Mac Jones was a revelation for Bill Belichick's squad in 202. The rookie quarterback took a team that appeared to be in rebuilding mode to the playoffs. He started all 18 regular and postseason games, averaging more than 220 yards passing per game and throwing for a combined 24 touchdown passes. What makes Jones' success as a rookie all that much more impressive was that his receiving corps was among the league's least exciting. The addition of DeVante Parker from the Dolphins helps, but the group as a whole doesn't turn any h eads. The Patriots will once again be a team built on a strong rushing attack and will try to improve their time of possession rank from 14th last season. New England is built to win low-scoring, grind-it-out affairs, not shootouts.
The Patriots are one of a handful of teams who open with consecutive road games and in total, four of their first six 2022 matchups are on the road. The schedule gets extremely generous in Week Five with winnable home games against Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, and the Jets in the following seven weeks. Unfortunately five of the final six games are against 2021 playoff teams, with the lone exception being a Miami team that looks much stronger. New England will have to remain relatively injury-free to have success against the meat of their schedule down the stretch.
- More NFL futures:'SportsLine Projection Model's best bets
Below, you'll find the New England Patriots 2022 schedule, win total and more futures odds from Caesars Sportsbook, followed by picks from top SportsLine NFL analysts Larry Hartstein and R.J. White.
Entering the 2022 NFL season, Larry is 427-344 all-time on NFL sides (plus $3,764 for $100 players), including 394-330 ATS. He went 68-50 ATS (58 percent) and 8-3 on moneyline plays last season for a profit of $1,552. Over the past seven years, R.J.'s SuperContest picks are 329-250-21 (56.8 percent) and he consistently crushes the NFL: He went 445-378-24 on ATS picks from 2017-21, returning $2,542 to $100 players as SportsLine's No. 1 NFL expert in against the spread picks.