What’s next for the Patriots after losing top assistants to Colts and Lions head coach jobs?

The Patriots typically shed important players each February, even after their most successful seasons. The 2017 offseason saw stars like Martellus Bennett, Logan Ryan, and LeGarrette Blount depart after winning Super Bowl 51. Their Super Bowl 49 victory marked the end of Darrelle Revis, Vince Wilfork, and Akeem Ayers’ tenures with the team. Each year, the franchise has been able to bounce back despite the losses.

2018 will be different. This year’s divestment is set to include not only a handful of capable players, but the Patriots’ most important assistant coaches.

Super Bowl 52 will likely be the last game in red, white, and blue for offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia. McDaniels, whose first shot at an NFL head coaching gig ended disastrously in Denver, will take on a new challenge with Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. Patricia, who has been with New England since 2004, will step into the spotlight as the newest head coach of the Detroit Lions.

The two successful coordinators will have to fight history in order to prove Bill Belichick’s coaching tree can bear fruit. Patriot assistants have typically been unsuccessful after being promoted to lead their own franchises. Romeo Crennel, Charlie Weis, Eric Mangini, Bill O’Brien, and McDaniels have combined for a 98-152 record as head coaches — a win rate that doesn’t even hit 40 percent.

Each assistant comes with his own selling point as to why he’s different than his cohort of Belichick disciples, a group whose high point was probably Bill O’Brien’s 31-33 record in Houston. For McDaniels, it’s proving his personality — and not his capability — was what caused him to fail with the Broncos.

McDaniels was a brash 33-year-old when he left Massachusetts for the Rocky Mountains. His first order of business was to alienate rising quarterback Jay Cutler with an alleged trade offer that would have shipped him out of Denver in a three-way deal for Matt Cassel. That created an impasse between the two that led to Cutler eventually being dealt to Chicago before McDaniels’ first season could even begin. It ultimately strained his relationship with his management, his roster, and his fanbase.

It looked like he’d overcome that rocky introduction after beating the Pats and guiding his team to a 6-0 start, but his team collapsed to an 8-8 finish. A 3-10 start to his 2010 season — which included $100,000 in NFL fines for illegally taping the 49ers before a game in London — was all owner Pat Bowlen needed to see before firing his head coach. Two years after his ascension, McDaniels was a coordinator once more — at first with a bad Rams team, and from 2012-on with the Patriots.

But his fall from grace has been viewed as a humbling experience, and his decision to rebuild his value with the franchise that made him a hotshot coaching hire in the first place was the smartest decision he could make. While he’s still had moments where he’s clashed with his star quarterback, McDaniels has taken a more professional road in response.

Though absorbing abuse from Tom Brady may not be an exact indicator of maturity, it seems likely the 41-year-old has learned and grown from his mistakes.

The deck is stacked against Patriots assistants after their struggles as NFL head coaches, but Patricia has been staring down long odds throughout his football career. His road to the big leagues started at Division III Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, took a detour through the exciting world of aerospace engineering and centrifuge sales, then picked back up with an $8,000-per-year job at Amherst College. To go from a little-known school in western Massachusetts to a head coaching job in the NFL takes a tremendous amount of hard work, and any failures Patricia has in Detroit won’t be from a lack of effort.

In six seasons as New England’s defensive coordinator, his teams have never ranked outside the top 10 in points allowed. This season, his meticulous planning helped the Patriots recover from a disastrous 2-2 start in which the team gave up 32 points per game. Despite losing linebacker lynchpin Dont’a Hightower after only five games, Patricia engineered the league’s stingiest defense as he rallied to his third Super Bowl in four seasons.

He’ll have a couple of advantages over McDaniels when it comes to producing in 2018. He’s got the better roster with which to work — though a returning Andrew Luck could negate that edge — thanks to a Lions team that has produced winning records in three of the last four seasons. He also has NFL experience on both sides of the ball, having worked as the Patriots’ assistant offensive line coach early in his tenure with the team. Re-signing Ziggy Ansah could also give him the kind of singular pass-rushing presence he lacked in 2017 — with apologies to emerging star Trey Flowers.

The bigger question related to either coach’s success is whether they’ll try to implement the rigid methods that have been so important to New England’s dynasty. The “Patriot Way” appears to be as translatable to the pros as NCAA success, and its failure to catch on in Denver, New York, Chicago, and Cleveland have led to short, uneventful tenures for former Pats assistants. Maintaining certain elements like accountability and conditioning while losing the culture-shocking pieces that have alienated players and management in the past will be paramount to breaking the curse that’s followed Belichick products.

Finding top assistants has never been a problem for Belichick, who grooms coaches in his own image and often fills their roles when vacancies arise. The Patriots didn’t have an official offensive coordinator in 2005, 2009, and 2010 or an official defensive coordinator in 2000, 2009 and 2010.

The last time the franchise hired a coordinator from another team was McDaniels, who was rescued from St. Louis in 2011. No coordinator under Belichick has ever risen to the position without serving as a lesser assistant in Foxborough first. If New England is going to replace either McDaniels or Patricia in 2018, it will look to familiar faces.

Linebackers coach Brian Flores, a candidate for Arizona’s vacant head coaching position this January, seems the safe bet to replace Patricia. He came to the franchise the same year as the departing DC — 2004 — and has been a loyal soldier in the Belichick army in the 14 seasons since. The 36-year-old former safeties and special teams assistant has helped mold young players like Dont’a Hightower and Devin McCourty into stars and transformed buy-low acquisitions like Kyle Van Noy, Shea McClellin, and Patrick Chung into impact players.

McDaniels’ heir is much less apparent. The Pats’ list of offensive assistants includes running backs coach Ivan Fears, who has been with the team since 1999 without stepping into any of the team’s vacant OC positions, receivers coach Chad O’Shea, who has been with the team since 2009 without a shot at the top spot, and assistant QB coach Jerry Schuplinski, who may be a name to watch but is just six years removed from facing Carnegie Mellon and the University of Chicago as Case Western Reserve’s special teams coach.

There are some familiar faces who could return from other clubs, though Patricia has been busy snapping up many of them in Detroit. Former Patriots tight ends coach George Godsey spent two seasons as Houston’s offensive coordinator and is now the Lions’ quarterbacks coach. Jeff Davidson spent five mostly unimpressive seasons as a coordinator with the Browns and Panthers and was just hired to be Detroit’s offensive line coach.

Also, Charlie Weis is technically available, but also hasn’t coached since 2014 and has spent just one year in the NFL since 2004. He’s an extreme long shot to return to Foxborough, but his name recognition and history with the team bears mentioning.

History suggests 2018 will be a season where the Patriots eschew a designated offensive coordinator. Their record in years without an official OC is 34-14. That’s great, but the franchise failed to advance to the AFC title game in any of those years. Maybe it’s time for a promotion on the New England sideline.