Patriots report card for 2023 season: Offense and coaching both receive an ‘F’ following abysmal 1-4 start

In years past, the Patriots‘ season really didn’t get humming until around Halloween. It was at that point where all the fine-tuning had been put in sync, acquisitions were executed, and it was off to the AFC Championship. Boy, have things changed.

Now, the Patriots find themselves at the bottom of the NFL barrel, sitting at 1-4 on the young season and each passing game seems to be worse than the last. Rock bottom came on Sunday when the club was handed a 34-0 loss at the hands of the New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium. It was the largest home shutout loss in franchise history and came just a week after Belichick surrendered the worst of his career, a 38-3 defeat in Dallas.

Through the first five weeks, it hasn’t been pretty in Foxborough and, as we comb through each side of the ball along with the coaching, the early-season grades are going to reflect that. Robert Kraft won’t be sticking these grades up on the fridge at 1 Patriot Place. 

Offense: F

At every level, the offense has broken down. 

The biggest concern coming into the season was the offensive line, specifically the tackle positions. The club didn’t aggressively address that position with a Day 1 or Day 2 pick in the NFL Draft nor did they throw significant cash down on the table during free agency to provide Mac Jones with protection necessary to get the most out of him. Instead, they doubled down on Trent Brown by adjusting his contract to give him a raise and brought in 34-year-old Riley Reiff, Calvin Anderson (12 starts over three seasons prior to coming to New England), and Vederian Lowe (zero starts). 

Those fears of an unstable line loomed over training camp and came to fruition as the season unfolded. Through five weeks, the offensive line has given up the seventh-highest pressure rate (39.1%) in the NFL and Jones has been given the fifth-fewest time to throw. Unlike the Dolphins (second-fewest) and 49ers (third-fewest), getting the ball out quickly is not by design of how they operate their offense. Instead, it’s the inability to hold up in pass protection. So far, the 80 pressures allowed by the Patriots are second-most in the NFL, only looking up to the Panthers and Giants, who are tied with 82 total pressures allowed. 

Yes, there are other issues within this offense, but the inability to move the ball through the air or on the ground all stems from poor play up front. 

As for those other areas, quarterback has become a huge problem for the Patriots to the point that they may be looking for a new signal-caller in the offseason. While we did note that his offensive line isn’t doing him any favors, Jones hasn’t been good. The former first-rounder looks rushed at times which has forced him into a number of critical mistakes. 

One of his great strengths coming out of Alabama was said to be his decision-making and ability to exploit mismatches pre-snap. That has been drastically missing through five weeks. According to TruMedia, Jones’ turnover-worthy throw percentage (6.5%) is the highest among every quarterback in the league. Meanwhile, his off-target percentage of 11.3% ranks 14th in the NFL among quarterbacks and is just a sliver under New York’s Zach Wilson (11.4%). Again, Jones’ precision is supposed to be a key strength of his game, so finding him in the middle of the road in this category is concerning. 

The situation around Jones is unenviable, but playing your way to the bench in two consecutive games and seemingly regressing with every snap should be causing alarm bells to go off around Foxborough that he may not be the franchise signal-caller the team hoped he would be. 

At the skill positions, Rhamondre Stevenson was looked at as arguably the top weapon within the offense. However, he’s averaging just 2.8 yards per carry and his catch rate of 66.7% is a career low after flirting with 80% a season ago. Offseason additions like JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mike Gesicki have yet to make a substantial impact and Kendrick Bourne is currently the team’s leading receiving with a 43.6 receiving-yards-per-game average. 

Defense: B+

New England’s defense has been dealt a bad hand in a multitude of ways. With the struggles on offense, the unit is being asked to essentially play perfectly to keep the team in games, which is unsustainable. Just last week, a fumble and interception by the offense gave the Saints the ball at the New England 29- and 31-yard line, respectfully. Following those turnovers, the defense allowed 10 total points. How much of that is on the defense and how much of that is on the offense simply putting the ‘D’ in a bad spot? 

On the year, New England’s defense is allowing 4.6 yards per play (fifth fewest in the NFL) and is allowing opponents to move the chains on third down 34.3% of the time (sixth fewest in the NFL). All in all, they’ve played extremely well. The only area that they’ve truly struggled is creating turnovers. The Patriots have just two turnovers on the season, which is the lowest in the entire NFL. 

The other piece of this unit’s poor luck has been injuries. The defense is bound to take a hit going forward with pass rusher Matthew Judon (biceps) — arguably the team’s best player — and first-round rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez (torn labrum) both going down for the bulk of the year (if not the entirely of it). 

Special Teams: D-

For a team that puts as much emphasis on special teams as Bill Belichick and the Patriots do, the club’s special teams unit ranks 32nd in DVOA. They’re allowing 10.1 yards per punt return (11th most in the NFL) while their own punt-return average is just 5.9 yards (27th). They’ve also had the worst field goal percentage of any team in the league, only netting 50% of their field goal attempts. Those issues are occurring with players — kicker Chad Ryland and punter Bryce Baringer — whom Belichick drafted in the fourth and sixth rounds in the 2023 NFL Draft. For those positions, that’s significant draft capital to burn on players who are key contributors to ranking last in the league on this side of the ball. 

One of the few highlights on special teams this season came on a blocked field goal attempt by Brenden Schooler against the Dolphins in Week 2. 

While Schooler has played well at various points this season, the special teams unit is a sneaky area of weakness for the Patriots and has been the case for the past few seasons. 

Coaching: F

As I wrote earlier this week, Bill Belichick the GM is not doing Bill Belichick the coach any favors. The roster that Belichick has put together has not been conducive to winning football and there are no threats — specifically on offense — that strike fear into opposing teams. While the low talent ceiling with the roster is a piece of the story, there have also been some questionable coaching moments for Belichick this season as well. 

The Patriots are 28th in the NFL on third down and a part of the reason could be due to the play-calling. While questionable decisions on that down have permeated throughout the season, the most egregious examples in my mind come in the Week 3 win over the New York Jets. The offense was faced with several third-and-5, third-and-6 situations and instead of playing to the sticks to simply attempt to get the first down, the play-calling opted for a low-percentage deep pass that more often than not was unsuccessful. 

If you go back to the opener, Kayshon Boutte only getting one foot down on a fourth-and-11 throw from Jones that would have kept the game alive is also a minor detail that Belichick-coached rookies would have historically had beaten into their heads before hitting an NFL field for the first time. 

Maybe the most damning coaching decision, however, came last week. With his team down 24-0 and 9:48 to play in the third quarter, Belichick elected to punt the ball from the New Orleans 40-yard line instead of attempting to keep the drive alive with a fourth-and-3 attempt. While the offense ultimately didn’t give him much confidence to go for it in that situation as it was 1-for-16 on third and fourth down for that game, it was still a head-scratching decision to not go for it in that situation to allow his team a fighting chance to get back in the game.