Price: Comparing 2018 Patriots to '09 group is a naive oversimplification that sells current roster short

There’s been a lot of talk about how this year’s Patriots’ team appears ticketed for the same fate as the 2009 group. Heck, I’ve done some of that myself over the last week or so. But as someone who covered the 2009 team and was in that locker room on a daily basis, I’m here to remind people just how miserable that roster -- and season -- really was, at least by Patriots standards.



Consider the series of events: That year had fourth-and-2. Back-to-back road losses to the Saints and Dolphins, games where the Patriots submitted two of the meekest post-Thanksgiving performances under Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. There was LateGate. The infamous Adalius Thomas locker room press conference where he referenced The Jetsons while taking snide shots at the coach. Wes Welker ripping up his knee on the turf in Houston. The worst postseason performance ever under Belichick and Brady, a game where Vince Wilfork — whose contract was up at the end of the season — spent the last few minutes of the fourth quarter saying goodbye to his teammates on the sidelines. By the time the clock hit zero on that wild-card loss to the Ravens, guys couldn’t leave town fast enough. All in all, it was the softest team Belichick has had in New England.

The fact of the matter is that season had three positive moments: One, the last-minute come-from-behind win over the Bills to open the season. Two, the 59-0 waxing of the Titans in the middle of a surprise October snow. And three, the kid who became famous for showing up at a December game in a Randy Moss mask. (Oh, and the fact they played a few games in their Pat Patriots throwbacks, because it was the 50th anniversary of the franchise, certainly didn’t hurt.)

Part of the struggle that year was because of an eventful offseason a few months before. (That comparison, I’ll give you.) There were the trades of Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour and the retirements of Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi. The lesson from that offseason? You remove too many foundational elements, and the building is going to come crashing down around you.

But the truth of the matter is that team just wasn’t very good. They had five games decided by three points or less, and they lost four of them. They had some guys on the roster who got progressively more sour as the season went on, and those bad vibes built on top of each other. Everyone has seen the snippet from “A Football Life” where Belichick is lamenting to Brady that he just can’t get the team to play the way he wants them to play. I’d say an even more damning quote came the following week after a (surprise!) late-season loss to the Dolphins in Miami. At that point, the Patriots were 7-5, and Brady took a long, hard look at the team. “At times, I don’t think we fight very hard,” he said after that loss. For a veteran player to say that about the state of the roster, that spoke volumes.

The 2018 Patriots? Well, the picture isn’t finished quite yet, but for one thing, the leadership on this roster is better than the 2009 team. (That was a year Moss was named one of five captains. Ho ho ho. Moss brought a lot to the table, but it's stretching it to call him a leader.) We referenced the burden of leadership that’s been placed on guys like David Andrews, Matthew Slater and Devin McCourty, and they have been as good a group of captains as I’ve seen in recent memory. There’s more fight in this group than the 2009 team. And a pair of home wins combined with a Houston loss will give them something the 2009 group never had — an appearance in the divisional round. Are they a championship team? We don’t know yet, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see them get further than the 2009 team.

The upshot of the 2009 season was the fact it forced Belichick to disinfect the locker room. Discontented players like Thomas and Shawn Springs were quickly fired into the sun, while Moss was dealt soon after the start of the 2010 season. Deion Branch returned, they made peace with Wilfork, and added sage veterans like Alge Crumpler (who doesn’t get enough credit as a locker room uniter at that stage of the franchise). In addition, Belichick had one of the finest drafts of his career that spring, adding McCourty and Rob Gronkowski, two players who would come to define the next decade of New England football. They were still a few years removed from a return to true glory, but hitting the reset button after 2009 helped ultimately set the course for four more Super Bowl appearances in seven years, and another two Lombardi Trophies.

Ultimately, 2009 should still stand as a cautionary tale for future New England rosters — first of all, team-building is a delicate process, and it only takes a few bad decisions to turn a good locker room bad. In addition, a lack of execution in key moments can be the difference between 10-6 and 12-4. But while the story of the ’18 team isn’t quite complete, let’s hold off on that 2009 comparison. It’s an oversimplification that sells this current roster short, and minimizes just how dysfunctional that 2009 team really was.