The Patriots are bordering on long-shot territory when it comes to making the playoffs, and there's certainly no shortage of blame to go around.
DraftKings Sportsbook currently has the Patriots as -1100 to miss the postseason, and it's quite evident Bill Belichick's grand experiment is a flop.
Belichick lost longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and replaced him with longtime assistants Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. The offense has taken a major step back with quarterback Mac Jones also regressing following a promising first season. Now, the Patriots are staring at missing the playoffs for the second time in three seasons with little reason to be optimistic in an offensive-driven league.
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, no stranger to strong takes, made a damning claim on his podcast Sunday night that certainly is hard to argue.
"This is the most annoying Patriots season, like, since the '90s, since the (Drew) Bledsoe-(Pete) Carroll era," Simmons complained on his weekly Sunday night podcast. "F---ing Kendrick Bourne, who's our best receiver, we knew it heading into the year -- if you asked 100 Patriots fans, all 100 would say Kendrick Bourne is our best reciever. Something happens with him and Patricia in training camp and he gets buried, right? It's like, this is weird, he's playing 10 snaps -- so, finally, I don't know what happened in the Bengals game, but they said 'F--- it,' they start playing Kendrick Bourne, and guess who's open the last two hours of the game? Kendrick Bourne. He's doing everything, and it's like, this is exactly the guy we need. None of our receivers can get open, this guy is open, why did this take 15 weeks?
"This is the worst-coached Patriots team since the Carroll era," Simmons continued. "It really is. It's an abomination. So bad. … I still think he might be a good coach, but he just wants to be surrounded by a bunch of yes men and people he's related to."
Belichick said before the season began that if the offensive experiment went awry, he would take the blame. Simmons clearly has no problem handing out a wedge of blame pie to the legendary head coach.
It's probably still going a little too far to suggest Belichick's job could be in jeopardy, but owner Robert Kraft has made it no secret he is fed up with not having won a playoff game since 2018. At the very least, there should be changes to Belichick's coaching staff in 2023, with former offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien's name surfacing over the weekend.
"It's like, cool, that's someone who's an actual coach. … That would at least be a qualified coach on a coaching staff," Simmons said of the O'Brien chatter.
At this point, a qualified offensive coach would represent a major upgrade.
