Poll: What’s your expectation for Pats offense in 2023?

The New England Patriots will go as far as their offense can carry them in 2023. Normally, it's the inverse, "defense wins championships" in the NFL. That's true, though as we witnessed last year, a stellar defense can only get so far when dragging an incompetent offense along for the ride.

The pieces are all pretty much the same as a year ago, apart from the newly added Ezekiel Elliott in a complimentary role and Mike Gesicki at TE, who is expected to have a big role in the offense, though his Week 1 status is now in question after suffering a mildly separated shoulder at Monday's practice.

While Juju Smith-Schuster is also a new addition, he's basically a 1-for-1 plug to fill the role vacated by Jakobi Meyers. Then, the hope is DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne get back to looking like players they've been at previous points in their career, but was not the case in '22. And hey, maybe all this hype about Demario Douglas is real and he blossoms into the next great Patriots slot receiver.

Of course, the biggest change is Bill O'Brien. But how much is an offensive coordinator really worth? Well, for starters lets realize they're not simply upgrading, they're going from probably the worst situation in the league, to someone who is universally respected as one of the best signal callers in the game.

That should be good enough for at least a field goal boost on average, right? If that's the case, BOB would elevate the Pats from a roughly 21.4 point-per-game unit, to one that averages around 24 per week. That's a step in the right direction, though last year's average of 21.4ppg came with the defense and special teams accounting for seven touchdowns. Take those out and the O really averaged around 17.7ppg. For reference, only the Titans, Jets, Colts, Texans and Broncos were worse in '22.

What do you think, how big will the Pats offensive turnaround be in 2023?