The 'Patriots Way'-ward Part 2 (1 0f 3)

In the post-mortem of the 2021-22 New England Patriots season, it is hard to find positives with the specter of a thorough 47-17 beating at the the hands of the division rival Buffalo Bills sitting on the minds of any Patriots fan. For one, the Patriots seemingly have found its quarterback of the future in Mac Jones. During the course of the season, he displayed toughness, resiliency and the aptitude to lead an offense. Of course, there were difficult times, but his baptism in the NFL went about as well as any fan would hope: the team won more games than it lost and made the playoffs. Just the simple state of having a future at the most important position on a football team puts the Patriots in a very favorable position moving forward. In my opinion, that is where most of the positives as the organization looks towards the horizon ends. There are many functional aspects of the Patriots organization that have either failed, fallen into significant disrepair or are so glaring that the ownership must scrutinize and suggest an overhaul of major proportions in order to create a competitive environment in the 2020's NFL structure.

Most readers of this site understand that I am a proponent of a healthy management structure within all aspect of business. Despite our emotional attachments or feelings about our favorite teams or individual figures, all levels of sports is, at the end of the day a business. As I have watched the Patriots in particular, over the past six seasons I have noticed significant fissures within the management of the organization from the top on down. These fissures have in many cases, made their way down to the locker room and visibly affected the product on the field. During the early portions of this period a player donning jersey#12 was able to sufficiently paper over these issues with his ability to translate his competitive nature to the entire roster, which in 2018, enabled the team to squeeze another Lombardi trophy out of a roster that was grossly devoid of any young talent that could carryover a championship culture to the next generation of Patriots.

In this series, I will attempt to analyze management-related issues that have festered for well over a decade within the New England Patriots organization which culminated in a 47-17 playoff loss to the rival Buffalo Bills. My analysis is not designed to be the 'be all end all' and nor do I wish to put forth personal attacks upon individuals who are only trying to do their collective jobs. The 'Patriots Way' was successful in the past an can be similarly successful moving forward, but it will never get to that point unless serious questions about internal management practices are fully scrutinized and addressed.

Problem #1: Player acquisition and development

For the 20-plus years in which the Patriots were competitive and generally in the discussion in regard to the contenders vying to win a Super Bowl, many pundits and fans conveniently overlooked the major deficiencies the organization had in talent evaluation in the NFL Draft. The numerous trade downs, the reaching for unknowns in the early rounds and trading valuable talent for lower valued draft picks, only to continue the process of trading down and reaching for more unknown commodities, was generally looked upon as shrewd

evaluation which put a premium of value.

Despite these maneuvers, the personnel continued to get older and the younger players were unable to win starting positions, primarily at the cornerback, wide receiver and linebacker positions. Many followers of the team openly wondered whether the players were not adept enough mentally or that 'the system' was too complex for many of them. As these younger player continued to merely exist on the roster while veterans were acquired to take those spots or simply kept in their roles for yet another year, nobody said a word so long as the team was churning out 12 and 14 game winning seasons.

In any instance, whether it be an accounting office, governmental agency or your local Burger King, if you are unable to develop and get younger talent into significant roles or positions of leadership, any management team will see a slow and steady, yet invisible decline. This decline will usually rear its head in small areas such as injuries to key personnel without reliable depth, individuals outplaying their value and taking higher salaried jobs elsewhere or those being relieved of their duties without a justifiable reason. Generally, the press and the fan base can find justifiable excuses as to why players leave, why there is lack of depth or why players who were advertised as key role personnel couldn't make it out of training camp.

A key indicator of how an organization's culture is arranged is found within the manner in which higher profile personnel leave; is it a cooperative separation with goodwill being handed to each party with "it just didn't work out" sentiments as they part ways, or are they bitter divorces with each party lobbing their grievances towards each other via the proxy press? Within this situation, you will find the fans split, which provides adequate cover for both the player and the organization; therefore the underlining issues will not be evident for examination. With the Patriots, the failure of the team to develop bona fide replacements for key personnel (even #12) , led the organization to double down on players to the point of no return if the players lived up to their compensation and the team remained competitive. With no viable replacements and the team pressed against the salary cap, any organization in this position will try to low ball veterans, use their compatriots' fate as a cats paw in order to keep them and generally engage in bad faith negotiations.

