Just like every offseason, the Patriots had some personnel losses after last season. Just like most seasons since Tom Brady has quarterbacked the team, the Patriots are among the Super Bowl favorites.
New England never lets a free agency, retirement or any other kind of departure get in its way.
So while the Patriots must replace Rob Gronkowski, Chris Hogan, Cordarrelle Patterson, Malcolm Brown, Jared Veldheer, Trent Brown, Brian Flores and others, they know how to overcome attrition.
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy credits Bill Belichick and the “Patriot Way.”
“Bill does a really good job of the culture being set with the players that have been there for their tenures,” Van Noy told Willie McGinnest on NFL Network. “Like Patrick Chung, Dont’a Hightower, Devin McCourty, Tom, they’ve been there for a while, Matthew Slater. Those guys have already been passed on from your generation, the standard, and we’re just trying to keep that legacy going.
“When that culture is set, it doesn’t matter. We all have the same goal in mind, and that’s just to win.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have the greatest coach and the greatest quarterback in history.
The Patriots don’t have another Gronkowski on their roster, but with Brady as their quarterback, there is no reason to believe they will do anything other than what they always have done with Brady as their quarterback.
The same can be said for the Patriots defense after Belichick did not name a defensive coordinator to replace Flores. Instead, the head coach will take a bigger role in the defense this season.
“I think for me, anytime you get to learn from one of the best ever to do it -- to me, he’s the best -- to learn from him each and every day, to have that mindset in your meetings all the time, getting you information and things that you normally don’t see, you get in his mind a little bit, it’s the best,” Van Noy said.
The Patriots’ dynasty will end at some point, but who knows when?