Patriots 2026-2027 Season

[Donoghus]

This isn't just a Pats problem. Most teams now don't really play preseason and focus more on the joint practices. Or they treat the joint practices as an "intense preseason".

Hell, the Seahawks actually had fewer padded practices than the Patriots going into the season opener too. Some of these teams just don't play their stars and even if they did, it was maybe one half of one game. Sure, maybe the Pats should have done that instead of not playing anybody at all, but to be honest I'm not even sure how 1-2 quarters of football in the preseason suddenly makes you "in sync" and automatically enhances the chemistry of the team rightaway.

Belichick said this in the past and I think it's kind of the unspoken truth. The first 4 weeks (month) of a season is basically an extension of the preseason, and with the added week of regular season making it 18 weeks I think it's even more the case now. Yes I know it was a game across the world in Australia, but even the "superteam Rams" looked absolutely flat in their game early this season vs Niners. There's been a lot of ugly football to start.

1-2 quarters won't magically make you in-sync with teammates, but it will help highlight where your gaps are better than practice will. Then you can use practices to help close those gaps.

Absolutely.  With football, the difference between practice & actual game play is very significant.  I understand the injury risk with preseason but a byproduct of that is going to be rusty play early on and, unfortunately for the Pats, losing a regular game they should've won because of the rust.

[Goldstar88]

This isn't just a Pats problem. Most teams now don't really play preseason and focus more on the joint practices. Or they treat the joint practices as an "intense preseason".

Hell, the Seahawks actually had fewer padded practices than the Patriots going into the season opener too. Some of these teams just don't play their stars and even if they did, it was maybe one half of one game. Sure, maybe the Pats should have done that instead of not playing anybody at all, but to be honest I'm not even sure how 1-2 quarters of football in the preseason suddenly makes you "in sync" and automatically enhances the chemistry of the team rightaway.

Belichick said this in the past and I think it's kind of the unspoken truth. The first 4 weeks (month) of a season is basically an extension of the preseason, and with the added week of regular season making it 18 weeks I think it's even more the case now. Yes I know it was a game across the world in Australia, but even the "superteam Rams" looked absolutely flat in their game early this season vs Niners. There's been a lot of ugly football to start.

1-2 quarters won't magically make you in-sync with teammates, but it will help highlight where your gaps are better than practice will. Then you can use practices to help close those gaps.

Absolutely.  With football, the difference between practice & actual game play is very significant.  I understand the injury risk with preseason but a byproduct of that is going to be rusty play early on and, unfortunately for the Pats, losing a regular game they should've won because of the rust.

I don?t think they lost because of rust. They lost because Drake was making terrible decisions.

[A Future of Stevens]

Patriots elevated Aj Brown off IR today opening the 21 day window for his comeback.

I don't think he plays this weekend, but id guess he sees some action the following week on TNF. Probably not a full load, but its a good sign hes heading back to practice today