After winning the Lombardi trophy back in February, the New England Patriots will look to win their seventh Super Bowl in the Brady-Belichick era against a highly compelling schedule of games.
In what has become a ho-hum affair for the rest of the National Football League, the New England Patriots enter the season as the defending Super Bowl champions. After topping the Los Angeles Rams in a very low scoring title game in Atlanta, Tom Brady and company are hoping to further cement their legacies with an obscene seventh championship since 2001.
The Patriots do face a unique challenge this year due to the massive exodus of talent from 1 Patriot Place. A lot of notable free agents left for greener pastures, including starting left tackle Trent Brown and defensive end Trey Flowers, while tight end Rob Gronkowski announced his retirement back in March.
New England will continue to reload, adding Michael Bennett in a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles to replace Flowers and potentially looking to the draft for Gronk’s replacement, but they still remain heavy favorites to win the AFC East.
When the Patriots’ schedule is announced, we will update this post immediately. In the meantime, here is who New England will be playing this year on its home and away schedules.
Home: New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Kansas City Chiefs
Away: New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, Washington Redskins, Houston Texans
The Patriots should be ticketed for plenty of nationally televised games this season, including their home opener, which will be the first Sunday Night Football game of the season. The NFL could go a lot of different ways for that matchup, but one team to watch here could be the Cleveland Browns, who came on strong at the end of last season and made the move of the offseason by landing Odell Beckham Jr. in a trade with the Giants.