The New England Patriots need upgrades throughout the offense to fix things heading into the 2021 NFL season. Here’s a two-step offseason plan to do so.
There’s no question the 2020 NFL season was a big disappointment for the New England Patriots, who have established themselves as one of the more successful franchises in the league.
With multiple key pieces and players departing prior to the start of last season, Bill Belichick and company ended the 2020 campaign with a record of 7-9 overall while placing third in the AFC East standings and on the outside of the playoffs.
During the year, there were multiple areas of the team that appeared as weaknesses for the Patriots, from the disappointing performance of newly-signed quarterback Cam Newton and the rest of the offense to the typically dominant defense having multiple players absent from the team due to departing in free agency or sitting out the season with COVID-19 concerns.
With the offseason in full swing throughout the NFL, New England has the hopes of filling needs throughout the depth chart either via free agency, the trade market or through the upcoming draft to rebuild and bounce back for the 2021 season and into the future.
The good news for the Patriots is that they will have the flexibility to make moves this offseason, having about $68.6 million in cap space available for the 2021 season, according to Spotrac’s salary cap database. That amount of room is the third-most in the NFL behind the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets.
New England also has 10 picks in the upcoming draft, including the No. 15 selection in the opening round. Outside of that, the Patriots currently have one pick in the second and third rounds, three fourth-round picks, one fifth-round pick, two sixth-round picks and one seventh-round selection.
That amount of flexibility and assets should set the Patriots up to be competitive this offseason when it comes to trying to acquire talent to join the team in 2021.
With that said, there is a relatively simple two-step plan New England should follow in order to fix most notably the offense to improve and get back to dominance in the new year.