How a horrendous off-season means nothing.

This off-season has been one to forget for the Patriots. Which is kind of hard to say considering that it didn’t start off too bad. A depleted receiving core and absence of key targets in seasons past brought on by a few arrests and cuts. Some of the news even was brought on by the Pats themselves. Letting Welker and Woodhead leave and Lloyd being cut, and while they are held accountable to the risks they draft, Gronkowski and Hernandez didn’t seem to have any real issues. Right up until Gronkowski broke his arm in a fluke play—during of which he’s had off-season back surgery which was considered minor and was the reason why he fell in the draft. And Hernandez—who fell due to drug charges—ended up possibly murdering someone. And let’s not forget Alfonzo Dennard who is facing charges on DUI. But what does this all mean to the Patriots? Absolutely nothing, they’ve done it before.

Flashback to the Patriots’ Super Bowl wins, aside from Troy Brown and Deion Branch. Do you remember the targets Brady and the Patriots offense had? David Givens, David Patten, Daniel Graham, among others. Today’s team, the starting roster can look like this: Danny Amendola, Michael Jenkins, Julian Edelman, Aaron Dobson and the eventual return of Rob Gronkowski. The Super Bowl winning teams had a pretty good and respectable running game in Corey Dillon, the Patriots have Stevan Ridley who eclipsed 1,200 rushing yards last season. So on offense, what’s the difference? But you can ask about the defense, and how different it was to then and now. And to that I say, it’s no big deal. As mentioned in my past article, defense wins championships, but it’s totally okay if you’re towards the rear and win a title. After all, the Giants did win a Super Bowl with the 27^th “best” defense a couple of years ago.

Aside from comparing past teams, the Patriots horrid off-season means nothing because they still have Tom Brady, who isn’t some young quarterback about to fight through some serious adversity. And Bill Belichick, who can get the best out of his team at nearly all times. Let’s not forget the Patriots of 2007 with Spygate. It’s not like they went 16-0 in the regular season, broke and often times shatter records, only to find themselves a field goal away from a perfect season that year or anything. Right?