A historically easy schedule may have played a part in it, but the New England Patriots arrived vastly ahead of schedule with the combination of Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel leading the charge for them.
Making it all the way to the Super Bowl, they were unfortunately no match for the Seattle Seahawks. As a result, it is back to the drawing board for them, with the fan base recognizing that the roster has a ton of flaws they need to address this summer.
Why the New England Patriots Need Roster Help
The excellence of Maye over the course of the regular season was enough to mask a lot of shortcomings on the roster. Then, even as he struggled in his first career playoffs, the defense took a noticeable step up.
Despite ranking at No. 12 on PFSN’s Defense Impact for the season, they were a stifling unit in the postseason. That helped guide the Patriots to a Super Bowl appearance. However, it wasn’t enough to get them over the hump.
All year long, one of the major problems for the roster was its depth. While they had good to great players in the starting lineup, the depth was questionable, making it unsustainable for the brutality of an entire NFL season.
But during the postseason, their offensive line got exposed. Maye was sacked at least 5 times in each game, with Super Bowl 60 seeing him take 6 sacks and commit 3 turnovers. It also made clear that the team had a wide range of needs across the roster.
The fan base clearly recognizes those flaws, as PFSN’s Mock Draft Simulator has shown three position groups receiving more than one-fifth of the total selections. Moreover, the top 10 players selected by Patriots fans have had a difference of less than 10%.
At the top of the priority list for New England is the offensive tackle spot. Will Campbell put up a solid showing, but his physical constraints held him back. As a result, an astounding 28.6% of fans believe that is their No. 1 need.
That translates to the player pool as well, with Max Iheanachor commanding 14.6% of selections. The Arizona State product is ranked as the fourth-best offensive tackle available in the draft and could be a reasonable selection at 31.
Blake Miller, at 9%, isn’t far behind as the next-best option according to Patriots fans. Right behind Iheanachor on the list is Zion Young at 11.7%, as he’s doing a bulk of the heavy lifting for the 24.7% of fans who want an edge rusher to help improve their middle-of-the-pack defense.
Similarly, T.J. Parker also has a lot of fans in New England, with 6.2% of users picking him to be their newest rookie. Unfortunately, this summer has increased the key areas of need for them.
After cutting ties with Stefon Diggs, who was their most productive wide receiver last season, 20.7% of fans believe they need more help in the pass-catching group. As a result, Denzel Boston (9.8%) and KC Concepcion (6%) combined for over 15% of the votes.
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All in all, the Patriots fan base does not view the current roster as anywhere close to complete enough to make a repeat run. Given the breadth and scope of their search, it’s clear that help is necessary at a variety of key positions.
It remains to be seen whether the organization aligns with the fan base and chooses a similar line of thinking. But they have to be very creative in the draft to achieve a satisfactory result.
