NFL Notebook: 2025 New England Patriots Preview

Sports Scribe Blog

Last year was supposed to be the start of a new era in Foxboro, with the combination of a first-year head coach in Jerod Mayo and a rookie quarterback in Drake Maye. The 4-13 record wasn’t all that surprising, but clearly something didn’t connect with Mayo, because a front office known for stability pulled the plug on him quickly and brought in Mike Vrabel. So, this year will amount to a reset of the “new era.”

DEFENSIVE STRENGTH

Any success the Patriots have will start with defense and that will begin in the secondary. Carlton Davis and Christian Gonzalez give them a pair of exceptional corners and Jabrill Peppers is one of the game’s best free safeties. Vrabel, a former linebacker here under Bill Belichick, routinely turned out solid defenses as a head coach in Tennessee. This secondary will give him room to turn his front seven loose on the quarterback.

That front seven isn’t great, but it’s respectable. Milton Williams is tough up front and inside linebackers Christian Elliss and Robert Spilane give New England a nice defensive interior. The Pats also acquired outside linebacker Harold Landry.

The ideal formula for New England would be corners locking receivers down in single coverage, Landry coming after the quarterback and Peppers roaming to make big plays. That’s a doable formula and it will immediately vault the Patriots to the land of the respectable.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF DRAKE MAYE

Whether they get beyond that depends on the offense. Maye made decent progress in his rookie year. His 67% completion rate was pretty good. He had predictable problems with making mistakes that experience should start to gradually smooth over. The issue is whether he can get the ball down the field—his 6.7 yards-per-attempt only ranked 27^th among starting QBs.

To that end, New England signed Stefon Diggs, who missed the second half of last season with a torn ACL. If Diggs can get healthy, Maye will have someone who can stretch the field. And tight end Hunter Henry works underneath as well as anyone. The Patriots also sought to upgrade their running game by drafting Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson, who will join Rhamondre Stevenson in what could be a good 1-2 punch in the backfield.

OFFENSIVE LINE PROBLEMS

Ultimately though, you can’t run the ball, and you can’t throw it downfield without good work from the offensive line. The Patriots were atrocious up front a year ago. They made it the priority in the draft, using the fourth overall pick to take left tackle Will Campbell from LSU. They also made veteran additions, center Garrett Bradbury and right tackle Morgan Moses.

The problem is that Bradbury was a below average center in Minnesota and Moses’ best days are long behind him. Even if Campbell makes an immediate impact, the offensive line is going to be a year-long problem in Foxboro.

SEASON OUTLOOK

I considered myself reasonably optimistic about the Patriots, believing that the hiring of Vrabel and the additions discussed here, would vault them to respectability, which I would define as winning 7-plus games—where you’re at least watchable, something that this team was not a year ago. That would put New England in position to make a natural progression to the playoffs in 2026.

That’s still how I feel, but looking at what expectations are for this team, I can no longer classify that as “optimistic.” Betting markets are surging with expectations for Vrabel’s first year and the Over/Under win total is set at 8.5—essentially a referendum on whether they’ll have a winning season. While getting to nine wins isn’t beyond the realm of possibility, I think those expectations are a year ahead of themselves.