Tankathon<\/a>, and reading or creating mock drafts. By this time last year, I had written multiple seven-round mock drafts, and I spent significantly more time thinking about the Senior Bowl than the Super Bowl.<\/p>\nBe honest, how many times have you been to Tankathon this year? How many mock drafts have you read or made? My guess is not many, and that\u2019s a welcome change from the last few years.<\/p>\n
What the Patriots\u2019 scouting and coaching staffs, both of which have been masterfully led by Mike Vrabel, have been able to accomplish in just one year is nothing short of incredible. They took a roster that went 4-13 last season and turned it into a machine that went 14-3 and is in the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n
(Also, spare me with the schedule talk. They played basically the same schedule as the Bills, outside of three games: the Chiefs, who stunk this year, even when Patrick Mahomes was healthy; the Texans, who we\u2019ve been told have a terrible offense and don\u2019t count as a tough opponent; and the Eagles, who limped into the playoffs and were a first-round exit.)<\/p>\n
Regardless of how things broke for them in the playoffs, they could be the first team in NFL history to take down four of the top six defenses in the same playoff run. I don\u2019t care what the offense looks like, that\u2019s as difficult of a road that you\u2019ll find for a Super Bowl team.<\/p>\n
This season has been such a delight, and the Patriots are so likable. From the Will Campbell Weekend Update, to the Thursday night offensive line dinners, to BakeMas, to Mack Hollins being an absolute weirdo, it\u2019s fun to be a Patriots fan again.<\/p>\n
I know the only thing that matters around here is Super Bowls, and that some will ultimately consider it a failure if they lose on Sunday, but that\u2019s just not the case. This season has been a huge success, and has kick-started the rebuild in ways that we couldn\u2019t have expected a year ago.<\/p>\n
When the trade deadline came and passed, many were upset that the Patriots didn\u2019t do anything. Instead, their patience paid off and they got big contributions from UDFA Elijah Ponder, free agent pickup Cory Durden (whose nickname should be Tyler, because he plays with the same anger as the character from Fight Club), and even waiver claim Leonard Taylor, all while not giving up a single asset. Every free agency and draft move has seemingly paid dividends for them this year, and, with another class like this one, they\u2019ll be legit contenders for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s for those reasons, as well as others \u2014 we don\u2019t have all day here \u2014 that a loss on Sunday wouldn\u2019t be a failure. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019ll be disappointed if they don\u2019t win and you\u2019ll probably be too. You need to try to win when you get here since there is no guarantee that you\u2019ll ever get back.<\/p>\n
This year, however, is already a resounding success. Let\u2019s hope that we\u2019re all watching Drake Maye and Co. lift the Lombardi tonight, but, if for some reason they are not, let\u2019s keep it in perspective. Be disappointed, yes, but look at all the growth from this year, and how well they are positioned for the future. Vrabel, Eliot Wolf, Ryan Cowden, John Stricher, Josh McDaniels, Drake Maye, Christian Gonzalez, Milton Williams and many others will have them back in contention in short order.<\/p>\n
For the meantime, let\u2019s all make sure to do our part. Get your food ready, make sure everyone has the correct seat arrangements, and let\u2019s all hunker down and watch some Patriots hype videos before kickoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask any Patriots fan, they\u2019ll tell you that it\u2019s good to be back on top, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,103282,1095,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-738361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-super-bowl","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-opinion","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116035934229462034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}