It’s official: The New England Patriots just had their worst season on special teams in the Bill Belichick era.
You could’ve made that case before Week 18 (we did), as the Patriots through 17 weeks ranked 27th in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, which measures a unit’s overall efficiency relative to other teams. It basically functions as football’s version of baseball’s wins-above-replacement stat.
New England’s special teams finished 18th in DVOA last season, setting a new low during Belichick’s tenure as head coach. In the previous 21 seasons, the Patriots never finished lower than 16th while finishing top 10 a stunning 16 times.