There are a lot of questions that will be answered this off season for the AFC Champion New England Patriots. If you want to start directly with the on the field questions, the big one is, will they bring in some help on the defense that basically handed the Philadelphia Eagles the Super Bowl title?

But there are a lot of off season questions surrounding the team right now.

  • First, how will they replace the losses of Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels? This isn't the first time Bill Belichick has lost both coordinators after the same season. The same happened after the Patriots defeated the Eagles in Super Bowl 39, with both Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel leaving.
  • Will Tom Brady retire? I'm guessing the answer to this is a big fat no. Brady has shown no signs of slowing down and has said he plans on playing into his mid 40s.
  • Will Bill Belichick return? This question started to pop up in the couple weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. There were reports of lots of tension between Belchick, Brady, and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. I still don't think it'll happen.

Now, looking ahead to next season. The Patriots are taking a team that went 13 and 3 in the regular season and made the Super Bowl without Julian Edelman (Brady's favorite target), Dont'a Hightower (the team's defensive leader), and Derek Rivers (the Pats first pick in last year's draft.

So it doesn't really come as that much of a surprise that the Patriots are the favorites to win the Super Bowl next year. And you'd think that the Eagles, a team that just won a Super Bowl without their starting quarterback would be the favorites. Well, they're up their, but ahead of them are not only the Pats, but also the Green Bay Packers.

 

More From KLAQ El Paso