What We've Learned Through a Quarter of the Year

After the departure of the Patriot's greatest athlete, the savior of the franchise, and the greatest player to ever step foot on a football field, Tom Brady, we all knew that there would be change on this Patriots team and that things would look a little different come September. As a fan I've learned a lot about this football team just from watching four games and I want to touch on the five biggest takeaways thus far.

1. Cam Newton is still Cam Newton:

There was a lot of questions coming into the season in regards to the health of Cam Newton and how he would ft in on this Patriots offense. Well, in my mind those questions were answered pretty quickly. The system is not built around the 6 foot 6 inch quarterback, it is simply built around him. Cam Newton is still a legit dual threat quarterback in this league, that's a fact. We saw in the Miami game he carried the ball 15 times for over 70 yards and 2 scores. Then a week later against the Seattle Seahawks on the road on National TV in prime time, we saw him throw for nearly 400 yards and almost escaped Century Link with a W. It's so funny looking around the league seeing all these guys like Case Keenum, Carson Wentz, Jared Goff (who has put together a solid year but still), and Kirk Cousins getting paid an astronomical amount more than Cam Newton and Newton is a better player than those four guys this year. Even his former team is paying Teddy Bridgewater 20+ million a year, and despite Teddy being a good player ,with a phenomenal comeback story, he's still nowhere near the talent level of his predecessor in Carolina, that being #1 in New England. Cam can run, he can throw, he can do it all. Cam Newton is very much still a great quarterback in this league.

2. The 2019 Draft Class is starting to shine

If you follow the Patriots as close as I do, you know that the 2019 draft class has gotten a lot of backlash because Nkeal Harry wasn't Calvin Johnson in his first season or that Joejuan Williams didn't have the impact that Deion Sanders had in his first year, but this draft class has a lot of talent. The star of this class is easily Chase Winovich as he already has 2 sacks and 14 tackles. His dual threat ability against stopping the run and rushing the passer has been huge for New England thus far and he is just constantly around the ball and is already a nightmare for opposing OCs and Quarterbacks. According to @PFF_Patriots Chase Winovich is one of four players with a pass rush win rate of 25% or higher. He is a star in the making in my mind. Then there are others: N'keal Harry, Joejuan Williams, Damien Harris, and Jarrett Stidham. Harry is tied for the lead in receptions on the team. If i told you that going into week five that N'keal Harry would be tied for the team league in receptions you would've either thought that Julian Edelman got hurt or that Harry was haing a really good year, and it's obviously close to the second reason. Harry is having a really solid season thus far. Joejuan Williams has added another body in the secondary and had a decent gme other than one catch allowed against KC that went for 45 yards and we can't forget about his game to open the 2020 campaign where he was one of the better players on the field only allowing a catch for nine yards. Damien Harris just made his 2020 debut against the Chiefs and made it count with 100 yards on 5.9 yards per carry. A lot of those yards came on a 40 yard scamper, but still had very very good opening game. Then there's Jarrett Stidham. Stidham had 2 picks (one not even close to his fault) but he still had a couple really nice throws and had one great third down scramble to prolong the drive. I'm very excited about this class going forward no matter what the media says about this class.

3. The Patriots have a big big decision coming down the road at the Guard Spot

This is something we already kind of knew with Thuney being franchise tagged, but there's actually a real chance that he's not a Patriot come he 2021 season. Why is this becoming increasingly possible? That is of course due to the player everyone knew would be great from the start, well not really, the SIXTH rounder out of Michign Michael Onwenu has rose up the depth chart quickly and played himself into a starting role with multiple injuries and an opt out up front. Onwenu has earned himself a PFF grade of 92.2 through 4 games. I don't want to get ahead of myself here, but if Onwenu continues to play at this level, I really don't think Joe Thuney is a Patriot next season.

4. This is still a very elite defense

Point to the Seattle game as a counter argument, but I've got three games to prove that this is still one of the best defensive units in all of football. Minus a Chiefs pick six and the Seattle game, this defense is allowing just shy of 14 points per game. They've also played the Chiefs as I mentioned who are obviously one of the best offensive units in football along with the Raiders who are another solid offense, not great but not bad. This Patriots team has struggled for moments but for the most part they're doing what's most important as they are keeping opponents out of the end zone and giving the offense a chance to win these games.

5. This Patriots team can compete with anybody

If you argue this you're just flat out wrong. No way around it. Every single game has been either a competive loss or a Patriots win. The fact that the Patriots went in as 11.5 point underdogs and were in it until the fourth quarter against the best team in the conference, that shows a lot of heart. Don't forget the Patriots were without Cam Newton, Sony Michel, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, and then obviously their opt outs. It seemed as if the Patriots had virtually no chance to win that football game and although they came up short on the scoreboard, you cannot tell me the Patriots could not have won that game. Oh and against Seattle, they were three yards away (maybe even less) from beating in my opinion the best football team and the best player on the planet at the moment. This season as I mentioned was just filled with question marks, doubt, and uncertainties. Despite this and the .500 record which appears next to the Patriot's name right now, Bill Belichick has put this team in a position to win every single game, and has put a lot of hope in the minds of his team and Patriots fans moving forward.