Patriots Super Bowl Champ Believes You Can’t ‘Sleep’ On New England

The Patriots project to be the worst team in the AFC East heading into Week 1, but a former player wasn’t ready to rule out New England just yet.

Two-time Super Bowl champion Logan Ryan joined fellow former Patriot Jason McCourty and NFL Media’s “Good Morning Football” panel Thursday. Ryan helped New England win Super Bowl XLIX and LI, and it was with that experience that he trusted the Patriots would find a way to stay competitive this season.

“I don’t think the Patriots are going to put a lot of self-hype out there in the offseason. I don’t think that’s Bill Belichick’s way,” Ryan said. “I don’t think they’re ever going to win an offseason in terms of acquisitions. That’s not the Bill Belichick way either. But one thing I know about Bill Belichick is he knows how to play against Aaron Rodgers. We saw that last year when they went to Green Bay and probably were underdogs there. And he knows these quarterbacks in this division really well. He knows these play-callers in that division really well. I don’t think you can ever sleep on the Patriots.

“I don’t know if they have the firepower on paper that some of these other teams do. I don’t know if anyone can pick them, but I think we all know Belichick will outperform expectations. We’ll see what that is, but I believe the AFC East is loaded as a division and one of the toughest as it gets this year.”

There are plenty of holes to pick with the other teams in the AFC East, which include potential off-the-field issues or hype gone too far. But Mac Jones will have to rebound from a poor sophomore season to help the Patriots get back to the postseason.