More reason to believe in the Pats this season

This isn’t like the beginning of the season when ideas are ideas, this is the point in the season where ideas have to be taken seriously. We’ve seen like 11-12 games depending on the team, so yeah.

With that logic though, you can jump to some conclusions. Yes, we get it, the Cleveland Browns are the worst team in the league. But look past that. What about the best teams? What about the AFC champs? What about the Super Bowl champs? NFL.com — a well-respected media outlet — took a crack at all that. And what do you know? That Pats ended up doing well in their rankings and stuff.

They seem to like the Patriots as the AFC champs. You know what that would mean right? That means they think the Pats have a good shot at playing in the Super Bowl. They’re also tabbed as the second most likely team to win it, behind the Dallas Cowboys.

But remember: everyone outside of New England hates the Patriots with the burning passion of 1,000 Malcolm Butler interceptions, so there’s that. The fact that someone is publically willing to voice a positive opinion on the Patriots is pretty gutsy. Plus, it must be true if it’s on the internet, right?

Here’s some really obvious stuff: the Pats will need to be full health for all this to go down. Against the Jets, they were far from full health, they just had a bunch of guys — like Chris Long and Alan Branch — step the hell up. A healthy Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Martellus Bennett and Danny Amendola are what it’s going to take for the Pats to make it that far — in addition to everything else.

For real. This would be huge. There’s a chance TB12 could get his fifth Super Bowl ring this season. Plus, let’s be honest, he might have a few years left in him and — hot take warning — there’s a chance he wins six Super Bowls in his career. The way he’s playing, why would he quit, if he’s healthy?