Patriots #1s have looked bad against their own #1s on D throughout the summer. Wasn’t sure if the offense was bad or the defense was good. But then the #1s looked bad against both the Panthers and Raiders backups. And all reports have been their offense has just not been able to get on track in camp.

Josh McDaniels left to coach the Raiders and they never hired an offensive coordinator to replace him. Instead, Matt Patricia is calling the plays, an ex failed head coach and former defensive coordinator. And Joe Judge is coaching the QBs, a failed head coach & former special teams coordinator. Plus they’ve installed a new offense this season. Needless to say, it’s not off to a good start. The optimistic view is they haven’t game planned yet & they’ll let Mac have more of a say once they get going. We will see. It just doesn’t seem like they’re well positioned heading into Mac’s 2nd year. Brady would be able to mask most deficiencies, but that’s a lot to ask of a 2nd year QB.

Their defense should be decent, but they were pretty good last year until they wilted at the end and they couldn’t stop anyone down the stretch. They need to improve against the run. They’ve been gashed the last two seasons. And I honestly don’t see any big improvements in that department. We’ll see.

They have a tough schedule to start. I think they’ll be lucky to go 1-3 out of the chute (@Miami, @Pitt, Ravens, @Packers). They have some winnable games in the middle and it gets tough again at the end.