Madden 20: The Patriot Way (Introduction)

 I'm making another attempt to launch a new series here on my second blog today, and I think I've got an intriguing idea. Let's explain. 

For the past couple decades, no team in the NFL has been more consistently dominant than the New England Patriots. Part of that could be attributed to Tom Brady, part of that could be attributed to Bill Belichick, but some of the chatter surrounding the franchise has centered around the mythos of the so-called "Patriot Way". It's the idea that hard working, accountability, and most of all, winning, are the most important keys to a healthy, stable organization. It's an idea, that, as far as I'm aware, is largely fictional. Belichick has said that he doesn't personally use that term, and while I'm sure they run a very professional outfit up there in Foxborough, there's no reason to believe that the Patriots are doing anything that any other team isn't (at least when it comes to locker room culture, maybe not when it comes to inflated footballs and spycams, hey yo). But what if the "Patriot Way" was a tangible idea? More importantly, what does that even mean? I'm here to explore it. 

As you can tell from the title, this is a series based in Madden 20, as I continue my grand tradition of being at least a year or two behind the times when it comes to sports games. But even if I were up to date, I still would want to be in Madden 20, because it starts before the 2019 season, which means we still have Brady. He's the cornerstone of what I want to accomplish here. There are two main rules for what I can do with this team going forward. 

Rule Number 1: I cannot sign or trade for any player that has not previously appeared for the New England Patriots. This is to simulate the idea of the "Patriot Way", the concept that anyone that hasn't been on this team can't fit into the culture. This means that when it comes to free agency, any player I sign must have a history with this team, with the only exception being undrafted free agents, they're fair game. For the most part, our roster will come to consist entirely of players I drafted, which will be more difficult based on...

Rule Number 2: I cannot draft a player in the first round. For the past few years, it's been noted that New England absolutely sucks at drafting first round talent, generally either whiffing on the pick, or trading it away. Plenty of star players, including the franchise's biggest name, were not taken in the first round, and going forward, we're just going to give up on the first 32 spots in the draft entirely. This will provide a monumental challenge for me, as so many of the best players in auto-generated draft classes get taken early, leaving the capable but more dull talent to go later on. The biggest issue I see straight away is that we're likely going to lose Brady to retirement after the first year, leaving a massive hole at quarterback that could be difficult to fill. We do at least have a first round pick to use as trade bait, and I have a few ideas on what to do with it, but none would be as simple as just using it to draft a new QB. This will require lots of deep thought, which is entirely the point of these two rules. 

Hopefully, this all makes sense. I think these two restrictive rules provide this series with a unique quirk that could prove very interesting to try and work around in the future. I'll be back again soon with the first year simulation, where we likely bid farewell to Tom Brady, and begin the process of building around someone new. 

- Henry