The New England Patriots have had quite the eventful offseason after dealing with the Aaron Hernandez murder case and the messy departure of wide receiver Wes Welker, so it must make head coach Bill Belichick thrilled that the preseason is starting up and the team will play it's first game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Friday night.
The Patriots once again have Super Bowl expectations after losing to the Baltimore Ravens last year in the AFC championship game and while many have doubted some of the moves from the team in the offseason, including the loss of Welker to the Broncos, Belichick is confident that quarterback Tom Brady can work in new players, including rookies Aaron Dobson, who was the team's second round pick, Josh Boyce, who was taken in the fourth round. The team obviously had no prediction that they would be losing Hernandez and with Rob Gronkowski coming back from an injury, Jake Ballard and Daniel Fells will have a chance to step up.
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Entering the summer the team thought that signing quarterback Tim Tebow would be the biggest story dominating the headlines, but after the shocking news about Hernandez, clearly that overtook the narrative. Now that things are purely focused on football, it remains to be seen how much and how he will be used on the field and there is a chance he may not even play on Friday night. Belichick likes Ryan Mallett as Brady's backup after spending the last couple years learning from him and Tebow is still new to the offense and he may want to give him some time to get more comfortable.
The defense needs to look improved as well in the preseason after going through some tough stretches last year and the Patriots need last year's draft picks Chandler Jones and Dont'a Hightower to continue developing at a fast pace. The Philadelphia Eagles will be the first opponent on the schedule for the 2013 campaign overall and the game comes after a joint practice with Chip Kelly and the team. The Eagles will have Michael Vick starting and Nick Foles is also expected to get a nice amount of time in the game as well.
The team plays week 2 at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Greg Schiano, another coach Belichick is close with, and that game will be broadcast live on Fox, while the following game will be an away matchup against the Detroit Lions. The team should be much improved after adding Reggie Bush to the offense and that should help Matthew Stafford rebound as well. The team finished the preseason with a rematch of the Super Bowl against the New York Giants on the 29th in Week 4 and then the team will open the regular season with the Buffalo Bills.
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