Mike Vrabel’s three-part grading system didn’t leave much room for optimism after the Patriots’ 37-13 loss to the Browns on Thursday night. There was some good, a lot of bad, and a whole lot of the kind of stuff that gets you beat.
Start with the positives, because there weren’t many. Kyle Williams found the end zone for the third time in three preseason games, Namdi Obiazor made his presence felt on both defense and special teams, and the kicking operation held up. Most important of all, New England came away without any major injuries.
The one moment that briefly tightened things up came in the second quarter, when left tackle James Hudson got shaken up. Hudson, starting in place of usual backup Marcus Bryant, eventually returned and played 37 of 59 snaps. Whether he ends up in the 53-man roster picture by Sunday evening remains to be seen, but the bigger takeaway for the Patriots is that this was a cleaner night health-wise than the first two weeks of the preseason, when they lost Ben Brown and Andrew Rupcich against the Colts and then Bryant against the Eagles.
The biggest problem showed up in the situations that decide games. On offense, New England went just 4-for-12 on third down and 1-for-2 on fourth down, with one failed fourth-down try turning into a Behren Morton interception that Cleveland returned 36 yards to the Patriots’ 12-yard line. The red zone was empty too, as the offense finished 0-for-2.
The defense didn’t hold up in those same moments. Cleveland converted 8 of 13 third downs, went 4-for-6 in the red area, and was a flawless 3-for-3 in goal-to-go chances. That’s the kind of efficiency that tilts a game fast, and it did.
And then there was the bigger picture: the lack of juice. Vrabel came to New England in January 2025 with a reputation for building culture, and he has already helped steady a team that had gone 4-13 in back-to-back seasons.
But Thursday night didn’t look like a team with much life. The Patriots were outclassed from start to finish.
Of course, this wasn’t the group that will line up against the reigning world champion Seahawks in just under two weeks. None of the true core Patriots were on the field, and even some depth players who struggled - Charles Woods and Kindle Vildor among them - should get something out of the experience.
Still, for one night, that didn’t soften the blow. For those 60 minutes, New England wasn’t good enough.
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Patriots Roster Battles Suddenly Feel Bigger After Flat Preseason Finish
The Patriots closed out their 2026 preseason with a 37-13 loss to the Browns, a game that mostly featured backups and rookies with many of New Englands starters sitting out. Cleveland put 27 points on the board in the first half, leaving the Patriots to spend one last August night sorting through depth-chart questions rather than building much momentum.
Kyle Williams at least kept giving the staff something to think about, with the second-year wide receiver finding the end zone in each of the teams three preseason games. Even in a preseason finale that turned flat quickly, performances like that tend to linger as the roster decisions tighten, especially for players trying to turn late-summer production into a real role once the games count. [Read more 🡒]