New England Patriots: 3 Glaring weaknesses entering training camp

New England Patriots Weakness No. 3: 2020 Regular Season Schedule

The first weakness that immediately pops up for New England while looking at the upcoming season is its regular-season schedule and the difficulties that will lie within that 16-game slate of contests for the Patriots.

The Patriots enter the year with the toughest schedule of any team in the NFL, facing some really tough competition both on the road and at home at Gillette Stadium.

New England will face many of the top quarterbacks in the league during the regular season, although its defense has been able to perform well against opposing offenses over the past year-plus. Those quarterbacks include the likes of Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, Seattle Seahawks’ Russell Wilson, Houston Texans’ Deshaun Watson and Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson, among others.

Although facing those quarterbacks and teams would be tough regardless of where the game is being played, three of the four games will come on the road for New England, with the Ravens being the lone team that will come to Foxborough.

Outside of those games, the Patriots also have the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams on the schedule, two teams who have had stellar defensive units to square off against.

Within the AFC East division, New England could catch a bit of a break with having to face the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets in four of the 16 games, but the Patriots might end up having a tougher time with the Buffalo Bills after they have improved over the offseason.

The Patriots have been able to navigate through a tough regular-season schedule in the past and they could continue to do so again in 2020, but this is one of the biggest weaknesses for New England as it embarks of a new era of Patriots football this year.