The Pats were such Frauds all year... they will play a first round schedule and miss the playoffs next year... that D may keep things interesting... they wont be "bad" but they really played nobody this year and will likely add 5 or 6 losses at a minimum playing top tier teams
Look at next years schedule
Sure they get the Jets twice, and the Dolphins twice... and they play the raiders...
but after those five they get:
The Bills, Twice
the Vikings who can be either good or bad
The Lions, who probably should have been a playoff team
The Packers and Bears
Seattle again
The Broncos, Chargers and Chiefs
The Steelers and Jags
Last year they beat exactly one team with a winning record prior to the Playoffs... then faced a bunch of significantly injury handicapped teams till they hit Seattle...
Next year the only teams that finished this season with a losing record on their Schedule is the Jets and Dolphins twice plus the Raiders and Chiefs... and the Chiefs are more or less a playoff team that had a down year...
This year the Pats SOS was like .391, abd their SOV was only .378... thats basically teams that average 6 or 7 wins... next year their SOS is .531.. thats a significant difference