The Patriots have missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons.
Is the sky falling? No, but you wouldn’t know it with the way folks in New England are acting. It became second nature to roll into the postseason around these parts, spending two decades as the usual No. 1 or 2 seed in the AFC and having pretty much secured a spot in the conference championship game. It doesn’t seem like that will be the case any time soon, though.
It’s a new era in New England, in case you haven’t heard.
The Patriots are hoping to get back to being legitimate postseason contenders, and it likely will start by selecting a signal-caller with the No.