2022 was a disaster that Shakespeare couldn't describe in any way that's palatable. Bill's decision to bring back Patricia and Judge was understandable but putting them in charge of the offense was bizarre, to say the least. As is the Belichick we all know, he does not feel any need to apologize or explain himself. It's on to the next thing and put negatives behind us.
I've argued with posters and live people almost to the point where people have wanted to take a swing at me. "MY OPINION" is that the game has passed Bill Belichick and his methods and style are about 15 years behind. The modern NFL is a league of mobile quarterbacks and high-speed receivers. Bill is still in the 'pocket passer' and 'timing route wide receivers' mode. As such, the Patriots pose no threat to teams that are now speeding up their defenses because their offenses are top 10. Here's the problem. Bill is 71 years old. He can't change. I'm two years older than Bill and I saw the changes coming when RGIII was drafted. He didn't last, but the next level came and we started seeing QBs with cannon arms and legs that could move.
The players today are not complacent, accepting people like they were in 1995 or even 2005. These guys were raised playing Madden and have a much deeper understanding of the new game of lightning reaction and millisecond response. Bill is playing Atari while the rest of the league is moving toward PS5.
Shakespearean? Really? Yes the Patricia/Jusge thing was a cluster-F and deserves scorn, but let's have a little perspective please. Because it was fairly obvious that it could go sideways from the beginning some folks blow the magnitude of it out of proportion. Plenty of other teams have made more costly mistakes that were not as visible or obvious, as evidenced by the fact that the Patriots will wait on 13 other teams before selecting at 14.
One of Bill's strengths is the ability to fix his mistakes and move on. I believe that Bill has done a good job in mitigating some prior mistakes (all teams make them) and placing the team in a decent position to compete in 2023 and forward:
1. Bill O’Brien and Klemm replace Judge/Patricia. 2. The bad contracts from 2021 FA have been traded, released, restructured, or not re-signed. 3. They have the most cap space of any team over the next 3 years. 4. Bill amassed the 7th most draft capital for this year's draft.
5. The front office has been revamped.
6. They resigned or upgraded all of their key FAs, improved at TE and OL, and added depth before draft.
7. All of the above will improve a team that, despite all of it's Shakespearean warts, was ranked 15th in DVOA.
In your spiel about fast modern offenses for some reason you skipped over the fact that in last year's draft they added the fastest WR (injury was not due to slight build or indicative of being injury prone) available and the fastest RB available, both of whom should see more playing time this year.
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