I'm going to have to disagree with this premise. Lewis and Lee are not starters, and even some of the ones that were aren't exactly the kind of player you pin your hopes on. Could you imagine New England saying "Welp, we had Super Bowl aspirations this year, but now that we've lost that Jarwin kid I guess things just a lot tougher?"
I'm sorry, but the injury excuse is a loser mentality.
At minimum Lewis would have been the starting Nickel which plays 75% of snaps. Now with LVE out Lee would have been a full time starter.
Does losing Jarwin by itself kill the offense? No. But you combine that with no RT, a backup C who’s just waiting for a rookie to take his job and Williams who’s at best just below league average and you start to see a trend that can’t be fixed by a QB, RB and 3 really good WRs
Defensively, losing LVE and Lee individually is tough but it’s worse when now you’re playing Joe Thomas and whoever the 5th LB would be for major snaps. It’s the cumulative effect.
It makes it hard to evaluate, is the team struggling to pick up the new schemes because of lack of offseason or are the players that are in there just not talented enough to execute.
You can’t run long developing routes designed to lose defenders when your O Line won’t hold up