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The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/Enterprise90 on 2025-07-16 15:27:49+00:00.
The 2025 New England Patriots
2024 Record: 4-13 (4th in AFC East)
A Recap
The New England Patriots have put out some bad, boring football over the last few seasons. You can have entertaining bad football. You can have good, but boring football. Bad, boring football isn’t good for the team or the viewer. I will confess, there were games last year I simply didn’t watch (mostly because life got in the way, but the Patriots weren’t good enough toward the end of the year for me to make the effort either).
In many ways, the Patriots have suffered from the bad drafting and personnel decisions of the Belichick era. The Patriots haven’t re-signed a first round draft pick since Dont’a Hightower, who was drafted in 2012.
In 2023, the Patriots averaged 13.8 points a game. Bill Belichick, the greatest of all time, had reached the end of his rope. But that book has been written. The Patriots had seemingly hit rock bottom.
Enter Jerod Mayo. A former Defensive Rookie of the Year, Mayo signed on as a linebackers coach in 2019 and was designated Belichick’s successor. Robert Kraft has long had a strong personal relationship with Mayo, and Mayo has been praised for his football intelligence and grounded personality. But the 2024 season showed a man out of his depth. Jerod Mayo was not ready to be a head coach. He lacked media training and gave conflicting answers. One prominent example was publicly stating Rhamondre Stevenson would lose his starting job following a series of fumbles, only for Stevenson to start the very next game. And it became clear the team lacked a cohesive vision. This was particularly troublesome now that the Patriots had drafted Drake Maye, who showed serious potential of being a long-term franchise quarterback in his rookie year. Mayo was dismissed shortly after the season finale.
Robert Kraft is an egotist, but he quickly recognized a mistake in Mayo’s hiring and made the right decision in response to a bad one, as personally uncomfortable as it must have been for him. Vrabel will be a real test for the Kraft family. At the end of the Belichick tenure, Kraft openly speculated whether he allowed Belichick too much freedom, and I think that is a valid criticism on some aspects of Belichick’s management (Belichick left the coaching cupboard empty, allowed too many lower-ranked coaches to leave without replacing them, didn’t do outside hires, and relied too often on his friends and coaching retreads like Matt Patricia and Joe Judge). Several Patriots beat reporters have said the Patriots were behind the times compared to the rest of the league in terms of coaching and scouting structure, mostly because Belichick was able to micromanage and handle the jobs of multiple people himself (probably to his detriment).
So far, as will be demonstrated through this post, Kraft has shown a willingness to trust Vrabel, spending money on free agency and allowing Vrabel to remake the front office’s image. General Eliot Wolf, elevated to executive vice president of player personnel (essentially the GM spot) remains in that role. There were questions as to what would happen with him after Vrabel brought in Ryan Cowden – a former TEN front office guy who spent 2023 and 2024 with the Giants – as vice president of player personnel. But the two sides have gelled, and Wolf has talked about how this year’s draft was a far smoother process thanks to Vrabel and Cowden’s collective vision.
Every Drake Maye touchdown from his rookie season
The Patriots stun the Bengals on the road in Week 1
Rhamondre Stevenson scores a go-ahead touchdown against the Jets
Pro Bowl Selections: Drake Maye, Brendan Schooler
AP All-Pro Selections: Christian Gonzalez (2nd Team), Brendan Schooler (1st Team)
Coaching Changes
Mike Vrabel: A former Patriot player, Vrabel was a member of the original dynasty that won three Super Bowls and earned himself an All-Pro selection in 2007. But what should be made abundantly clear is that Vrabel is not Bill Belichick, nor is he a Belichick disciple. I’m sure Vrabel has been influenced by his former coach, but as a coach himself, Vrabel has taken his own path, coaching at Ohio State and for the Houston Texans before being named Tennessee Titans head coach in 2018. Over six seasons, Vrabel earned a 54-45 record, two AFC South titles and an appearance in the AFC Championship game. But there was clear friction between Vrabel, the front office, and ownership, and Vrabel was sent packing.
