Grading the 2018 Patriots: Offense - Line soared but passing, rushing efficiency dropped

Before an NFL team turns the page on the previous season and moves forward to the next, they put the team and players under a microscope to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needs to be changed/altered to make progress moving forward.

That goes for everyone -- yes, even for Super Bowl champions.

Obviously, we have no idea what the Patriots’ internal grading looks like, and we don’t anticipate Bill Belichick opening up his grade book anytime soon. So, we’re left to do our homework with some assistance from people who have knowledge of how the Patriots view things.

So we’ll start our dissection (an homage to my mentor, Bob McGinn) with an overview of the team and positions, and then we’ll move onto individual player grades/assessments. Finally, we’ll conclude with our often-imitated but never-duplicated offseason depth chart, coded for performance and contract status, and with a comprehensive analysis of team needs headed into the ’19 offseason.

Part I: Grading the 2018 Patriots — Defensive resurgence led way for more-balanced team

Now: Part II — Team grades for passing offense, rushing offense.

Next: Part III — Team grades for passing defense, rushing defense.

Then: Part IV — Team grades for special teams, personnel moves, coaching and overall.

Finally: Part V—Individual offensive, Part VI—Defensive grades.

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And with that, let’s get started…

PASSING OFFENSE: B-plus (Last year: A)

Definitely a step back for this unit. While the final FootballOutsiders.com passing DVOA ranking (fourth) looked fine, the Patriots slid back greatly (for them) in just about every passing category. Of course, they were first in everything a year ago. But the passing DVOA was their lowest since the 2013 season. The 54 20-plus passes and 7.8 adjusted yards per attempt were the fewest since '14.

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The Patriots averaged 11.7 yards per catch, 10th in the league. Josh Gordon led the team with an 18.0 average — the second-highest for a Patriots receiver in the Belichick era (David Patten, 18.2, 2004) with at least 40 catches — in just 11 games before he was suspended again. Rob Gronkowski's 14.5 average was the fourth-lowest of his career, but he still ranked second among NFL TEs with at least 40 receptions. Julian Edelman's 11.5 per-catch average was the second-highest of his career and best mark since he became a starter. James White's 8.6 average was his highest since '16. Chris Hogan's 15.2 was his highest since leading the league with 17.9 in '16. Phillip Dorsett's 9.1 was the lowest of his career by 3.5 yards. Cordarrelle Patterson's 11.8 was the highest of his career. ... Gordon and Hogan tied for the team lead with 12 receptions of at least 20 yards. Cooks and Gronkowski led the previous season with 18 each. ... New England had 36 drops, one more than '17. Edelman led with 11, White was second with seven (he had seven combined the previous two seasons) with a career-high 143 targets (most for a Patriot since Edelman's 159 in '16). ... Dorsett led the team with a 76.2 catch percentage. Gronkowski's catch percentage has dropped each of the past three seasons to 65.3. Gordon's 57.7 was the highest of his short career. ... Tom Brady's 65.8 completion percentage was his lowest since '14. His 1.9 interception percentage was the highest since '11 and above his career average (1.8). His passer rating of 97.7 was his lowest since '13 (87.3). ... Brady's DYAR of 1,034 ranked eighth and his DVOA ranked seventh. He was first and second, respectively, a season ago as MVP.

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The Patriots' sack percentage of 3.05 was second-best in the league (they were 5.08 and ranked 13th a season ago) and their best mark since at least '09 (3.21). ... The OL allowed Patriots' QBs to be pressured on just 22.15 percent of their dropbacks, down from 30.4 percent a season ago. ... Trent Brown allowed 34.5 total QB pressures (two sacks) and had a pressure percentage of 4.64. Nate Solder allowed 74 in '17 (5.5 sacks) for a 9.7 pressure rate. ... In all, the Patriots improved their pass blocking across the board from last year to this year.

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RUSHING OFFENSE: B (Last year: A-minus)

Josh McDaniels ran the ball on 44.6 percent of plays, the second-highest since his return in '11 (2016, 45.6 percent). ... Patriots ranked ninth in Football Outsiders' rushing DVOA (2.5), which measures efficiency compared to the rest of the league. They were fourth in '17 (10.4). ... New England was third in FO's adjusted line yards (5.03). It was first in '17 (5.05). ... Patriots were third with 29.9 run attempts per game, up from 28 a season ago. ... They were tied for 17th with a 4.3 rushing average. They were 11th at 4.2 in '17. ... For the second-straight year, New England was sixth with 16 rushing touchdowns. ... The Patriots improved from 24th on third- and fourth-and-1 conversions (60.6 percent) to 13th (70.1). .... They also saw a rapid improvement in the explosiveness of their running game, as they were tied for third with 64 rushes of 10-plus yards, and tied for first with 12 rushes of 20-plus yards. A year ago, they were tied for 19th with runs of at least 10 yards (43), and 14th with 10 rushing of 20 yards or more. ... However, the Patriots slipped a bit in consistency as they went from third in rushes of 4-plus yards on all downs and first downs, to 26th and 25th, respectively. ... Terrific ball security with just four rushing fumbles, same as a year ago. ... Sony Michel ranked 29th in yards per attempt (4.5) among qualifiers. Dion Lewis was second a season ago (5.0). ... Michel ranked 24th in Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement (58) and 26th in DVOA (-2.7). Lewis was first in '17 in DYAR (273) and second in DVOA (27.6). ... Of the 149 "bad runs" for the Patriots (1 yard or less outside of kneel downs, goal line and short yardage), only 12 (10 percent) were judged to the responsibility of the running backs. That's up from 8.5 (8.4 percent) a season ago. ... LT Trent Brown led the team with 25.5 bad runs allowed.  Joe Thuney led the team with 13.5 last season. Nate Solder had 8.5 in '17.