Patriots Power Rankings: Experts Assess Patriots as Below-Average Team Following Week 1

Here is what the experts have to say about the Patriots after their 25-20 loss to the Eagles.

By Marima@Marima07  Sep 12, 2023, 6:00pm EDT  21 Comments / 21 New

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Week 1 entrance Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

Hey everyone, welcome to official Power Rankings season. Heading into Week 2 the experts waste no time in pegging the New England Patriots as an average to slightly-below average team (19th). Not surprising.

I figure even with a win over the Eagles, they’d probably rank New England just a smidge above average — there’s just not a lot of trust yet in Mac Jones or the offense to be considered AFC contenders. The only way this changes is a string of wins and I suggest a good time to start is this Sunday when the Miami Dolphins come to town. YUGE game. If the only thing the Patriots do differently from last week is “not dig an insurmountable hole” early on, the team will be fine.

We know the weaknesses that showed up against Philly, but you can’t overlook the strengths either. Have to love the defense. A stellar unit that needs to stay at their aggressive, smothering best in the weeks to come. A sneaky positive is all the rain in the northeast lately, giving the receivers organic opportunities to practice gripping slippery footballs. That may come in handy this Sunday with Hurricane Lee moving up the coast.

More importantly though, it was heartening to watch the continued effort from the players throughout the game. They stayed in the fight until the final seconds. Almost pulled it off, too.

GO PATS!

Around the AFC East:

New England Patriots (0-1) vs. Miami Dolphins (1-0)

New York Jets ( ) at Dallas Cowboys (1-0)

Buffalo Bills ( ) vs. Las Vegas Raiders (1-0)

AFC Matchups:

Cleveland Browns (1-0) at Pittsburgh Steelers (0-1)

Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0) vs. Kansas City Chiefs (0-2)

Baltimore Ravens (1-0) at Cincinnati Bengals (0-1)

Tennessee Titans (0-1) vs. Los Angeles Chargers (0-1)

Indianapolis Colts (0-1) at Houston Texans (0-1)

Denver Broncos (0-1) vs. Washington Commanders (1-0)

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14th – Jarrett Bailey (TouchdownWire): Credit where it’s due to the band of boring ballplayers. The Patriots overcame an early 16-point deficit and hung with the Eagles, who did their best to give away the game on multiple occasions.

15th – Frank Schwab (Yahoo! Sports): The Patriots played pretty well. They contained Jalen Hurts, as Hurts passed for just 170 yards. The offense put up more than 300 yards passing. They outgained a very good Eagles team 382-251. New England put itself in a big hole with two enormous turnovers in the first quarter and nobody wants to hear about a moral victory, but keep in mind going forward that the Patriots pretty much outplayed the Eagles. Even in a loss, that’s not a bad sign for them.

15th – Joshua Schrock (NBC Sports Chicago): There were positive signs everywhere for the Patriots on Sunday. The offense was fixed, Mac Jones looked sharp, the defense was stout, and Tom Brady declared himself a Patriot “for life.” That’s all positive, but it didn’t show up on the scoreboard.

17th – NFL Nation (ESPN): The 2023 No. 17 overall pick had a tough opening assignment against Eagles receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and he was competitive in coverage. Gonzalez started and played all 66 defensive snaps and looks like he has a chance to be CB1 if he continues on his current path. “We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but there’s a lot to learn from it,” he said after the game. — Mike Reiss

17th – Conor Orr (SI): I actually think the Patriots should be thrilled, or as happy as you’re going to be with a loss. Mac Jones looked good. He threw for three touchdowns and just one interception against a very good secondary and great pass rush. The Patriots couldn’t run the ball at all, and Jones took it on his shoulders. He extended some plays deep and started giving that athletic receiving corps some room to run. It makes sense. And, having come back from a 16-point deficit against the conference champions last year, we could see New England getting a lot more comfortable swinging with the heavyweights on its schedule.

18th – Karen Guregian (MassLive): The defense was great. The offense was good in spurts. Basically, they were done in by penalties, drops, failed toe taps and curious coaching decisions on fourth down.

18th – Staff (The Score): Bill O’Brien has fixed the offense. The nightmare duo of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge running the Patriots’ offense has dissipated quickly following a dream start for Mac Jones. The former first-round quarterback threw for over 300 yards and three touchdowns as New England battled hard against the reigning NFC champion Eagles.

19th – Nate Davis (USA Today): QB Mac Jones looked effectively resurrected as New England gave the highly touted Eagles all they could handle. If the run game gets going – and if things are as bad as they seem in New York – you wonder if the Pats might just be back in 2023.

19th – Consensus (Bleacher Report): There are no such things as moral victories in the NFL. But after falling behind 16-0 to the reigning NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles in the blink of an eye, the New England Patriots rallied and made a game of it in the second half. Quarterback Mac Jones rebounded from an early pick-six to top 300 passing yards with three touchdowns. After the game, the plays he didn’t make resonated the most with him. … While some see a Patriots team that didn’t give up, Brent Sobleski sees mediocrity. “It could be a long season in Foxborough since the rest of the AFC East is loaded.”

20th – Matt Johnson (SportsNaut): After entering the second quarter with a 16-0 deficit against the reigning NFC champions, the New Patriots took the Philadelphia Eagles down to the wire. Bill Belichick’s defense looks great and Mac Jones played more like the player we saw in 2021 than last season. Yet, watching that game, what could ultimately sink new England is the offensive line.

21st – Ryan Dunleavy (NY Post).

22nd – Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk): Moral victories don’t count in the race to catch Don Shula.

22nd – Vinnie Iyer (Sporting News): Mac Jones showed some encouraging signs against the Eagles after recovering from a rough start and the defense also tightened up and make big plays. But there was still no winning result ahead of facing the dangerous Dolphins.

22nd – Dalton Miller (ProFootballNetwork): The Patriots’ early struggles resembled the team many believed was coming to the field this season. New England has been effectively left for dead in the AFC East, but that doesn’t seem entirely fair. They made significant personnel moves on the offensive side of the ball, and although they remain entirely unexplosive on offense, they were at least able to move the ball against Philadelphia. In fact, they outgained the Eagles, but that could also be chalked up to playing from behind from the jump. But New England could have rolled over and died in this game, and instead, they fought back to make it close before halftime, and then they kept things relatively close until the final whistle.

25th – Eric Edholm (NFL.com): The Week 1 loss to the Eagles felt eerily similar to the Patriots’ late-season loss to the Bengals in 2022, in which New England fell behind 15-0 before coming up just short in a 22-18 final. Against Philadelphia, the early deficit was 16-0, and the final margin was 25-20. To me, these are testaments to Bill Belichick and his staff game-planning for a top-tier opponent very effectively, but they’re also coming up short because of the talent differential. Yes, the Patriots were one Kayshon Boutte foot from perhaps winning the game. And though the Pats made up for lost time offensively, they must quickly find a way to avoid slow starts, or this team could find itself in holes it can’t dig out of.

27th – Pete Prisco (CBS Sports): The defense did some good things against the Eagles, but it took a while for the offense to get going. They did rally from 16-0 down early to make a game of it, which showed some fight.

AVG RANK: 19.4