Patriots left off top 10 most talented teams list

Folks in New England won't be happy about this one. The Patriots have been left off Bucky Brooks' list as a top 10 talented team.

Brooks is known as very anti-Patriot, so it's not surprising that he'd leave them off out of what I can only assume is spite. But saying the Patriots aren't a top 10 talented team in the NFL is ridiculous considering they made it to the AFC Championship Game last year with no offensive line and banged up wide receivers. They were two points away from the Super Bowl. Two.

The list is as follows:

1. Seattle
2. Pittsburgh
3. Carolina
4. Denver
5. Minnesota
6. Kansas City
7. Cincinnati
8. Arizona
9. New York Giants
10. Dallas

So if I recall, didn't the Patriots beat four of these teams last year, and nearly beat Denver twice? And somehow they're not on here? I'm not going to go on a long rant here, but they should be in the top 3 at worst.

When healthy, the Patriots have one of, if not the best offense in the league and a defense that established itself as elite over the past two seasons. Sure, the talent level takes a hit if Tom Brady isn't in the lineup for the first four games and the retirement of Jerod Mayo will hurt a bit, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that New England's defense is still fairly young and they will eventually have the best quarterback of this era and maybe all-time under center for a large chunk of this season.

There's no doubt the Patriots will hear about this and use it as some kind of motivation to be better. That's what they do. And when they're competing for a Super Bowl this year, Bucky's gonna want to revise that list.

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