The New England Patriots 2024 schedule is out, and it’s … difficult.
Heading into 2024, the Pats have the Every team's strength of schedule for the season. 👀 Every team's strength of schedule for the season. 👀
Where does your team land?
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Wednesday 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/saMdDwJXIf
Where does your team land?
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Wednesday 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/saMdDwJXIf
?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10th-hardest schedule in the NFL based on their opponents’ winning percentage last season. However, Sharp Football Analysis bases strength of schedule on projected win totals for bettors and consider that metric to be more reliable, and they’ve got the Patriots second-hardest.Every team's strength of schedule for the season. 👀
— NFL (@NFL)
Where does your team land?
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Wednesday 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/saMdDwJXIfEvery team's strength of schedule for the season. 👀
— NFL (@NFL) May 14, 2024
Where does your team land?
📺: NFL Schedule Release — Wednesday 8pm ET on NFLN/ESPN2
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/saMdDwJXIf
Regardless of their opponents, the Patriots themselves are in a multi-year rebuild. So, as long as they’re still in the process of laying the bricks of the future, particularly on offense, they’re going to have a tough time hanging around with most of their opponents and their superior quarterbacks/offensive units.
Still, the Pats can’t possibly get worse quarterback play than they got in 2023, so Jacoby Brissett deserves confidence to be a technical upgrade over what Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe gave them. And in an ideal world, Drake Maye takes over at some point in his rookie season and delivers the best quarterback play since the departure of Tom Brady.

As for the coaching, it’s fair to assume that Bill Belichick to Jerod Mayo would be a 1-for-1 downgrade. But now that the staff is all on the same page, and that Mayo comes in with a chance to connect better with younger players than Belichick could, they could prove to be greater than the sum of their parts and a cleaner overall operation than the end of the Belichick era.
For these reasons, I’m projecting the Patriots as a 6-win team in 2024. Slight improvements in the quarterbacking and coaching mean a slight improvement in the record. Still a bottom-10 team, but forward progress. They have an over/under of 5.5 wins at BetMGM, so six seems about right for the optimists.
MORE: The Patriots 2024 schedule is here
Unfortunately, you have to dig a little deep to find even six wins on the Patriots 2024 schedule, but the possibilities are there. They have plenty of games that seem like no-chance situations, like Week 4 at the San Francisco 49ers and Week 16 at the Buffalo Bills, and plenty of other opponents that are simply better on paper and will present big challenges.
But if you need hope … well maybe six wins isn’t going to inspire much hope. But if you’re hoping for a step in the right direction from a disastrous 2023 season, this is the list for you. Here are the six most winnable games on the Patriots 2024 schedule, ranked…