Patriots Super Bowl Champion Resets Timeline Of Expectations In Rebuild

The New England Patriots move through their bye week with a 3-10 record in the first season with Jerod Mayo as head coach and rookie Drake Maye as the starting quarterback.

There’s an understanding of how early in the rebuild New England truly is, but there’s still been plenty of frustrating moments along the way. The Patriots are still years away from becoming a playoff team. For now, two-time Super Bowl champion Rob Ninkovich offered the reminder that these processes take time.

“You gotta think it wasn’t an easy thing to walk into,” Ninkovich told reporters before “The Tradition” Nov. 20 at TD Garden. “Think about being the quarterback after Tom Brady. That’s not an easy thing. Being the head coach after Bill (Belichick), that’s definitely not easy as well. I think there’s a managing of expectations here that maybe the fanbase and media need to understand. When you win a lot of football games for a lot of years, you can get spoiled a little bit. Coming into the season, I think they got their quarterback. That was a big question mark.”

Ninkovich sees plenty of upside in the Patriots’ future with Maye as the face of the franchise. Now, the coming years are all about building out the rest of the roster with legitimate talent.

“You go into this offseason with a lot of free agent money,” Ninkovich added. “… We’ll see how the rest of the year shapes up. Hopefully Drake Maye continues to look good and improve on his game. He’s still got a lot to learn, he’s a rookie. I think Mayo’s done a great job with what he had to come into and try and right the ship.”

“The Tradition” airs Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m. ET on NESN.