Where do Patriots go after missing playoffs for first time in 11 years?
Terez Paylor & Charles Robinson discuss the New England Patriots 22-12 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, snapping an 11-season playoff streak. Where do Bill Belichick and the Patriots go from here and should their next step be drafting a quarterback as high as possible in the 2021 NFL draft?
Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast.
Video Transcript
TEREZ PAYLOR: The Miami Dolphins, led by Brian Flores, a former Bill Belichick assistant, toppled the New England Patriots 22 to 12 to improve their 9 and 5. Meanwhile, the Patriots are 6 and 8. And Charles, this is the first time New England will not finish with a winning record in 20 years. 20 years.
It's a concerning deal because this is the game Belichick typically wins. Facing a rookie quarterback, had been 9 and 0 against rookie quarterbacks. Blew out Justin Herbert two weeks ago, who's special, by the way, shut them out 45 to 0, and they couldn't rise to the occasion and put together enough offensively to beat this football team.
Things are more broken there than we wanted to admit, that I wanted to admit. Because I remember I had the rant about, they're going to go 10 and-- you know. There's some things that Bill Belichick needs to fix, starting with that offense that completely lacks any semblance of explosiveness at the skilled positions outside of running back.
CHARLES ROBINSON: First off, I was wrong about Cam, OK? I thought, healthy, this is the closest I've seen to 2015 Cam. Josh McDaniels has figured out what to do, Bill Belichick is enjoying coaching him. And then as time went on, Cam regressed to the mean. He came back to the traits that we've seen that have made him a middle quarterback for a long time.
We saw Cam at his greatest, and we saw what the apex was, and you wanted that to be there forever. And sometimes in the NFL, that just isn't what happens. This is interesting. In 26 years as the head coach, 26 years, Bill Belichick has never taken a quarterback in the first draft. Now, obviously part of that is because he had the once in a lifetime lottery ticket of Tom Brady. It's time for that to change.
And I think this is a good draft for that to change because there are going to be quarterbacks there. The Patriots got to do this. No more Ryan Malletts or Jacoby Brissetts or even Jimmy Garoppolos. No more Rohan Daveys, no more Matt Cassels, it's time to go get the star. You have-- it's time. And just to do the rebuild that way.
TEREZ PAYLOR: I'd make an exception. Like, if they wanted to trade for Stafford, I get it. You know, if they wanted to get a veteran guy like that, if they saw something in Darnold, like, I get it. But I get-- the general point is like, hey, guess what? Those guys are still taking in the top 10. Like, it's time to add, like, a talent here. You know what I mean?
They have to make moves, like, right now to get out of AFC East purgatory. Because I can tell you this, almost no matter what they do, Buffalo and Miami are going to be predicted to win that division next year or finish top two and make the playoffs. Like, they're, like, in 8 and 8 purgatory now. And like, I think we agree Belichick's legacy is secure.
But Tom Brady's headed to the playoffs. And in a decade-- you know, Charles, in a decade, we're going to be talking about who was the major reason behind the Patriots dynasty. He's got to, like, build that team to a playoff level again, or it's going to be a lot easier to make the case that Brady was the secret sauce behind that thing.