Before looking ahead, an assessment of this season’s key Patriots
A few thoughts on some players and people who made this season what it was.
Tom Brady said it himself in the aftermath of a season’s frustrating end Saturday night.
“No one needs to make choices at this point.’’
He was talking about his own wide-open future, since he’ll become a free agent for the first time in his 20-year career on March 18.
But it should also apply to our perception of this remarkable franchise, which saw its string of three straight Super Bowl appearances and eight straight AFC championship games end with a 20-13 loss to old friend Mike Vrabel and a tough, poised Tennessee Titans team.
The Patriots lost to a team that won in a Patriots-style way. There’s no shame in that. No one needs to make franchise- and career-altering choices at this point. There’s plenty of time for that ahead.
So as the Patriots exit until next year, a few thoughts on some players and people who made this season what it was . . .
James White. When White took a screen pass for 29 yards on the Patriots’ fourth play from scrimmage, was your reaction similar to mine? Oh, good, they’re actually going to remember to use him today. One of the great mysteries of this season is why the versatile, shifty, shoulda-been-MVP of Super Bowl LI was so underutilized in an offense that so often struggled to move the ball. White had a season-high 22 touches in Week 13 against Houston. The result? 177 total yards (8 catches, 98 yards; 14 carries, 79 yards). Some of that production came late against a soft Texans defense, but still, he’s proven to make plays in big moments, and too often he didn’t get a chance to do it. White’s touches over the season’s final five games, including Saturday? 11, 6, 7, 5, and then 6 Saturday night, when he had one carry for 14 yards and five receptions for 62 more. Maybe Josh McDaniels can answer his underwhelming deployment of White in one of his myriad head coaching interviews . . . right after he’s asked whatever made him draft lefty knuckleballer Tim Tebow in the first round all those years ago.
Dont’a Hightower: I suppose it would be silly to lavish too much praise on anyone charged with stopping the run Saturday night given that Derrick Henry dropped 182 yards on them, picked up every single yard on one touchdown drive, and all but shoved the ball through their facemasks when the Titans called on him to run down the clock late. But I can’t help but offer at least a nod of praise to Hightower, who was everywhere Saturday night, making 9 tackles (8 solo, one for a loss) while also registering a quarterback hit. He was much better than Jamie Collins and Kyle Van Noy, both of whom saw their play wane this season as the competition got tougher. That’s never been Hightower’s way. Like Tedy Bruschi, the revered No. 54 before him, he was so often at his best in the biggest moments.
Julian Edelman: Call him complicit in the loss, if you want. He had a huge second-down drop on a drive with under five minutes remaining, one that brought memories of Wes Welker’s gaffe in Super Bowl XLVI, even if this wasn’t of the same magnitude. The mistake wasn’t a total stunner, either: Edelman led the league with nine drops in the regular season. Perhaps that is a sign that the 33-year-old isn’t as reliable as he once was, but good heavens, he is still essential here, an ultimate warrior who played through a Grey’s Anatomy of injuries this season and still managed 100 catches when no other receiver on the roster could hit 30. At 33, his best days are behind him. But I don’t want to see him play anywhere else, even if Brady moves on.
Mohamed Sanu: The final tally on Sanu’s nine games with the Patriots after coming over in a trade with the Falcons after Week 7: 52 targets, 27 catches, 218 yards, 1 touchdown. Take the Week 9 loss to the Ravens out of it, when he had 10 catches for 81 yards, and the numbers look even worse: 8 games, 38 targets, 17 catches, 137 yards. Sanu had one catch for 11 yards on five targets Saturday night. He did not have more than 35 receiving yards in any of the Patriots’ final six games, and in four of them he had 14 yards or fewer. I’m sure the high ankle sprain he suffered in Week 11 had some effect, but that’s not the only reason for his struggles. The only receivers that frustrated Brady more were N’Keal Harry and Jakobi Meyers, and they were rookies trying to learn the calculus of the Patriots’ playbook. I can’t believe they gave up a second-round pick for this guy.
Bill Belichick: This wasn’t his finest season as a coach or roster-builder, but hey, no one has ever set a higher standard. He waited too long — seasons too long, frankly — to find an understudy/successor for Rob Gronkowski. And the Antonio Brown decision was a catastrophe in a bunch of different ways, from its effect on Brady’s mood to the cap implications. I wish those 11 days never happened. But Belichick has tended to be bold in all the right ways after seasons that ended in especially frustrating fashion. And here’s one more reminder for those of you declaring the Patriots dead. Belichick. Is. Still. Here. And nothing is completely over until that changes.
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