The New England Patriots are riding high this week after a 42-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. Entering Week 5, the Pats are one of nine NFL teams with a 2-2 record, along with the Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Minnesota Vikings, and Washington Commanders.

On Monday, NFL.com’s Jeffri Chadia did an interesting exercise — Chadia broke the above 2-2 teams into two categories: “contenders” and “pretenders”.

And Patriots fans won’t be thrilled to learn that Chadia classified New England in the latter group.

“There are things happening in New England that you want to see at the start of Mike Vrabel’s tenure as head coach,” Chadiha wrote .

“Second-year quarterback Drake Maye ha

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