New England Patriots: They Won't Win Another Title With Belichick, Brady

This isn't an article bashing one of the NFL's greatest dynasties. This is purely a piece to inform others why I believe that the window has closed for the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick tandem. Read along and enjoy!

Defense

Defense wins championships. It has been said time and time again, that offense can only take you so far, but defense wins titles. We’ve seen it in past champions, from the return of Bob Sanders aiding the Colts run in ’06, to the game sealing pick by Tracy Porter in last year’s Super Bowl. The Patriots defense is relatively young, so there is a lot of room for growth, but it doesn’t measure up in today’s NFL. The loss of Richard Seymour was huge, and the defense is lacking in solid pass rushers and a stable secondary.

The Need for a Successful Running Game

When the Saints won the Super Bowl last year, they were 6^th in the league in rushing. When the Steelers won the previous year, they were first among playoff teams with more than one game played. When the Giants won in the 2007 season, they were 4^th overall in the league. See a trend? The Patriots running game isn’t awful, they’re ranked 10^th in the league as of week 4. But those numbers are a little inflated, considering they were stuffed by the Jets in week 2 (52 rushing yards) and then exploded on Buffalo the next week (200 rushing yards). The Pats will need to develop a more consistent running game, especially come playoff time.

More Balanced NFL

As balanced as the NFL might have seemed in 2007 during the Patriots magical regular season, it took teams forever and ever to figure out how to stop the four and five receiver sets. Nowadays, teams are deploying more 3-4 defenses, which allows for faster linebackers and focuses on coverage rather than pass rush. We’re also seeing very good nickel cornerbacks, such as the Jets’ Kyle Wilson, and the Giants’ Aaron Ross. These players are able to better match-up with players like New England’s Wes Welker and slow down the efficiency of their offense.

Age on Offense

Golden Boy Tom just hit his 33 birthday this offseason. Although there won’t be a decline in his performance for a while, he can’t be this good forever, especially given his injury history. All purpose running back Kevin Faulk is 34 years old, and he really is a key cog in the offense, especially in short yardage situations. Randy Moss is 33, and Wes Welker is 29 years old. Eventually they will be running on pure talent and not speed, and just ask Marvin Harrison how hard that gets in today’s NFL. The Patriots have made wise decisions by drafting players like Aaron Hernandez (4^th round) and Julian Edelman (7^th round), but again, Tom Brady can’t play forever.

Spygate

As much as Patriots fans hate this, you have to admit it happened. And if you admit it happened, you have to admit it had an effect. Tom Brady is amazing, yes. But as a rookie (his first NFL season he only threw 3 passes so I count 2001 as his rookie year) he steps in and wins Super Bowl MVP? Possible but not probable. And I’m sure other teams did it as well. But the Patriots got caught doing it; not only did they get caught, but the tapes found were from the Super Bowl against the Rams. Guess Tom needed a little more than talent to get by?

All in All, the New England Patriots are a great football franchise, but I don’t see another Super Bowl in the Belichick-Brady era.