The 2023-24 New England Patriots have been awful. 

Currently, the team is 4-12, which ties them with Washington and Arizona for the second worst record in the NFL. Only the lowly Carolina Panthers (2-14) have a worse record.

So what went wrong? How did a team that had a defensive coordinator running the offense last season get even worse?

First, there was the Mac Jones debacle at starting quarterback. Jones was benched four times this season before losing his job to back-up Bailey Zappe. This year, Jones had the third worst quarterback rating in the league, and a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 12:10. On passes thrown more than 20 yards, Jones was off target on 48.3 percent of them, which is simply terrible for a professional. 

But Jones is far from alone when it comes to stinking up the offense. In the off-season, General Manager Bill Belichick  failed to sign their best wide receiver, Jkobie Meyers, who Jones was starting to build chemistry with. Instead, he signed Juju Smith-Schuster, who is having a career low in yards-per-game and only has a single touchdown in 16 games. 

And the rest of the receiving core isn’t much better. Pats receivers are last in the league in yard of separation and second-to-last in wide open percentage.

To make matters worse, the offensive line play has also been terrible. They have the league’s worst pass block win percentage at 44.3 percent. The line is only able to hold their blocks for an average of 2.5 seconds so there is no time to get the ball out. 

However, the defense has played admirably. Even without their stars, linebacker Matthew Judon and cornerback Christon Gonzalez, they have managed to keep the Pats in games. 

With these past few seasons of struggles, it looks like head coach/GM Bill Belichick will be relieved of his position after 24 seasons with the Patriots, which included six Super Bowl rings.

The Patriots finish their season against the New York Jets on Sunday, and right now, the only thing worth looking forward to is the upcoming draft where the Pats’ abysmal season will result in a high pick.