4 NFL teams that could surprisingly finish in last place in 2022

Surprising potential last place NFL team no. 3: New England Patriots

Is there really any point to underestimating the New England Patriots?

I think we try this just about every year, right?

We try to find reasons why the New England Patriots are going to fail and it’s become much easier to do in the post-Tom Brady era.

Unfortunately for the detractors, the Patriots made the playoffs in 2021 despite having a rookie QB under center and a ton of new pieces on both sides of the ball to try and work with.

Heading into the 2022 season, could things be worse for the Patriots than they seemed going into last season?

It’s possible that we could see a year two regression from Mac Jones, even though the way he plays gives him a pretty high floor.

The Patriots lost Josh McDaniels to the Las Vegas Raiders and at this point, nobody really knows who will be calling the plays for the offense. Could that throw a wrench in things?

The Patriots have the worst group of receivers in the division. They lost one of their best defensive players when they let JC Jackson just walk right out the door to the Los Angeles Chargers.

I think a combination of factors with the coaching staff, the roster, and improvements made by other teams in the division could lead to the Patriots winning maybe just six or seven games this season.

Are the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins going to be able to beat that?

The improvements those teams have made lead me to believe that there’s a chance the Patriots could lose some games in their own division that they otherwise wouldn’t. We already saw they were a team that struggled at home last year with a 4-5 record at Gillette Stadium.

I’m not sure we’ll see the same type of success on the road (6-2 record) that we saw from New England last year and there’s a chance this team could finish last place in the AFC East.