Patriots in the playoffs?

for the last few years the pats were my AFC team. this year im switching my AFC team to the titans. im trying not to be bias about my opinion about this since i am a cowboys fan. i strongly believe that the aging players on the pats defense along with the loss of asante samuel will expose that defense to the point where all these teams in the league that are going to the two-back running game are going to begin running all over them. a guy i work with says that even if tom brady had a season ending injury they would still make it into the playoffs. hes a bandwagon jumper though. trust me by the time i was done ridiculing him his face was as red as a niners jersey. so please tell me truthfully what your opinion is. pats fans be real about it and dont just throw a bunch rah rah rahs in there. pats haters give me some good info dont just dog on belichick and the whole spygate thing. thanks in advance.