They will still be around deep in the playoffs. They are too good not to be.
I think this is true but with an *. Brady and Belicheat are too good and their division too terrible for them to not be in the playoffs with home field advantage as usual.
It's a similar formula San Fran followed enroute to a few SBs. Once again NE gets a huge break with Tannehill out, just when NE looked like they may have a real challenger in their division for the first time in a decade or so...
If you put NE in our division, they have many fewer rings as that homefield advantage and first round bye increases your SB odds exponentially, unless you are coached by Jason Garett
of course. I've been saying for years that NE's roster has been crap. They haven't drafted well in years. They've stayed successful by fleecing other teams via trades, playing in a crap division, getting every lucky break in humanity (from tuck-rule to Carr breaking his leg and now Tannehill out, I don't even think they were in the top three of best teams last year ), some cheating, and Brady and Belicheat being light years better at their jobs than anyone in history.
Yes they have had a few beatings like this before and bounced back like it never happened but their increasingly crummy roster, an aging Brady, injuries, and the forces of evil have to catch up with them at some point.