Coming off the greatest comeback in the National Football League’s history, the New England Patriots are deemed the favorites for the upcoming 2018 season. For the greater Boston Area, this would mean a championship repeat, and it would give the franchise it’s sixth Lombardi trophy. The Patriots clearly have one of, if not the best, coach/quarterback duo in the NFL and they haven’t slowed down. Tom Brady started the season at 39-years old and played one of his greatest seasons ever. He threw for almost 4,000-yards and 28 touchdowns, while missing four games off for his Deflate-gate suspension. And, if things couldn’t seem to get any more perfect for the Patriots, their newly assigned pick-ups from free agency seem to have closed the gap between any opposition.

The Patriots offense has been a revolving door of above average players for a number of years now. For the past four years, changes have been made throughout the offensive line and receiving cores, some of which were for the better, while others were a little shaky. With most of Brady’s protection on the offensive line online in their sophomore to junior seasons, the team has had to adjust to this new play style by acquiring some new weapons on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

The first huge hole within the team is the loss of Martellus Bennett at the tight end spot. The one-two punch with Bennett and Gronkowski was a massive part of the offense and needed to be addressed early on in free agency hunt.

The Patriots quickly responded to the loss with signing veteran Dwayne Allen from the Indianapolis Colts. What he brings to the team is another great catching TE, but more importantly, a blocker who can hang in with the best of them. The Patriots are masters at turning an average player into an all-pro at the blink of an eye, and the recent pick-ups prove to carry on that standard.

The team signed more protection for Brady, but the biggest attainment would have to be the outstanding wideout, Brandin Cooks from the New Orleans Saints. Coming off back to back seasons with more than a 1,000 receiving yards and almost 20 touchdowns, Cooks might be the best deep-field threat the Patriots have had since 2007 with then future Hall-of-Famer Randy Moss.

With the all-star power of Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots have never been known for their defense, but that all changed in the 2016-2017 season. The Patriots had the top scoring defense in the entire league and was the standout part of their recent Super Bowl victory. The move to re-sign all-pro linebacker Dont’a Hightower keeps the defensive captains intact.

The Patriots were able to sign the best cornerback in free agency, Stephon Gilmore, and pick up the solid veteran defensive-end Kony Ealy from the Carolina Panthers. The additions to the defense seem to be perfect matches for the expanding defense of the Patriots and will only help to further the process of attempting the repeat. When asked about if the Patriots could repeat this upcoming season, local Portsmouth High School student, Jared Padgett stated “Yeah, I think they have a great shot to repeat. When you have the greatest player of all time on your team, it’s hard to bet against them.” And that’s exactly what experts are saying when it comes to this New England team.