Fair enough, but once teams saw Josh taking off against man and killing them and beating them deep accurately, everyone went deep shell and all that went away.
Plus Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley and John Brown are all gone. Tough guys to replace not that resigning just a half a dozen select players (Josh, etc) put you over the cap for the first time in 20 years.
The Pats are basically replaying the Bills script from 2020 on, cheap stars on rookie contracts allowing over priced but effective FA signings that the Bills can no longer afford (Diggs, etc). Together with playing a last place schedule, the Pats are the Bills circa 2018- 2019.