Bedard: 3 up and 3 down from the Patriots loss to the Colts

Greg Bedard of BostonSportsJournal.com joined Felger and Mazz on Tuesday and gave his 3 up and 3 down from the New England Patriots week 13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

3 UP

Antonio Gibson

Greg Bedard: For him to have four rushes over 10 yards, including that ridiculous touchdown where there wasn't a whole lot of great blocking on that play, he just made the play. I don't understand why he only got 17 snaps in this game.  

Drake Maye

Greg Bedard: Best game that I had him for. I thought he was outstanding. I only marked him down on one throw, the one behind Boutte. Other than that a few decision things including, it shows up week after week, I'm not really that worried about it as a rookie at his age, but going forward, he's still inviting a little bit too much pressure.  

Austin Hooper

Greg Bedard: I thought Austin Hooper, the touchdown reception was great. He did some nice work in the run game. And also he had a big third down reception.  

3 DOWN

Layden Robinson

Greg Bedard: I know Jerod Mayo said on Monday that this was Robinson's best game, I disagree. Look, it was a tough match up with divorce DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart on the inside, so that's got to factor in. But, you know, he still gave up four quarterback pressures, there was only one more on the offensive line. And I had him down for 10 minus plays.  

Rhamondre Stevenson

Greg Bedard: I thought he was terrible in this game. I had five and a half stuffed runs on him, which is absurdly high. I don't know if he's hurt or what, but he doesn't look right. He's obviously not comfortable in this scheme. I don't know if it's not confidence in what's in front of him as far as the blockers, but his vision is gone as far as seeing cut back lanes. I know that's not his forte, he's more of just a sledgehammer type back, but even when they run those plays he's pitter pattering into the hole. 

Kyle Dugger

Greg Bedard: This is now a weekly thing. I'm starting to wonder if Dugger needed somebody like Devin McCourty back there with him to make sure he was on top of everything and knew what he was doing because this is now a couple of years of this where he just he's a part of way too many problematic plays for the Patriots. 

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With Sunday's 25-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, the New England Patriots have now lost three games in a row. They head into their very late bye week at 3-10 on the season.

Usually the bye week falls in the middle of the season and is a chance for the coaching staff to reset and make bigger-picture adjustments to try and finish the season on a high note. This year though with the bye being as late as it is (the Patriots are one of six teams with the latest bye week in the league) and the Patriots' record being what it is, there isn't quite that 'reset' feel this week.

Instead, fans seem to be using this checkpoint as a reminder that the 2024 regular season is almost in the books. This week's mailbag takes a look at information that can still be gained for the offseason over the next four weeks, and questions about the offseason itself.

Let's get started with the four games remaining. What can we learn from the Patriots' matchups against the Cardinals, Chargers, and Bills (twice)? That's where we'll begin with this week's Mailbag.

Overall, these final four games should be valuable for the purpose of evaluation for the Patriots. Three of the games are against teams in playoff position heading into Week 14, while the Arizona Cardinals are the first team out of a Wild Card spot (and a game out of the division lead) in the NFC.

However, the players can only prove what they can or can't do if they're on the field. For a player like Alex Austin, yesterday was encouraging. He played a significant role on defense for the first time this season, and should have earned more playing time down the stretch.

Jerod Mayo has said he expects Cole Strange to play at some point this year, and the team will have to activate him before the next game. The question is, where will he play? Does the team bump Ben Brown, who has had a few solid weeks, from center? Or does the coaching staff put left guard Layden Robinson back on the bench despite clearly wanting to get a closer look at him?

Elsewhere on the offensive line, it would be great to get more of a look at Caedan Wallace, who has been out since Week 4 with an ankle injury. He hasn't returned to practice yet, so time is running out for him.

Meanwhile, rookie wide receivers Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker continue to play limited roles. Having gotten a somewhat extended look at Polk earlier this year the Patriots may feel they have more of an understanding of what's going on with him. As for Baker, while it would be great to see more of him he seems on track to need to prove himself next spring and summer.

At the end of last season the Patriots had 71 players under contract between the 53-man roster and IR. Of hose 71, 31 of them (43 percent) were on the active roster for Week 1 of this year. A few more began this year either on IR, PUP, the practice squad, etc.

The big difference this year is the Patriots only have 11 pending unrestricted free agents. Other players will end up getting cut when it's time to trim the roster down too, but there's less built in turnover. By the time we get to Week 1 of 2025 I'd expect the rate of turnover to be about the same as last year, around 40 percent.

I'd say that's a safe assessment of the offense at this point. In key situations - both in terms of time on the clock and/or where the ball is on the field - it does feel like they've leaned on the run game a disproportionate amount. That includes that three-and-out (their only one of the game) after the Christian Gonzalez interception that could have been a dagger of a possession.

Some of the conservative play calling has felt like it's a result of Alex Van Pelt managing the personnel - especially the offensive line. Assuming Van Pelt is back next year, it will be interesting to see if that changes with better players on the field.

Low, for two reasons. For one, Brian Daboll should be able to do better than an offensive coordinator job on the open market. If anything, I could see it being Van Pelt staying in his current role and Daboll hired in some role above him as a sort of senior assistant (offensive or overall). It's also incredibly rare to see in-house demotions in the NFL.

A little background first. Emmanuel Forbes was a first-round pick by the Washington Commanders in 2023. They took him one spot ahead of Christian Gonzalez. Forbes struggled in his first year-and-a-half in the NFL, and was waived over the weekend.

That brings us to the Patriots. Should the team take a flyer on him? It couldn't hurt. They need boundary cornerback depth, and he is a higher-upside option to others available, even if he was over drafted in the first round. We had Forbes as a top-40 selection leading up the draft in 2023.

Stylistically, Forbes is more of a 'ball-hawk' than shutdown corner. Rather than simply run with receivers and take them out of the game, he tries to lure quarterbacks into bad decisions. That style worked well for him at Mississippi State where he had six interceptions and 10 pass breakups his final year, but it didn't play as well at the NFL level.

The Patriots have had success developing ball-hawking cornerbacks in the past - J.C. Jackson a comp for Forbes coming out of college. Trying to have similar success with Forbes could make sense, but it's also possible they saw enough of him in Washington to realize he's just not an NFL cornerback.

Right now, the 'Big Three' Patriots needs for this offseason are shaping up to be (in any order) offensive tackle, wide receiver, and pass rusher. While they certainly could address all three in the draft, they'd have more flexibility if they can add at one or two of those positions through free agency or a trade.

That's especially true at wide receiver, where they've struggled to develop players for a while. If there is one position where a high-profile veteran addition makes the most sense it's at receiver (ex. Tee Higgins, D.K. Metcalf).

Assuming they got that taken care of, cornerback would move up as the new third in the 'Big Three' needs. That could end up meaning a defensive-heavy draft.

Overall, I'm currently looking at five tackles as legitimate first-round picks - Will Campbell and Emery Jones of LSU, Kelvin Banks and Cameron Williams of Texas, and Aireontae Ersery of Minnesota. However, of those five only three (Campbell, Banks, Ersery) are true left tackles.