The New England Patriots entered 2024 fully expected to be one of the very worst teams in the league—and they were just that! Only a Joe Milton-led Week 18 victory over Mitchell Trubisky and the Bills' backups prevented New England from obtaining the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, but that last hurrah wasn't enough to save first-year Head Coach Jerod Mayo's job.

And it's tough to overly blame them. The offense and defense alike simply didn't produce anything close to what the kids might call good football throughout the season.

 

Of course, one diamond did emerge through the trash in the form of 2024 No. 3 overall pick Drake Maye, who managed to show off the sort of out-of-structure goodness commonplace among the league's very best QBs. Having a legit answer under center is often a desperate need for any terrible team, so at least new head coach Mike Vrabel and company could put together a quicker turnaround than most four-win squads.

Today we'll recap some of the good and bad of 2024 before getting into potential offseason injuries to monitor as well as team needs ahead of the 2025 offseason.

As always: It's a great day to be great.

New England Patriots 2024 Recap

  • Record: 4-13 (4.5 preseason win total)
  • Points per game: 17 (30th)
  • EPA per dropback: -0.020 (23rd)
  • EPA per rush: -0.187 (30th)
  • Points per game allowed: 24.5 (22nd)
     
  • Leading passer: Drake Maye (2,276 yards, 15 TDs, 10 INT)
  • Leading rusher: Rhamondre Stevenson (207 carries, 801 yards, 7 TDs)
  • Leading receiver: Hunter Henry (66 receptions, 674 yards, 2 TDs)

Biggest surprise: QB Drake Maye

It's not like the public didn't believe in Maye as a viable long-term answer at QB, but the fact the 22-year-old looked so impressive alongside arguably the league's single-worst supporting cast was truly wild.

Consider: Maye averaged 223 passing yards and 36 rushing yards in 10 complete starts last season. The list of QBs to clear 220 pass and 35 rush yards per game in a single season in the Super Bowl era (min. 8 starts) is littered with some of the game's most fantasy-friendly players that the position has ever seen.

The rising second-year signal-caller is far from a finished product; ball security needs to improve after Maye was one of just five QBs to average over 1.5 combined interceptions and fumbles per game last season. Still, the North Carolina product more than proved he's a worthwhile bet to build around—here's to hoping we can see what he's got when working inside something close to an average offensive environment.

Biggest disappointment: WRs Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker

There wasn't a more shallow WR depth chart in football than right here ahead of the 2024 NFL Draft. This helped lead to plenty of hype for Polk and Baker to emerge as day-one contributors, especially after they each earned solid enough draft capital (Polk was the 37th overall pick, Baker 110th).

Unfortunately, neither player managed to get much of anything going. In fact, they were quite bad:

  • Polk caught just 12 passes for 87 yards and two TDs on the season. ESPN's advanced receiver ratings ranked him as the league's 111th-best WR … out of 113 qualified pass-catchers.
     
  • Baker's rookie campaign was somehow even worse, as he caught just *one* pass for 12 scoreless yards all season. Believed to be a contested-catch artist capable of earning a starting job on the outside, Baker's lasting impression was instead an Instagram live rant about a traffic ticket.

Kudos to DeMario Douglas, Kayshon Boutte, and Kendrick Bourne for playing well enough to keep the rookies on the bench, but yeah: Safe to say Polk and Baker truthers aren't feeling too hot about their respectively brutal debuts.

Key injuries

The Patriots are tentatively believed to not be dealing with any overly fantasy-relevant injuries entering the 2025 offseason.

What Are The Biggest Needs of the Patriots Ahead Of 2025?

Improve The Offensive Line

PFF's reigning 32nd-ranked offensive line looked like the single-worst group on paper entering the season, and they were just that!

31st in PFF pass blocking grade and dead last in run blocking: Help is needed all around considering Patriots guards allowed the most total pressures (100) in the league, and their tackles allowed the ninth most (90).

Upgrade The WR Position

Patriots WRs and TEs ranked 31st in average "Open Score" last season. Translation: Separation didn't come easy to anyone, so restocking the WR room is a must. Hell, adding another TE isn't the worst idea in the world either considering Hunter Henry isn't exactly a spring chicken these days (turned 30 in December), although his three-year, $30 million extension last March reflects the reality that New England is probably good there.

But yeah, Patriots WRs ranked dead last in receiving yards (1,723) last season–the sixth-lowest single-season mark among any offense since 2020. Whether it's chasing Tee Higgins, or devoting multiple high-end draft picks to the position in the draft—let's get Maye some actual elite talent on the outside and see what happens.

Rebuild The Pass Rush

The Patriots ranked 31st in pressure rate and dead last in sack rate last season despite blitzing at the league's 10th-highest rate throughout the year. That's a really bad combination! 

 

While game-changing defensive linemen of all shapes and sizes would help, assistance on the EDGE feels particularly necessary after the team shipped off Matthew Judon last August. Overall, the Patriots are one of just five teams with fewer than $10 million devoted to their EDGE defenders ahead of 2025.

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