With the 2020 NFL season approaching, here are five of the biggest questions for the New England Patriots leading into the new year.
Although every NFL team has question marks around the team heading into a new season, perhaps a team within the league that has the most questions is the New England Patriots. There is no denying that the Patriots will look much different during the 2020 NFL season and in the years ahead after a busy offseason.
With a new quarterback set to take over the offense this year and new faces flooding some key roles throughout the depth chart in Foxborough, it will be interesting to see if Bill Belichick and the Patriots take a step back this year or if they will be able to pick things up without a beat throughout the regular season.
New England is coming off of once again claiming an AFC East title in 2019 with a record of 12-4 overall, finishing ahead of the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins in the division standings. The Patriots, however, were surprisingly bounced in the opening round of the playoffs while seeing their season end much earlier than they hoped.
In 2020, New England will have its work cut out for it to try and defend its division title and return to the playoffs at the end of the year. With the mix of new faces, the Patriots also hold the toughest schedule in the NFL this season.
In a division where they have had endless success within, resulting in multiple AFC East titles over the last few decades, other teams within the division made some strides in improving while New England arguably went in the opposite direction.
The Buffalo Bills will be much improved in 2020, most notably with the acquisition of wide receiver Stefon Diggs in a trade with the Minnesota Vikings. The New York Jets and Miami Dolphins are still somewhat in rebuilding modes and are trying to get on the upswing of that process this year, but could provide the Patriots with some headaches during the regular season schedule.
As the season inches closer and New England is set to begin the post-Brady era, let’s take a look at five of the biggest questions surrounding the Patriots leading up to the year.