With the recent Superbowl win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it potentially starts to answer part of the age old NFL question, has the Patriots success been down to Brady or Belichick, but Belichick will be keen to change that in the coming NFL season.
Brady rolled back the years with a masterclass at quarterback when the Buccaneers came up against the Kansas City Chiefs as he threw for 201 yards and three touchdowns. so while Brady was lifting the Vince Lombardi Trophy, Belichick was left in New England wondering how to fill the Brady sized void that left his team with an underwhelming record of seven wins and nine losses as he failed to make the play-offs for the first time since 2008.
Last season former MVP Cam Newton signed a one year deal with the Pats to try and fill the empty QB position, numerous obstacles led to this move not being as successful as Boston fans would’ve hoped such as the pandemic leaving minimal time for Newton to learn the intricate Belichick system and Cam having suffered with bad coronavirus meaning he spent large periods of time absent from the squad. due to the poor regular season record and injury problems the Patriots have previously announced that they would letting Cam enter free agency and not signing him to another deal
So what is the next step?
The first possible option and potentially the most likely would be bringing Newton back for another year. While the Pats have already allowed him to leave its not far fetched that they bring him back again on a team friendly deal and rebuild the offence which requires multiple new players coming in. Part of Cams New England failures also came down to a lack of offensive players to work with, bringing Newton back on the same deal as last year ($1.5 million, vet minimum), investing in the offence and giving him more time in the team could lead to much better fortunes.
The other most popular option and reportedly the most likely option is trading for Jimmy Garoppolo. Having previously played for New England he already has a good relationship with Belichick and would be a suitable option, consistently productive and currently on a salary worth $26 million in 2021, he isn’t the most expensive option either.
The most unlikely option but certainly the most popular with fans would be making a trade for Deshaun Watson, every team in the NFL is taking a hard look at Watson and for good reason, he’s one of the most talented QB’s in the league and he’s told his current franchise the Houston Texans that he wants to leave and he will not play until he’s traded however because the Texans don’t want to trade him, he won’t come cheap. Multiple first round picks for multiple years will be the cost, essentially, the Pats would have to give up a lot of future players to acquire him. The biggest problem with Watson is that while he’s incredibly talented he’d be wasted at the Patriots because of the lack of offensive weapons, and giving up the future picks to acquire him means gaining any talent to join him would be near impossible because they wouldn’t possess the assets to either trade for more talent or draft it.
Let us known on Twitter @ParkLife_Sport who you think the New England Patriots should persue to fill the void at quarterback and make sure to follow our live blog to stay up to date with all the coming news.