The organization's hope is that the player will eventually understand 'how good they have it here' due to the winning records, media attention and Super Bowls. In 1980 that worked. In 1990, it worked. In 2000, it worked. In 2010, with the rise of social media, it became a little contentious. In 2020, that stuff simply doesn't fly anymore. 'Redshirting' young draftees on its face says that the younger players need a year 'in the system' to be fully integrated into the program. In reality, it begs the more nuanced observer to ask "why did you draft them if they are not going to be used in a role?" Even further, it suggests that perhaps this is yet another iteration of pre-emptive bad faith negotiations, where a player's value is being intentionally depressed so when its time to re-negotiate at the end of the their rookie contract, the team will hold all of the cards and leverage. Picture this: you are hired for a new job that fits within your skillset; you are sidelined for a prolonged period of time and given little to no role. You are working with others who've been in that situation that have lost confidence, get fired or continue to be unused. How would that impact your perspective on your future prospects? When thrown into the fire, would you be ready? Can you make a mistake and reasonably believe you will get another chance?

Accompanying this factor is the affect this has on the player's confidence; in many cases, these 'sit and wait' practices only serve to erode confidence, promote over-analysis and create less resilient individuals that play without instinct and edge. Therefore, when they get cut or traded, its usually much ado about nothing to the casual observer; especially when the confidence devoid player hits the open market and has a vanilla career elsewhere or completely flames out of the league. This situation happens more often than most would believe; and its all justified by 'the system'. If a similar situation plays out elsewhere, it is because the player has shown that he doesn't fit or simply cannot play. These are vastly different circumstances.

Additionally, when a high profile free agent signs with the Patriots, they are generally coming to the team under a different impression than the team has. With most free agents, they believe that their skill is the main element that makes them a marketable asset to a team. However, there are others who believe that they bring more: their passion, intensity and ability to bring diverse groups of individuals together within a common goal of winning games. This ability directly conflicts with the Patriots' cultural arrangement within the organization.

The Patriots' culture is ready made, established and serves the purpose of maintaining a status quo; those who've been there for multiple seasons and have won, play the role of integrationist. They reign in the newer additions to the team in regard to "how things are done around here". Here, vocal, passionate individuals will have no voice in this arrangement; they are reduced to a foot soldier and if the team wins they can play that role effectively, especially if they ingratiate themselves to the team leadership. When the team is aged and inefficient like the 2020-2021 Patriots, the long time 'leadership" voices can no longer consistently back up their talk with results on the field. Additionally, the lack of player development through the draft leaves the veterans without younger individuals to pass the mantle of leadership to. Ponder this for a moment; can you name five current individuals who are the future leaders in the locker room for the Patriots?

If a new addition attempts to fill that void, it could create significant disruptions in the locker room environment, which can reverberate through the coaching staff. The Patriots organization is notorious for its 'message sending' punishments whether it is the result of miscues on the field or any behavior that can be interpreted as 'against the interests of the team.' Here, it is the player that bears the brunt in the press and playing time is reduced, which can prevent the player from reaching key contractual incentives. This situation has played out at various junctures of the Patriots' dominance over the past 20- something years; however, winning at such a historic clip often hides these deficiencies. When the team is not winning or is facing adversity like in the 2021 season, the locker room is filled with devalued young players, free agent additions with no voice and older guys that write checks their rear ends can't cash. This arrangement is relatively easy to disrupt which can send players scattering in multiple directions at the very sight of adversity. In the past, a guy wearing jersey #12 could re-direct that energy; however, he is now in Florida bringing his winning formula to another organization.

However, all is not lost...a strong coaching staff is another layer of protection against disillusionment that can bring these players together within a title winning formula...right? Check back in later this week for Problem #2: Brain drain and undeserving coaching staff.