A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
REJOICE! Tom Brady signs with the Tampa Buccaneers and the AFC (especially the East) is now free of New England’s reign over the conference.
Or so we thought.
Now, before I get into this, I just want to state that I am a diehard Jets fan. Cut my wrists open and green and white will proudly ooze out of me. It’s not an obsession — it’s a way of life. Some of my friends think I’m sick with the football acumen I possess, but it’s what I love. I’ll also have it be known that it pained me to write a post on the Patriots, not just a team, but an organization I hate with every fiber of my being. It hurt me even more Googling an image of Belichick and some stats because the absolute LAST thing I want is to get ads about the evil empire up North. Anyway, I believe I cracked the code.
What is Bill Belichick up to? On the surface it appears that New England is doomed. They have no sure-fire lock at quarterback. Hang on, you’ll get a kick out of this — they’re going into the season with Jarret Stidham!! Who? Stidham, who had his best college season at Auburn where he transferred to his senior year, has only 4 pass attempts in the NFL. One of which was taken back for pick-6. That’s not a Belichick guy. A snowball has a better chance of surviving in hell. But this is just the surface, you see, you have to pull back the covers to really see what the Emperor is doing.
To start, lets take a look at what they did this past draft. I like to say they drafted the meat and potatoes of the team. They drafted 3 linebackers, 1 kicker, 1 safety, 2 tight ends (a la Gronkowski and Hernandez circa 2010?) and 3 offensive linemen. They really shored up the middle of the field on both sides of the ball. Almost seems as though they’re building the infrastructure so that Stidham can have every opportunity to find success, right?
False.
The Patriots will not be competitive this year, but you can never count them out. USA Today predicts the Patriots going 8–8, which could happen, but I doubt it. I still suspect them to shock the league nonetheless, play a spoiler if you will, but you’ll see teams beat them more easily than in years past. That’s why you have to look at next year. The 2021 season. Just like how Kylo Ren took power and rolled out the First Order, the Patriots will be rolling out with a totally new revamped offense with their own version of Kylo Ren — Trevor Lawrence.
Yup.
You read that right. Lawrence, the top quarterback in college football (and also would have been the top quarterback in this years draft class) WILL be the next quarterback of the New England Patriots. Just like Emperor Palpatine, Belichick (spoiler alert!) is not dead — nor is he concerned. He is lying low, out of sight, far off in the dark corners of the league re-building his next team. Belichick is on a mission to prove he made Brady and he can win without him.
As a devout Jets fan, it pains me to have figured this out. But I figured it out because of the trauma Belichick has inflicted on my life. The years of torture and uneasy stomachs. Contemplating life’s purpose. Do I burn this jersey my parents bought me? Yeah, that’ll show the team to play better, yup, right. Alas, that’s what being a Jets fan is all about. One of the highlights of my life is the 2010 AFC Divisional round when we went up to Foxborough and smoked the Patriots. That was our Super Bowl. We then laid an egg in Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship. Whatever.
I’m a natural skeptic, and this makes all too much sense to me. It’s “The Patriot Way” as they say in Foxborough. I pray that my vision does not come true. I will not put this in my blinders and potentially let it kill me like Luke Skywalker did with Ben Solo. Figuring it out now and expecting it will only ease the pain once it happens.
I will enjoy this football season with a deflated (ha) Patriots team, but am fully prepared for them to bounce back for there is a very strong disturbance in the force.
