The Patriots’ new head coach wants to get the organization back on track.
Officially, the New England Patriots’ season finale against the Buffalo Bills was played in front of a sellout crowd of 64,626. A look around Gillette Stadium during the eventual 23-16 Patriots victory, however, showed that the announced number was not an accurate reflection of the interest in the team that day.
By the end of the 2024 season, after all, the Patriots had become something of an afterthought. They were on their way to going 4-13 for a second straight year, and found a way to dominate headlines for all the wrong reasons on a regular basis.
As a result of the team’s ineptitude both on and off the field, head coach Jerod Mayo was fired within two hours of that final game against Buffalo. After getting promoted in hopes of reenergizing a franchise that had seemingly lost its mojo during the final two years of the Bill Belichick era, Mayo was shown the door less than a year on the job.
For the Patriots, it was rock bottom.
For their new head coach, it is an opportunity — an opportunity to rebuild the organizational culture.
“You can find out what your culture looks like when your family, your business, or your team is at its low point,” said recently-hired Mike Vrabel during his introductory press conference on Monday.
“It’s not when you’re winning Super Bowls. It’s not when you’re 7-1 or 10-1, then everybody’s waving towels and everybody’s happy and they’re excited to come to work. But when you get hit in the mouth or you’re down or the chips are against you, then you can take a snapshot of what your company or your team looks like, and then you’ll find out what kind of culture you have.”
Vrabel, a former Patriots linebacker under Belichick, built a reputation as a tone-setter during his six-year stint as head coach of the Tennessee Titans. While he left Tennessee after the 2023 season, his leadership skills on top of his history with the franchise is what drew the organization to bring him back into the fold less than a week after firing Mayo.
For Vrabel, the goal as Patriots head coach is clear: he wants to return the team to its winning ways, and give a fanbase that had grown accustomed to winning over the first two decades of the 21st century something to feel proud of again.
“I want to galvanize our football team. I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans,” he said.
How quickly Vrabel will be able to do that remains to be seen. Just like last year, after all, the Patriots are still trying to find themselves in the post-Belichick era. And while they do have some foundational pieces in place, the rebuild is still very much ongoing.
Vrabel borrowing from his predecessor and preaching patience to the fans would therefore not have been surprising. However, he has no...