Bedard: As Patriots limp to the finish, the priority for the future is clear

I'm going to refrain from getting into the ramifications of the season finale against the Jets. The difference between the 2nd overall pick and the 8th selection is there, but the issues at play — pissing off the football gods, Bill Belichick's possible final game, Gang Green on the other sidelines — is going to give me a popsicle headache. Barring Robert Kraft ordering the Code Red, Belichick refusing the order daring to be fired, and Jerod Mayo being installed to lose the finale, I don't see any other scenario where the Patriots don't go all out to beat, checks notes, Trevor Siemian in the finale.

Make of that what you will.

All I know is this: I'm sick of hearing excuses from Belichick, and I'm tired of any talk about how the Patriots aren't too far away and they should stay the course at head coach because the future is too scary.

You know what else is scary? Insanity, as in doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

This has been a slow and steady descent into the AFC East and conference basement, which is where Belichick started his Patriots coaching career in an interesting potential full-circle scenario. This isn't a fluke. This has been a multi-year process that started back to Tom Brady's final seasons — if it wasn't for Brady, Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman having one more beast mode in the sun together, who knows how early things might have ended for the 2018 team ... and we know what happened the following season.

"Just stop turning the ball over ... once we did that, we were competitive," Belichick said on Sunday.

He said that like a season-long affliction came out of nowhere this season ... and has lasted four months.

No, Bill. This is what happens when you make offense an afterthought, draft poorly, and make bad assistant coaching hires. Turnovers are a result of a lot of thing, they're not caused by one thing and easily solved.

"I mean, if you take away those four turnovers, what happens, who knows?" Bailey Zappe said.

Yeah, and if I had $10 million, imagine...

If you don't have an all-time great quarterback out there with at least a few good weapons, it's really hard to play offense in this league for anyone — look at Patrick Mahomes and the guy on the other sideline, Josh Allen. Allen has 19 turnovers by himself. Mahomes had 16 entering today. Mac Jones and  Zappe (3 INTs today, including a pick-six) have a combined 20. And we know they're not superhuman, like Mahomes and Allen (by the way, both the Chiefs and Bills have more giveaways as a team than the Patriots do this season).

I mean, if you didn't think that was going to happen this season, you're delusional ... or Belichick.

This is the problem with this program right now, and the leading reason why Robert Kraft has to make the prudent decision in the best interest of the franchise come a week from Monday (if the Patriots don't play on Saturday, which is possible).

Belichick and his supporters can make all the excuses they want for him, but the fact of the matter is he put himself in this spot because of his disdain for offense/quarterbacks.

Even if your franchise quarterback is an alien, you have to give them enough help. If you have an unproven quarterback, you have to give them more.

You start with the offensive line, by not relying on Trent Brown, Riley Reiff and Calvin Anderson. You find a young tackle to develop. You don't cast off Jakobi Meyers for an injury-plagued Juju Smith-Schuster, who predictably ended on injured reserve, possibly with DeVante Parker alongside him. 

Maybe, then this doesn't happen when you're down so far on the depth chart because your unreliable receivers are on the shelf.

You go find a reliable third-down back to get your QB some cheap and easy yards. You draft a young tight end so that Hunter Henry doesn't have to do everything himself, and so you're just left with a blocker like Pharoah Brown and a finesse player like Mike Gesicki, who goes down faster than Brandon Lloyd. You also empower your offensive coordinator to hire the staff he wants, so things are coached to his liking.

Belichick failed on all of this. That's why his offense is so bad, why it produces more turnovers than a bakery, and why Belichick's precious defense is forced to play its ass off from behind week after week after week.

Just don't turn the ball over...

Yeah, it's that frigging simple, Bill. Go asked Brady, Mahomes and Allen how they feel about that, when they're left as one-man bands every Sunday, entrusted to perform miracles every week.

Look at how Dak Prescott, Lamar Jackson and Brock Purdy are performing, with actual talent, real investments and damn good coaching around them. All are top 10 in the fewest amount of giveaways.

Funny how that all works.

You don't want turnovers? Invest in your offense in multiple ways - line, weapons and coaching.

That's the real story in this decline of the Patriots and the reason why any talk that doesn't address, first and foremost, how to upgrade the entire offensive operation is just completely pointless.

Does anyone think Belichick is going to do that in any scenario you can conjure that relates to him hanging onto power (like bringing in an independent general manager)? Of course not. He just doesn't believe in it. He has the same view now that he did in Cleveland, where it didn't work either (1995: 20 INTs; 1994: 21 INTs; 1993: 19 INTs). The Patriots threw 18 touchdowns and had 19 turnovers from their quarterbacks in 2000.

I wonder what happened in 2001 to make Belichick's formula work?

If the Patriots want to get right again, the essential question they have to ask is, "How to we progress as an offense?"

The person who can give the best answer to that question — general manager or coaching candidate — should be given the job and a chance to grow.

Does anyone think that person will be Belichick?