Despite being in the midst of a major rebuild, which has arguably been underway for over five years, the Patriots had high expectations going into this season for several reasons, the biggest of which was the addition of Mike Vrabel as the team's new head coach. His presence, along with Josh McDaniels and several opportunistic factors to improve the roster, had some suggesting New England could be a sneaky playoff team, with an easy schedule making that more plausible.
The new regime appeared to do its job in drastically making over the roster with some big-name signings and an impressive draft, but that hasn't exactly translated to their performance on the field just yet.