There is enough blame to go around for the New England Patriots’ failures in 2023. So it wouldn’t be fair to point the finger at one or two people for the team’s worst season in the Bill Belichick era.
With that said, there were multiple players that failed to live up to expectations in a year when the team desperately needed a turnaround to rid themselves of the stench from the 2022 season.
Unfortunately, things didn’t get better for the Patriots. They got much worse, despite clear efforts to turn things around.
The team sunk to 4-13 on the year and finished dead last in the AFC East division. Belichick’s 24-year run as head coach came to an end, and the team is now on the journey to rebuild with a new regime in place.
Here are the seven most disappointing players for the Patriots in 2023:
K Chad Ryland
Field goal kicking was disastrous for the Patriots in 2023. Rookie kicker Chad Ryland was wildly inconsistent, and the team suffered for it on the football field.
To make matters worse, Ryland was a fourth-round draft pick with exceptionally high expectations.
The Patriots passed on Los Angeles Rams receiver Puka Nacua to trade up for Ryland. Nacua went on to have the fourth-most receiving yards in the NFL, while Ryland had the worst field goal kicking percentage in the league (64.0).
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster
The initial idea was for JuJu Smith-Schuster to be an upgrade over Jakobi Meyers for the Patriots, but things went in the complete opposite direction.
While Meyers continued to find success with his new team, the Las Vegas Raiders, the Patriots struggled to get anywhere near the same level of production from Smith-Schuster. And that was when Smith-Schuster was even on the field. He missed six games due to injury and was only in 65 percent of the snaps, which was a career-low.
By the end of the season, Smith-Schuster only had 29 catches for 260 yards and one touchdown. A large chunk of those stats came in his last game against his former team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, when he hauled in four receptions for 90 yards. There’s hope he can build on that performance with better quarterback play in 2024.
QB Mac Jones
With Bill O’Brien taking over the offensive play-calling, there was hope that Mac Jones could return to the Pro Bowl quarterback we all witnessed in his rookie season. But Jones had an even worse year than he did when Matt Patricia was calling the plays.
He finished his 2023 campaign with 2,120 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
An argument could be made that he lacked talent around him to be successful. The Patriots had one of the worst skilled groups in the league, and the offensive line was beaten to hell with injuries. Yet, Jones clearly lacked poise under pressure, his accuracy was all over the place and he never showed improvement with the velocity on his throws.
WR DeVante Parker
DeVante Parker played in the same number of games as he did in 2022 with even more disappointing results in 2023. The veteran wideout had 33 receptions for 394 yards and no touchdowns for the Patriots. It was an ugly season all around, but the latter stat is obviously the most alarming.
Parker has been treated as New England’s No. 1 outside receiving target, but he’s only caught three touchdowns passes in two seasons with the Patriots. Instead of emerging into a difference-maker, Parker has simply been another body in the Patriots’ underwhelming receiving corps.
WR Tyquan Thornton
Tyquan Thornton was pretty much nonexistent when he was on the field in 2023. The 2022 second-round draft pick failed to break out as a rookie, and there was hope he’d finally hit his stride in his second season. But things were even worse for Thornton in the second go-around.
He only appeared in nine games with 13 receptions for 91 yards and no touchdowns. The ability to separate hasn’t been there consistently enough, and Thornton hasn’t proven himself to be a great contested catch option, either. Speed along isn’t cutting it for the former Baylor standout wide receiver.
LB Josh Uche
Josh Uche appeared to be on the verge of a breakout season in 2023, after exploding onto the scene with 11.5 sacks in the previous season. Patriots star linebacker Matthew Judon even went as far as proclaiming Uche as the best pass-rusher on the team.
However, Uche’s sack numbers declined drastically with Judon sidelined with a biceps injury. It was a contract year with the Patriots’ top pass-rusher, statistically, out with an injury, and all Uche could muster was three sacks in 15 games.
He also saw his snap count slip due to struggles competing on every down.
CB Jack Jones
Jack Jones didn’t have a disappointing season, but he was a disappointing player for the Patriots. Off-the-field issues kept piling up to the point where New England finally decided enough was enough.
Jones was arrested last June on gun-related charges, and he was reportedly late for a team meeting.
The good news for Jones is he ended up joining his former high school and college coach, Antonio Pierce, with the Las Vegas Raiders, after he was waived by the Patriots. In only seven games with the Raiders, Jones had four pass deflections and two interceptions returned for touchdowns.
