What The Fuck Are The Patriots Doing?

Seven days ago was supposed to start the new era in New England. Bill had been pseudo-fired, Mac was traded, and free agency, in which the Patriots had the most cap space in the league, was about to begin.

Within minutes my previously wished upon plan A was destroyed by the Falcons, who paid Kirk Cousins more money than they'd pay someone holding Arthur Blank's entire lineage for ransom.

So it was on to plan B, which includes drafting a QB in the upcoming draft which seems all but a done deal, and building a roster around said QB.

Free agency started quiet but solid. They resigned some key locker room guys that will be good for stability and hopefully increased production, brought back Jacoby Brissett to either play the bridge role or very good backup role, brought in Antonio Gibson to pair with Rhamondre, swapped out Mike Gesicki for Austin Hooper, and signed a couple O Lineman who we'll assume are an improvement over the shitstorm we put out there last year.

But that's it.

Literally nothing else.

What the fuck! For days I was bombarded with notifications of this receiver being signed, this receiver being traded, this pro bowl LB signed, all while the Patriots were a part of none of it. I need someone to explain how the team with the most amount of money got zero big name free agents. You don't want to overpay? Newsflash, shitty teams always overpay. They have to. Second newsflash, we are a shitty team! So pay up.

I won't sit here and claim they didn't try to get some of the big name guys, but there has to be some urgency to get some true difference makers on this roster, particularly on offense. I've said before our defense was good last year, and we brought a bunch of guys back and backfilled the few we lost, so I'm not overly concerned with that side of the ball.

But we've seen this story before with the offense. We just created the blueprint on how to destroy a promising young QB by surrounding him with people who're unable to protect him and unable to get open on their own when he is protected. We had the worst arsenal of offensive weapons in the NFL last year. Assuming we take a QB at 3, is that the plan again?

Right now our WR1 is JuJu Smith-Schuster. Or Kendrick Bourne. Or maybe you could say DeMario Douglas if we're talking potential and talent. Those are all at BEST WR2s, on many teams WR3s. Hunter Henry was great the one year the Pats had a competent offense in his time here, so maybe he finds that version of himself again. I won't hold my breath.

Dionte Johnson. Keenan Allen. Calvin Ridley. Mike Williams. All available via sign or trade, and we get none.

Tee Higgins requested a trade...no link to the Patriots.

Oh, we signed another WR3 in KJ Osborn (who I like for the record, but he's no answer).

I still don't think they're that far away from being a respectable team, but what's the plan? Rookie QB paired with rookie WR? We aren't able to get a top tier player at both positions with only one first round pick, so hope to catch a flyer?

The optimistic spirits I had a week ago are gone. Not that I did or deserved to pretend I knew what they were doing, but I certainly don't now. The most plausible outcome I'm envisioning is another disgruntled and mismanaged "savior" of our franchise.

Although just one week in, the new look Patriots sure look a whole lot like the old look Patriots. And that excites no one.