It seemed to be a down year for the New England Patriots as they lost five games during the regular season and many believed heading into the playoffs that the dynasty was over. Once they started playing in the postseason they seemed to turn it on and Bill Belichick and Tom Brady did what they do best in the playoffs, win. Although it wasn’t pretty in the Super Bowl against the Rams they made the plays in the second half when they mattered most and that led the Patriots to win their sixth Super Bowl title.
The Patriots are going to take a little bit of time to celebrate this victory but it’s never too early to ask where the team goes from here. Can they build on what they did this year and compete for a Super Bowl title again next year, or is the team getting too old and this will be the end of the dynasty and next year they will struggle to win games?
Question Marks heading into 2019-20
People are going to ask about Tom Brady and if he is going to retire but he has made it clear time and time again that he wants to play until he is 45 and that he will be back next year. If Brady is back that probably means Belichick is back and they will be trying to win another Super Bowl.
The real big question mark surrounding this team is what will happen with Rob Gronkowski. He said that he is going to take a couple of weeks to decide if he wants to come back but the speculation is that the Super Bowl was probably his last game.
If he does retire the Patriots will miss his receiving but more importantly, they are probably to miss his blocking in the run game which was often overlooked.
So where can the team go?
Even with the loss of Gronkowski and some other free agents that will probably leave the core of this team is still very strong. They have Sony Michel who is just a rookie but has already proven that he is going to be a force in the league for a long ways, especially with Brady under center.
Most importantly for the Patriots is they have Brady and Belichick coming back and they proved again this year that when they are working together, the team is never out of it and needs to be considered a contender. So where can they go from here?
The bad news for the rest of the NFL is they aren’t going anywhere, and I think they will be contenders for as long as Brady is still under center. The Chiefs and maybe the Chargers are going to be tough in the AFC but I think until Brady is out of the league the conference and the Super Bowl still runs through New England. There will be the same questions asked about the team going into next season but that will be just more fuel for the fire.
