Shutdown Corner is previewing all 32 teams as we get ready for the NFL season, counting down the teams one per day in reverse order of our initial 2016 power rankings. No. 1 will be revealed on Aug. 6, the day before the Hall of Fame Game kicks off the preseason.

No. 4: NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS



The New England Patriots’ 15-year run is probably the best in NFL history, and it might never be matched again.

In an era of free agency and a salary cap, the Patriots have been fantastic just about every season this century. They have won 10 games 14 of the past 15 seasons. A 9-7 finish in 2002 was the outlier. They’ve won at least 12 games 10 of the past 13 seasons, which is staggering. They’ve won the division 13 times this century, including 12 of the past 13 years. They’ve been to the Super Bowl six times and won four. That type of run isn’t supposed to happen in the NFL anymore.

Like it or not, the Patriots are the surest thing in the NFL. But for how long? This season we’ll get a quick peek into what happens once Tom Brady is finished.

In case you missed it, Brady will be suspended four games for whatever he did in deflate-gate (the NFL and Ted Wells still haven’t provided an answer to that). Jimmy Garoppolo will take his place and we’ll see if the Patriots keep crushing the NFL as always.

Jimmy Garoppolo (10) will replace Tom Brady for the first four games this season (AP) More

People like to point to the 2008 season, when Matt Cassel played most of the year for an injured Brady. The Patriots went 11-5, which was good. But you know what’s never mentioned? That was five wins worse than 2007. The 2007 Patriots went 16-0 and were one of the greatest teams ever. A 11-5 record isn’t bad for any team but 2008 is not proof the Patriots will win forever without Brady (click here for more on Garoppolo’s opportunity).

We won’t know for sure what will happen to the Patriots in a post-Brady world after four games this season either, but it will be an interesting experiment.

[Yahoo Fantasy Football is open for the 2016 season. Sign up now]

And then Brady will come back, probably very angry and motivated, and the Patriots can resume being one of the NFL’s top Super Bowl contenders.

The Patriots were very close last season. Rob Gronkowski made two unbelievable fourth-down plays late in the AFC championship game at the Denver Broncos, a 40-yard catch to put the Patriots in the red zone and then a touchdown at the back of the end zone with 12 seconds left. It was a heck of a show by the greatest tight end ever. But the Patriots couldn’t get the two-point conversion to send the game to overtime. NFL teams converted on about 48 percent of their two-point attempts last season. With a great quarterback like Brady and a great target like Gronkowski, going against a great Broncos defense, that play was a coin flip. The Patriots lost it. The Broncos went on to win the Super Bowl. The Patriots had to watch the Carolina Panthers struggle that day and believe that if the 50-50 two-point try went their way, they’d have a fifth ring.

They’ll try again this season, maybe get Malcolm Butler lucky and not David Tyree unlucky. There’s no reason to doubt them. Trading top pass rusher Chandler Jones before he hit free agency after this season was an odd move for a team with Super Bowl hopes, but that’s how the Patriots do business. The Patriots should be the same team we’re accustomed to seeing. It’s basically the same core that started 10-0 last year and was very close to making another Super Bowl.

The Patriots will be good again. Their consistency is boring and predictable. At least the first four weeks will add a new degree of difficulty.

More