Patriots’ Christian Gonzalez Explains Why Team Has Been Successful In 2025

The New England Patriots are legitimate Super Bowl contenders at 9-2 on the season, and everyone in the NFL is astounded that the Pats are already back in contention. The post-Tom Brady days were rough in New England for five or six years, and there was no clear evidence until recently that the Patriots would be a title threat anytime soon.

Well, head coach Mike Vrabel has completely turned around the franchise in less than a calendar year. The Patriots have won eight straight games, and Drake Maye is the front-runner for NFL MVP.

It’s been a collective effort in New England. Vrabel isn’t the only coach that deserves immense credit for the turnaround, just as Maye isn’t the only player.

The fact of the matter is that the culture in New England has shifted as compared with the last few years. The Patriot Way is back. Fans who reveled in the selfless, team-first mentality that defined the Brady-Belichick era are seeing that mindset mirrored with this 2025 iteration of the Pats.

The players feel it themselves, and everyone has bought in. Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez spoke about this recently, which served as a good summation of why the Pats’ culture is working … and leading to so many wins.

“We have energy,” Gonzalez said, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “Everybody’s bought in. Just coming into work every day, just pushing each other — we’re real tight, close-knit as a team, especially as a defense. Vrabes has done an amazing job. Just coming in from OTAs, he stood in here and told us what we were going to do — building a team, building connections, coming together. Him as a former player, a great player, he knows how to get people going. You could call it getting under our skin a little bit. He likes to talk. It’s fun. We love playing for him and will do whatever we have to do to go out and get wins.”

Gonzalez is a huge part of New England’s dominance. Although he missed the first three games of the season, Gonzo is playing at the same level or higher than he did in 2024, when he ended up making Second-team All-Pro.