a trade down.
The Patriots are still bad and possibly worse. If they can’t beat the Jaguars, it’ll be hard to match last year’s four wins.
While Robert Kraft has spent a lot of time congratulating himself on how smart he was for hiring Eliot Wolf or Jerod Mayo, neither has done much to assure people that they’re good at their respective jobs. Kraft is not likely to make a change no matter how bad things get this year, so they’ll both have to get better at their jobs for the Patriots to get better on the field.
Maye is being pinned with a lot of hope. The rookie QB has a lot of promise. But the same Patriots fans who mocked their Jets counterparts for dubbing Mark Sanchez “the Sanchise” and Eric Mangini “The Mangenius” after small samples of early success are now declaring Maye a savior.
He might be, but it’s way too soon. How will he perform when better opponents have more video to prepare for him? How will he be as his body gets dinged up from taking hit after hit? He’s got a chance to be good, but it’s too early to draw big conclusions.
Even if he’s outstanding, that doesn’t mean much without better pieces and structure around him.
The New England defense, which looked terrific in Week 1, has been shaky. Alex Van Pelt’s offensive mission seems to change from quarter to quarter. There are players who might need benching on both sides of the ball, but the Patriots don’t have good enough depth to replace them.
Wolf failed to adequately address the offensive line in the offseason and the rest of his draft class outside of Maye has been shaky. Ja’Lynn Polk is a mess and Javon Baker can’t get on the field. Layden Robinson and Caeden Wallace haven’t done enough to look like long-term starters on the offensive line.
Now he’ll have to decide whether to trade Kendrick Bourne, Jonathan Jones, Deatrich Wise, etc., before the trade deadline.
How many current players would be good enough to start on a 2026 team with playoff aspirations? It’s not a big number.
For this to be Year 1 of a productive rebuild, the Patriots need to use it to coach and teach their young players how both to win and to be franchise cornerstones for the future.
To do that, they need to stop sliding backward and start climbing. That hasn’t happened yet.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
