Poll: Will the Patriots make the playoffs this season?

The New England Patriots have made some moves to presumably improve their team this offseason. Signing free agents like JuJu Smith Shuster and Mike Gesicki, drafting a stud cornerback in Christian Gonzalez as well as a couple of additional highly regarded players to plug into an already strong defense in DE Keion White and LB/S Marte Mapu, New England seems to have increased their odds of being a contender. Word on the street is that they're even in the running to land receiver DeAndre Hopkins.

But, the AFC East is a brutally tough division, and the Patriots have one of the toughest schedules in all of football based on winning percentages from last season.

Interestingly, if the Patriots do miss the playoffs this season, it will be the first time in coach Belichick's New England coaching tenure that they've missed them for two years in a row, which would make them eligible for HBO's Hard Knocks. A team is ineligible for the program if: it has a first-year head coach; has made the playoffs for the previous two-years; or has hosted the show in the past 10 years. This fact alone should make Belichick supremely motivated to coach this group into the postseason.

So, we want to know what you think. Does all of this add up to the Patriots earning the highly coveted playoff birth, or might we see New England on Hard Knocks next season?