Time flies. Back in mid-May, one of our weekly Sunday Notes column here on Pats Pulpit concluded with a brief personal paragraph : it was on to parental leave. Six weeks and one newborn later, that leave is now in the rear-view mirror.
Back to the grind it is. Back to covering the New England Patriots . Obviously, though, there is not that much to cover at this point in the offseason.
It’s still almost three weeks before the first group of players reports to training camp, and more than three weeks before the action kicks off proper. So, for the time being, I will use this opportunity to take a brief look back. Here are one man’s admittedly random observations on the Patriots and more returning from parental leave.
1. The last two years have been disappointing for the Patriots, there is no doubt about it. The team lacked talent both on and off the field, and it felt like long-time legendary head coach Bill Belichick was unable to push the right buttons despite his Hall of Fame résumé and a knowledge of the game and its tactics that is unmatched in the NFL.
All of this produced what can best be described as a lack of excitement surrounding the club. Sure, there was some optimism, especially after the team made the playoffs in 2021 with rookie Mac Jones at quarterback. However, as Jones failed to properly develop that optimism started to turn into a quite pessimistic outlook and eventually led to changes happening in the organization; the bandaid was ripped off and a pr.
