Despite all of the New England Patriots' struggles over the last three-plus seasons, you could still count on current and former players espousing some level of optimism.
Now, it appears they've even lost the faith of one of their recent franchise cornerstones.
After New England's embarrassing 34-0 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, ex-Patriots safety Devin McCourty was asked on NBC's "Football Night In America" what the heck is going on with his former team, which is 1-4 for the first time since 2000 and has been outscored 72-3 over its last two games.
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"When you look at their offense and you look at the first five games, they've given up four touchdowns while they were on offense to the other team. You can't win any games like that," McCourty said.
"I think the frustrating thing is, everyone wants New England to win. If you're in the New England area, it's all about Super Bowls. I played there 13 years. It was all about, ‘I don’t care how many playoff games you win. Are you going to win the Super Bowl?’ This team now is, ‘Are we going to win or are we going to just keep the game within two scores?’ And I think that’s the struggle right now.
"I don’t know where they turn to try to find answers to try to turn this season around. Their best bet might be ‘tank it’ or whatever you want to call it and get a great draft pick."
That's right: McCourty used the dreaded "T" word.
That McCourty believes the Patriots' best path forward might be actively losing games -- with Bill Belichick as their head coach -- is a sign of how bleak things have gotten in Foxboro. Despite all that went wrong last season with the inexperienced Matt Patricia installed as offensive play-caller, the Patriots were still on the fringe of a playoff berth and were 6-4 through 10 games before stumbling to 8-9.
Many believed New England could even improve on that record this season, with new offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien expected to revive Mac Jones' career after a rocky sophomore season. Instead, Jones has gone in the complete opposite direction, with six turnovers in his last two games (three of which have been returned for touchdowns) that led to him being benched for backup Bailey Zappe in back-to-back weeks.
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Zappe hasn't been any better in Jones' stead -- he's completed just 7 of 18 passes for 79 yards over the past two weeks -- but the situation with Jones is so bad that McCourty said a quarterback swap should at least be in consideration.
"This team needs something," McCourty said. "I think it's easy to say Mac Jones is the issue, but he's just one of a lot of things that are not going well in New England right now. So, I don't know, maybe it is the quarterback position.
"You put in a new guy -- Zappe got in there late in the game today, missed throws, that didn't look better, but I don't know if that kind of re-energizes a team and they play better ball. But they've got to do something."
The Patriots would have the No. 5 pick in the 2024 NFL Draft if the season ended Monday. So, maybe that "something" is doing what was previously unthinkable: bottoming out for a top draft pick to find Jones' replacement.