Expectations are always high for the New England Patriots, and coming off of a Super Bowl win in 2014, they entered the 2015 season on a short list of Super Bowl favorites once again.
The off-season saw New England lose some key pieces from that Super Bowl run. They lost one of the best corners in the league in According to the MMQB, the Patriots used 37 different offensive line combinations throughout the season. They had mixed success through the regular season, but for a unit that coaches typically strive to build through continuity, that constant re-shuffling makes things very difficult.
The Broncos exploited this and absolutely dominated the Patriots' line during the AFC Championship, hitting Tom Brady 23 times and completely throwing the offense off their game.
While there were no glaring weaknesses on the defensive side of the ball, and there were the bright spots that I already mentioned, the unit as a whole regressed in 2015.
They finished 2014 ranking sixth with a schedule-adjusted 0.01 Defensive NEP per play (lower is better for Defensive NEP), and that ranking fell to 12th with a 0.04 Defensive NEP per play in 2015.
What's Next?
While it's inevitable that one day the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era will end in New England, the Patriots are likely to remain front-runners in the Super Bowl race every season until it does.
Watching Peyton Manning struggle this season was a sobering reminder that age catches up with every player -- no matter how transcendent -- eventually. Brady has still been playing at an elite level, though, and as far as the 2016 season, there's no reason to believe he won't be able to maintain a level of play that can once again carry the Patriots' offense.
New England has very few unrestricted free agents this off-season, and among them, only LeGarrette Blount played a starting role this year. The vast majority of the Patriots core players in all three phases of the game should be back for next season, giving them a chance to build on their 2015 success.
The Patriots find themselves without a first-round pick this year thanks to the ball inflation fiasco, though they rarely make a splash in the early parts of the draft anyway, and still have six picks to work with in the remaining six rounds.
According to oddsmakers at the 5Dimes sportsbook, the Patriots are currently the betting favorites to not only win the AFC next year (at +375 odds), but at +775 are favorites to win the Super Bowl as well.