The Patriots’ 2019 season ended Saturday night, but it remains to be seen what’s in store for the franchise moving forward.
New England, which has won 11 straight AFC East titles, could be in store for the most impactful offseason in the organization’s history. With a number of key players, including Tom Brady, bound for free agency, the Patriots very well could undergo wholesale changes in the coming months, signaling the dawn of a new era in Foxboro.
So even though New England likely will have the benefit of being led by the greatest football coach of all time next season, NFL insider Peter Schrager seems to believe the Patriots’ season-ending loss to the Tennessee Titans marked the end of the franchise’s unprecedented run of success.
“…That whole entire game and I’ll tell ya, the last three months it has not felt like the New England Patriots. So do I think this could be the end? Yeah, I honestly think it can,” Schrager said Monday on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.” “(Josh) McDaniels is interviewing for different jobs this week. He’s a very important piece. Nick Caserio — the front office executive — his contract’s up. Oh yeah, Tom Brady’s contract is up and he doesn’t have one with the Patriots after March. Unless something miraculous happens where they come and offer him a wild amount of money, he’s going to have other suitors. I don’t think it will ever be the same. I think we saw maybe the last of those days where all of those guys are together and it might be the last great Patriots time.”
Is this the end of the Patriots dynasty?
The crew weighs in… pic.twitter.com/hALIVvvJ7g
— GMFB (@gmfb) January 6, 2020
Should the Patriots lose the trio of Brady, McDaniels and Caserio in the coming months, it would be tough to envision New England being a legitimate Super Bowl contender in the 2020 campaign. But if the club finds a way to retain Brady and improve his supporting cast, it very well could be business as usual for the Patriots next season (and maybe beyond).
There’s obviously a standard in place in Foxboro, so at the very minimum, Patriots fans probably should expect to see a competitive bunch come fall.
