Pats Pulpit
Can the new-look New England Patriots become the NFL’s next worst-to-first team? Here are three secret superstars who could help this actually happen.
In every NFL season, there’s at least one former bottom-dweller who rises to the top and gives the other bottom-dwellers hope. 2024’s leader in the “Why Not Us?” sweepstakes were the Washington Commanders, who rose from a 4-13 mark under Ron Rivera to a 12-5 regular-season mark, and a trip to the NFC Championship Game, under new head coach Dan Quinn. Pretty good for a franchise that has had more name changes (two) than playoff wins (one) in the new millennium.
Maybe the 2025 New England Patriots can become that team now. Matching 4-13 records in Bill Belichick’s final season, and Jerod Mayo’s only season as head coach don’t present a ton of encouragement, but no other NFL team did more to ostensibly improve its prospects in the offseason.
Mike Vrabel was a great culture hire as the new head coach, and he obviously understands the Patriot Way as it was once written during his time as linebacker and emergency red zone tight end from 2001 to 2008. General manager Eliot Wolf seems like a more than capable personnel man, and though rookie quarterback Drake Maye didn’t quite hit the heights that Washington’s Jayden Daniels did, Maye made a lot of plays in a broken offense to give hope for the future under offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, back for his third stint with the team in that role.
The real splashes were made for a defense that finished 30th in DVOA last season, as did the offense. The Patriots went all-out with smart money spent on all three levels. There was the four-year, $104 million contract with $63 million guaranteed given to former Philadelphia Eagles pass disruptor Milton Williams, and that deal could completely redefine this defense in several ways.
Then there was the three-year, $33 million deal with $20.6 million in guarantees given to former Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane, one of the more multi-faceted players at his position in the NFL today.
Finally, there was the three-year, $54 million contract with $34.5 million guaranteed for veteran cornerback Carlton Davis III, who — when healthy — is one of the NFL’s best press and man cover cornerbacks, which fits what the Patriots have done historically like the proverbial hand in glove.
The full list of free-agency acquisitions shows an organization prepared to throw the old ways out, and it’s all in with the new.
At the 2025 Scouting Combine, I spoke with Vrabel about the need to combine adherence to the league’s modern schematic changes with a more holistic approach to player development.
“I’m always going to believe that coaching is about connections and making relationships with players and holding them accountable and being honest and giving them things that are going to help them and being creative,” he told me. “I’ll never stray from that. We’re going to continue to always try to find ways to...
