The 2000 season was the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

' 31st in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the majo ...

(NFL) and their 41st overall. They finished with a 5–11 record and in last place in the division. It would be the first season the franchise would have with quarterback

Tom Brady Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. (born August 3, 1977) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He spent his first 20 seasons with the New England Patriots organization, with which ...

. However, he would not get the starting position until next season. This would also be the only season in Brady's career that he was on a team with a losing record. Following the firing of three-year head coach

Pete Carroll Peter Clay Carroll (born September 15, 1951) is an American football coach who is the head coach and executive vice president for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). He was previously the head football coach at USC from ...

in January, Patriots owner Bob Kraft pursued Jets assistant head coach

Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patri ...

for the Patriots' head coaching vacancy. Belichick, who had been an assistant coach under

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

with the Patriots in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

, followed Parcells to the Jets after that season and was contractually named Parcells' successor. A day after the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

season, Parcells resigned as head coach of the Jets and made his second retirement from NFL coaching.Take That! (p. 2)
Football Digest. Accessed December 16, 2007. Belichick, who had been assistant head coach of the Jets, became the Jets' next head coach. The following day, at a press conference for his hiring, Belichick wrote a resignation note on a sheet of loose-leaf paper ("I resign as HC of the NYJ."), and proceeded to give a half-hour resignation speech to the press. Despite rumors that he had been offered the Patriots' vacant head coaching position, Belichick cited the Jets' uncertain ownership situation following the death of owner

Leon Hess Leon Hess (March 14, 1914 – May 7, 1999) was an American businessman, the founder of the Hess Corporation and the owner of the New York Jets. Hess built an oil terminal in New Jersey after the Great Depression, building his first refinery i ...

earlier that year as the reason for his resignation.Take That! (p. 3)
Football Digest. Accessed December 16, 2007. The Jets denied Belichick permission to speak with other teams, and as had happened in 1997 with Parcells, the NFL upheld Belichick's contractual obligations to the Jets. Belichick then filed an

antitrust Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

lawsuit against the NFL in federal court. After Parcells and Kraft, talking for the first time since Parcells' resignation from the Patriots, agreed to settle their differences, the Patriots and Jets agreed to a compensation package to allow Belichick to become the Patriots' head coach. With the deal, the Patriots sent their first-round pick in the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Thea ...

and fourth and seventh-round picks in the

2001 NFL Draft The 2001 NFL Draft was the 66th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible professional football players. The draft, which is officially referred to as the "NFL Player Selection Meeting," was held at the ...

to the Jets, while also receiving the Jets' fifth-round selection in 2001 and seventh-round pick in the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

. Belichick restructured the team's personnel department in the offseason, and later proclaimed that the team "could not win with 40 good players while the other team has 53," after a number of players showed up out of shape for the start of training camp. The Patriots went on to finish the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

5–11, finishing last in the

AFC East The American Football Conference – Eastern Division or AFC East is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). There are currently four teams that reside in the division: the Buf ...

and missing the playoffs for the second straight season. This would be the last time the team finished with a losing record until the 2020 season. Beginning with this year, Tom Brady would spend 20 years as a Patriot until becoming a Buccaneer in

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

. Coincidentally, the Buccaneers beat the Patriots, 21–16, at Foxboro Stadium in their season opener.

Offseason

2000 NFL Draft

Staff

Opening training camp roster

As of the Patriots' first training camp practice at

Foxboro Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England ...

on July 17 (practices at

Bryant College Bryant University is a private university in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It has two colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business, and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. History Butler Exc ...

started on July 23), they had the NFL maximum of 80 players signed to their roster. The Patriots received four roster exemptions for the

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally ...

allocations of

Garrett Johnson Garrett W. Johnson (born May 24, 1984) is an American entrepreneur and award-winning shot putter. Johnson won the 2006 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Shot Put Championship, and was also named a Rhodes Scholar in 2006 on behalf of the United States. He ...

Marc Megna Marc Megna (born July 30, 1976) is a former professional American and Canadian football linebacker and defensive end in the National Football League (NFL), NFL Europe League and Canadian Football League (CFL). In his seven-year pro career he pl ...

, Sean Morey, and Noel Scarlett. Additionally, the Patriots allocated tackle

Ed Ellis Edward Key Ellis (born October 13, 1975 in Hamden, Connecticut) is a former American football offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the New England Patriots, the Washington Redskins, the San Diego Chargers, and the New Y ...

to NFL Europe and received a roster exemption for him, but he was released before the start of training camp.

Week 1 roster

Final roster

Schedule

Preseason

Regular season

Standings

Notes

References

External links

Season page on Pro Football Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:2000 New England Patriots Season

New England Patriots seasons

21st century in Foxborough, Massachusetts