By now, we can all recite the names by heart.
Malcolm Butler ... gone.
Dion Lewis ... gone.
Danny Amendola ... gone.
Nate Solder ... gone.
Brandin Cooks ... traded.
Yes, there was an exodus of talent — to a level we haven't seen in some time — that left the Patriots in one fell swoop this offseason.
The Patriots were supposed to get some immediate help via the draft, with three picks in the first two rounds (a fourth was used to trade down). But their top three picks are injured, with two (Isaiah Wynn, Duke Dawson) on IR. The other, Sony Michel, had a procedure that caused him to miss virtually all of camp and the preseason.
Free agency was a flop at receiver, as Jordan Matthews, Kenny Britt and Eric Decker couldn't even make the team.
So just in terms of addition/subtraction, the Patriots' plans to replace their former players haven't exactly gone well.
But will that really have an impact on this season? No, I'm not talking about how easy or hard their schedule might be, or their final record. None of that really matters.
What's important: Can the Patriots better their finish last season of a Super Bowl loss to the Eagles? Can they be a 60-minute team on the biggest stage, instead of the 50-minute version (they led 33-32 with 9:22 to play) that fell to Philly?
That will depend on if New England is a better team than the one that walked out of U.S. Bank Stadium with their heads bowed.
At first blush, there's no way the Patriots can be as good. Not with all those accomplished players exiting. But is that really true? Not if you go through the lineups player by player. We have, and it's hard not to come away thinking these Patriots are actually better than the '17 version.
We're not saying you're going to see the improvement on Sunday — or even in the first month, judging the way the Patriots have handled recent Septembers. And Julian Edelman's return is a factor. But even with all those departed players and disappointing high draft picks, the Patriots should be better this season.
Let's go through it:
OFFENSE
DEFENSE
IN CONCLUSION
So to bring everything home and kind of quantify the exercise we went through, we put together one of our trusty tables and assigned values to the verdicts (plus-2: big plus; 1: plus; 0.5: slight plus and vice versa). Here's the table:
[table id=135 /]
There are certainly some problem areas (Brady not likely matching MVP season, running back with injuries, receiver until Edelman returns and three spots in the secondary) but on the whole, the Patriots should be somewhat improved from the team that barely lost to the Eagles in the Super Bowl.
Depth is certainly going to be a factor at this point — and this team is thinner than the '17 team — but thanks to some key additions (Clayborn, Bentley), returning players (Hightower, Edelman) and year-over-year improvement by some players, it's difficult to buy some of the noise that the Patriots are going to face tougher sledding this season.
While this doesn't account for additions by other teams and their own internal improvement, expect the Patriots to be right there again and, if luck is on their side, back to being a 60-minute team in the Super Bowl.