It was clear from Vrabel’s introductory press conference that he has a vision for what the team should be. He has a culture in mind, and he has an idea of what players should fit that culture. Indeed, as you will read, the Patriots have said goodbye to nearly all the leadership remaining from the Belichick era. This is a new era.
Vrabel brings an intense mindset that becomes contagious among his players. He raises the floor. His Titan teams punched far above their weight, and I expect that to happen with the Patriots. However, his Titans tenure wasn’t perfect, and try as they may, coaches are typically dyed in the wool. Has Vrabel self-scouted enough to alter his habits and challenge himself to shore up his weaknesses?
Josh McDaniels: The enigma. McDaniels has been in the NFL for more than 20 years. He’s had two horrible, maligned head coaching stints in Denver and Las Vegas, but I think many recognize he’s a pretty good coordinator and play caller. He did his best with a past-his-prime Cam Newton, and he helped guide Mac Jones in his rookie season. Drake Maye is the most physically gifted quarterback McDaniels has had the opportunity to coach. But McDaniels still remains in the shadow of Tom Brady, who wasn’t the most physically gifted quarterback, but had a genius-level football intellect and a raging competitive spirit.
McDaniels is adaptable as a coordinator. In shotgun, you’ll most commonly see 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three wide receivers). But McDaniels also loves putting a fullback on the field and going with 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end) or 22 personnel (two backs, two tight ends). McDaniels has also historically favored gap-blocking and man-blocking running schemes, which is a contrast to the league-wide shift toward zone-blocking.
McDaniels is also known for using the Erhardt-Perkins offense, a complicated passing system that can be difficult to master, but efficient and varied in its results. The typical EP play call requires the quarterback and the wide receiver to read the defense correctly; meaning, the quarterback and receiver must each recognize the defender’s leverage pre-snap and post-snap. The receiver must run the correct route, and the quarterback must throw to the correct area. For example, if the defender is tipping outside leverage, that means the receiver must run an inside route, and the quarterback must throw the ball to the receiver breaking inside.
Will McDaniels simplify the offense? Tom Brady mastered it. The receivers who found success with the Patriots (Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Julian Edelman) also mastered it. But if the quarterback and receiver aren’t on the same page, it could mean the ball is thrown into empty space. Not ideal. Receivers who were unable to get a hold of the playbook found themselves frozen out of the offense.
But at full power, the offense can be dangerous. One-word play calls tell everyone their responsibilities, and an additional word can flip the offense and have routes that were run on one side of the field one play flipped to the other side of the field the next, with different receivers.
I expect McDaniels to bring back designed quarterback runs. Maye has been compared to Josh Allen, but he’s about 15 pounds lighter and not as bulky. Still, he is mobile and showed his speed and willingness to run last year. McDaniels also used designed quarterback runs to great effect when coaching Cam Newton in 2020. I don’t expect Maye to run the ball anywhere near the number of times Newton or Allen have, but I do want his mobility exploited, as he is a big, fast guy and a threat to score.
Terrell Williams: The Lions suffered the attrition of success this offseason, as they lost OC Ben Johnson to the Bears and DC Aaron Glenn to the Jets. But they also lost a potential Glenn successor in Williams, who will be calling defensive plays for the first time in his career. But the pairing is obvious as Williams was on Vrabel’s Titans staff for his entire six-year tenure as defensive line coach. Williams has been dealing with unspecified health problems that have kept him away from coaching in-person, but he has continued to hold meetings with the team virtually. Inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr, another coach from Vrabel’s Titans days, is currently interim defensive coordinator and will likely be the play caller if Williams’ health issues persist into the season.
Vrabel has also had other coaches from his Titans staff join him, including RB coach Tony Dews, assistant offensive line coach Jason Houghtaling, and cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton. Former Bills and Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone is …
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