Why Ex-Patriots Exec Believes New England ‘Is Not A Good Team’ This Season

The Patriots have suffered some ugly losses this season, but it’s safe to assume New England still will be a playoff team and, in all likelihood, make a legitimate Super Bowl LIII run, right?

Not so fast, says one former Patriots executive.

On the latest GM Street podcast for The Ringer, Mike Lombardi, who served as an assistant to New England’s coaching staff from 2014 to 2016, expressed serious doubts about the Patriots in wake of their Week 10 blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans.

“To me, this is not a good Patriots team. I have been saying it all year,” Lombardi said, as transcribed by WEEI. “They struggle to make explosive plays. Josh Gordon doesn’t look as fast as he once was. I think he’s been covered up. Whether they have Gronk or don’t have Gronk, I think it is really problematic for them. When they are on the road — they didn’t have Shaq Mason at right guard, Ted Karras had to play in there — I thought the Titans did a great job. What was shocking was that (Marcus) Mariota was able to throw the ball as well as he did. And Corey Davis, here is a guy who has had one play over 25 yards all season. He had a 23-yard against the Eagles and a 55-yarder. The guy really makes plays down the field and he had seven (catches) for 125 (yards) in the game. That is not good.”

There’s no doubt the Patriots have struggled on both sides of the ball at times this season, but Lombardi’s gripe about their lack of explosive plays is fairly odd. Save for the historic 2007 season, Tom Brady and Co. seemingly always have employed a “death by a thousand cuts” scheme, carving their way up the field rather than moving the ball in chunk yardage plays.

The fact of the matter is, it’s a near certainty New England will win the AFC East, and there’s still a chance it could grab home-field advantage in the postseason. How about we at least wait until the Patriots’ first game after their Week 11 bye before we start thinking about writing them off.