The New England Patriots find themselves in a murky spot ahead of the 2022 NFL trade deadline.

They're 3-4 through the first seven weeks of the season, winning multiple games with fourth-round rookie backup quarterback Bailey Zappe at quarterback. However, they also just lost in decisive fashion to the Chicago Bears, who are widely considered to be one of the NFL's worst teams.

With the Patriots' most recent result plus their performance through much of the season in mind, here are three reasons why the Patriots should be sellers ahead of the Nov. 1 trade deadline.

Their record isn't as good as it indicates

While the Patriots are just a game below .500 and are favored to beat the New York Jets and move to .500 on Sunday, their record is actually better than the way they've played so far.

Through the first seven weeks of the season, the Patriots have had the second-easiest schedule in the AFC and the third-easiest schedule in the league. At 3-4 against that schedule, New England's .250 strength of victory is the worst in the league.

The three teams they've beaten up on are all bottom-feeders. The Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-5 and the Patriots beat them by just three points when they had their now backup quarterback, Mitchell Trubisky, starting. They feasted on a 1-5 Detroit Lions team that continues to be comically bad. Their third win came against the Cleveland Browns, who haven't been terrible, but with Jacoby Brissett at the helm and holding one of the league's worst defenses, a win against them isn't too impressive, either.

And that's before getting into their losses. Remember when that overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers was considered a moral victory? Well, the Packers haven't won a game since that Week 4 matchup. Sure, they lost to the 6-1 New York Giants, but they also lost to the 3-4 Washington Commanders. The 5-2 New York Jets also dominated them at Lambeau Field with Zach Wilson not doing much for them at quarterback, kind of like what Bailey Zappe did for the Patriots in Week 4.

Which leads us to the next point.

Patriots' remaining schedule is brutal

The Patriots might honestly be in the best division in football this season, and they've still got five games against their divisional rivals.

New England opened its season against a divisional foe, decisively, falling to the Miami Dolphins 20-7. The game wasn't as close as the score indicates, which kind of goes to show that the Patriots are noticeably behind the Dolphins, who are third in the division. They've won all four games that Tua Tagovailoa has started and finished so far this season, too.

Maybe the Patriots could sneak a win or two against the Jets, whose 5-2 record still doesn't seem real. But it's clear that they're still far behind the Buffalo Bills, who clobbered them in historic fashion in the playoffs last season and are off to a 5-1 start this season.

Outside of their five remaining divisional games, the Patriots still have matchups against the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals plus the 5-1 Minnesota Vikings.

With all of that wrapped together, the Patriots have the toughest remaining strength of schedule (.629).

There's also going to be a lot of competition for the AFC's wild card spots. As teams in the AFC East presumably beat each other up, teams like the Los Angeles Chargers and Baltimore Ravens could bolster their records by beating their easier divisional foes.

The path to the playoffs for the Patriots is very, very slim, let alone the path to making a deep playoff run. And there aren't really any players out there that would likely change that for New England.

It's time to build for the future

The Patriots have been sort of delaying the inevitable since Tom Brady left in 2020.

They never really embraced a rebuild in three seasons since the legendary quarterback left. Sure, they took their hits in 2020 with the salary cap and went 7-9 to miss the playoffs for the first time since in 12 seasons. But they didn't really trade off any key pieces to acquire more draft capital during that season.

Instead, the Patriots spent a record amount of money following that season in 2021 for a free-agent class that hasn't brought much to the table so far. Matthew Judon has been one of the league's top pass rushers over the last two seasons and has already recorded 8.5 sacks so far this year. But he tailed off at the end of last season while players like Nelson Agholor and Jonnu Smith have made very little impact.

Kendrick Bourne and Hunter Henry made some impact in New England in 2021, but both haven't done much this season with the latter appearing to not be in the team's future plans with the amount he's played. Bourne and Henry's talents would likely be better served elsewhere at this point and trading Judon could net the Patriots a Day 2 pick or two considering his talent at a premium position.

Homegrown players like running back Damien Harris and receiver Jakobi Meyers could be possibilities to get traded, too. Both players will be unrestricted free agents following the season and with their performances over the last couple of seasons, the Patriots could get good draft picks in return. However, a strong argument could be made to keep them through the remainder of the season so the Patriots could give Mac Jones the best shot possible to show he's worthy of being the team's long-term option at quarterback.

Either way, the Patriots have several players that could get them picks to help build the next title-contending team as this team doesn't appear to be close to reaching that level.