The New England Patriots had their bye week at arguably the best time: the midway mark. They're 5-4 as the NFL officially began the second half of the season in Week 10.
As the Patriots hope to carry the momentum in recent weeks to make a playoff push, here are their two best and worst players so far this season.
2 best Patriots' players so far this season
There couldn't be anyone else who's viewed as the best player on the 2022 Patriots, right?
In case you need a refresher, Judon leads the league in sacks entering Week 10 with 11.5. Not only is he the league leader, but he's also three ahead of anyone else. He's also second in quarterback hits (19) and tied for fourth in tackles for loss (10), proving to be a constant force for the Patriots on a week-to-week basis.
Obviously, Judon's one of the best pass rushers in the game. But he noticeably made an impact when he's not sacking the quarterback, too. In Week 9 against the New York Jets, Judon seemed to play a lot spy to help prevent quarterback Zach Wilson from running down the field. Not only did the Patriots successfully contain Wilson behind the line (he only ran once), they kept on the move behind the line of scrimmage as Judon had seven pressures in that game. A pair of those pressures resulted in interceptions, showing the fear Judon's put in opposing quarterbacks with his presence.
MATTHEW JUDON WITH 3 SACKS ON THE DAY 🤯pic.twitter.com/etGq1tUiP9
— Patriots Nation (@PatsNationCP) November 6, 2022
The big question will be whether or not Judon's able to keep up his play following the bye week. Last season, he didn't record a sack in the Patriots' final four games after the bye. If Judon's presence can help force turnovers though, he might not have to make many sacks in order for the Patriots' defense to succeed going forward.
The Patriots' second-year running back has been the motor of the team's offense as of late.
Stevenson broke out when Damien Harris went down early in the Patriots' Week 5 win over the Detroit Lions, having to shoulder the burden out of the backfield for the majority of the game. He ended up having the best game of his career, rushing for 161 yards and yet he was praised more by his head coach for pass-blocking that day.
Stevenson's only gotten better as the weeks have gone along. Arguably his most impressive performance came in Week 8 when he had 71 rushing yards and 72 receiving yards. While he was versatile in that game, the most impressive part of Stevenson's performance was that 83 of his rushing yards came after contact, meaning he was working at a deficit.
https://twitter.com/FTBeard7/status/1589330044350246917
It was a similar story against the Colts in Week 9 when he had 60 rushing yards on 15 carries, but once again generated much of the offense for the Patriots as they only had 203 total yards that day and he scored their lone offensive touchdown.
All in all, the Patriots offense would be nothing without Stevenson.
2 worst Patriots' players so far this season
Entering the season, many had high hopes for the veteran wideout as he entered Year 2 in New England. And reasonably so, he had career highs across the board in Year 1, catching 55 passes for 800 yards with six touchdowns.
Bourne's nowhere near that production this season.
Now, some of that might not be entirely his fault. He reportedly got himself in the doghouse after getting into a fight during a joint practice with the Carolina Panthers and was late for a team meeting prior to a preseason game. Bourne remained in the doghouse through the end of the preseason and into Week 1, when he only played two snaps in the loss to the Miami Dolphins. He recorded a reception for 41 yards in one of those snaps.
After that game, Bourne's snaps slowly began to rise, but the production didn't really match it. He's played in at least 45 percent of the Patriots' offensive snaps over their last six games (he was injured in the other two) and only has seven receptions for 52 yards over that stretch.
Bourne struggled in particular in the last two games against the Jets and Colts. He was targeted just once against New York and had three receptions for just 11 yards against Indianapolis, with most of his receptions coming off screens. He appeared to struggle to get separation on a good amount of his routes against both teams, too.
Isaiah Wynn
Entering the final year of his rookie deal, the fifth-year offensive lineman's had a season that no one would like to have in a contract year.
Wynn moved from left tackle to right tackle at the start of the season in a move to allow the Patriots to have their strongest pass-blocker (Trent Brown) protecting Mac Jones' blindside. While the move's mostly worked out for Brown, it's already been a failure for Wynn.
Through the NFL's first half of the season, no player was penalized more than Wynn, who had a league-high nine penalties called on him. Even worse, he's constantly been getting beat in pass-blocking situations. He's given up 16 pressures, four sacks, and an additional two quarterback hits.
Wynn's lowest moment of the season came in Week 4 against the Green Bay Packers. Late in the first quarter of that game, Wynn had a three-play sequence in which he gave up a sack and was called for false start and holding penalties. To make matters worse, the sack got Brian Hoyer concussed.
Wynn gave up another pivotal sack in that game late in the first half when Rashan Gary destroyed on a rush, sacking Bailey Zappe to force a fumble that ended a promising drive for the Patriots in that game.
Watch Isaiah Wynn at right tackle.
How can it be possible to regress this quickly
— Savage (@SavageSports_) October 31, 2022
That sack by Gary began a stretch that's seen Wynn getting rotated in-and-out at right tackle to flat-out losing his job at the position. He appeared to be fully removed from right tackle after getting pulled in Week 8 against the Jets and beginning Week 9's game on the bench. In both games, Wynn shifted over to left guard, where he played a bit better but still wasn't great and certainly wasn't good enough to make up for his poor play earlier in the season.
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