New
Curran And Perry Share Patriots Record Predictions After Schedule Release
Curran and Perry share Patriots record predictions after schedule release originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The 2025 NFL regular season schedule was released Wednesday, and the New England Patriots have a great chance to show significant improvement.
Not only did the Patriots make substantial roster upgrades through free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft, their schedule for the upcoming season sets them up for a potential fast start.
Three of their first four games are at home, including Week 1 versus the Las Vegas Raiders, Week 3 versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and Week 4 versus the Carolina Panthers. Those are three very winnable games against opponents that don’t have a top-tier quarterback.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}}))}();
On the latest episode of NBC Sports Boston’s Patriots Talk Podcast, Tom E. Curran and Phil Perry shared their initial reactions to New England’s 17-game slate.
“They won basically two games at home the last two years combined,” Perry said. “It’s actually three, but the third was a meaningless game in the season finale last year. They’ve (essentially) won two games at home in two years. They should, in my opinion, certainly match that, if not exceed it, in the first month of the season.”
The schedule eventually gets tougher for the Patriots, but the first half of the campaign isn’t loaded with difficult opponents.
“I think there’s a real chance for 7-2 to start the season,” Perry said. “Raiders, (Dolphins), Steelers, Panthers, (Bills), Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons. That’s nine games and seven of them are incredibly winnable.”
The Patriots have the third-easiest schedule in the league based on the 2024 win percentage of their 2025 opponents. They also won’t have to face many elite quarterbacks. In fact, it’s possible that a quarter of their games could come against rookie QBs.
This schedule, as a whole, is a great opportunity for the Patriots to right the ship and build some genuine momentum as a franchise after back-to-back 4-13 seasons.
“If they struggle against this schedule, that’s a problem,” Perry said. “The time is now. We talk about urgency, the time is now to be good. You have a young quarterback.”
What will be the Patriots’ final record?
Both Curran and Perry see the Patriots finishing at 9-8, which might be good enough to earn one of the final wild card playoff spots in the AFC.
“I have them at 9-8 also,” Perry said. “I have them at 8-5 going into the bye. I think they’ll lose to Buffalo (in Week 15), and my guess is they’d split that Jets-Dolphins stretch at the end (in Weeks 17 and 18).”
Check out more reaction from Curran and Perry in the video below:
