The Patriots are 2-5 for first time in 20 seasons. The for Bill Belichick, they finished 5-11 in 2000 with a sixth-round rookie quarterback named Tom Brady on the bench. One year later, their six-time Super Bowl-winning dynasty was born.The 2020 edition, the first New England team without Brady since, will be ending its 10-year reign as AFC East championafter losing at front-running Buffalo(6-2) by a field goal on Sunday. Belichick will still get the Patriots to play hard going forward, so don't confusetheir four-game losing streak with "tanking." But let's just say Belichick shouldn't worry if his team keeps on losing.Even as a strong, consistent playoff team, the Patriots had only one bottom line in mind winningit all. Anything else was a disappointment. Likewise, it doesn't matter if the Patriots free fallto finish 2-14 or rally to respectability at 7-9. No playoffs is no playoffs.NFL POWER RANKINGS:When Belichick was winning on demand, he said little about Aldrick Rosas Jersey the proce s of getting there. But in aninterview with his former offensive coordinator, Charlie Weis, on Sirius XM NFL Radio on Saturday,he laid out the exact reasons why New England was losing badly without Brady lack of front-line talent and depth tied to salary-cap i sues, veteran opt-outs due to COVID-19 and injuries.Bill Belichick to : This is kind of the year that weve taken to, I would say, adjust our cap from the spending that weve had in Drew Brees T Shirts accumulation of prior years. We just havent been able to have the kind of depth on our roster that weve had in some other years. Mike Rei s (@MikeRei s) Bill Belichick to on how he a se ses where the Patriots have been, and where they are now: Mike Rei s (@MikeRei s) The Patriots weren't in position to go in a pricier direction at quarterback than a bargain flier on Cam Newton, which hasn't panned out. They also had no shot at anon-developmental rookie quarterback in the draft, which made Jarrett Stidham seem like a better alternative before Newton was signed.Offensively, their line, backfield and wide receivers haven't been immune to the injury bug. Defensively, they saw their linebacker corps get hit hard in free agency and then Dont'a Hightower decided not to play this season.Otherthan cornerback Stephon Gilmore not nearly in his Defensive Player of the Year form from 2019 they're relying on a mix of inexperienced youngsters and slowing-down veterans to make plays on that side of the ball.After Gilmore mi sed Week 8 with a late-developing knee injury, there was more speculation the Patriots would aggre sively look to trade him before Tuesday's deadline, before the final year of his contract in 2021.MORE: When Belichick spoke to Weis, he Marcus Davenport Jersey was speaking just as much in his capacity as general manager as head coach. With the coaching results not going his way in 2020, it's only natural to already think about how to make his team better in 2021. For the Patriots, that requires greater draft capital quality as well as quantity and a lot of money under the cap with which to target key big-ticketfree agents, like they did by signing Gilmore away from the Bills in 2017.The Patriots are projected to have more than $60 million under the cap next yearbut there's uncertainty about the cap given the developments of this year. That's about triple the space they currently have. New England was caught between buying and selling in 2020, but it's more clear to Belichick theonly way for his team to be a competitive contender on Bob Pollard Jersey his watch again anytime soon is getting significantly worse.That makes it easier to justifygettingrid of hefty salaries of aging, fading players. Gilmore might be not be traded in the short term, but it would become a stronger po sibility when the new league year opens in March.They also could benefit from a top-10 pick in the first round of the draft they currently set to pick No. 9 and stockpiling with more significant selections that come from some of the cap-cutting moves.NFL MOCK DRAFT:Belichick's tenure is based on adaptability and versatility. In the radio interview, Belichick admitted to having a lack of flexibility with the roster. The way the NFL is set up, when you have a franchise QB, you look to load up or reload, and when you don't, you look to gatheras many valuable a sets to rebuild.There's nopoint to try to limpinto the playoffsas a No. 7 seed and there's a le ser probability of that, anyway, with nine good teams above .500 ahead of the Patriotsin the AFC. There's now a greater chance for the Patriots to be bad enough for Belichick to land a franchise cornerstone, quarterback or otherwise.Given so many Patriots still on the roster are used to winning big, the 2020 season has been a tough adjustment, especially mi sing Brady's fiery competitive nature. Their makeup is to play as hard as po sible for Belichick. But as they do that, he should expect more struggles and embrace the full evaluation mode as the latest challenge to his football genius.The Patriots have been so succe sful by looking New Orleans Saints Accessories at and thinking about things in a different, advanced way than other teams. That's the same winning approach one should expect Belichick should take to losing.