The New England Patriots are perhaps the NFL franchise most ill-fitting for the role of endearing underdogs, which puts their run to the Super Bowl in conflicting context.
The Patriots hold the record — by a good margin — for most all-time Super Bowl appearances, now heading to their 12th (four more than any other NFL franchise). They are tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for most Super Bowl wins all-time at six.
Most of that history — and all six championships — came in the last 25 seasons, as the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady Pats became the antithesis of any sort of beloved “America’s team” fondness. Be it Spygate, Deflategate, Belichick’s boorish curmudgeon persona or just the sheer relentlessness of the success, football fans outside of New England largely grew exhausted by seeing the Patriots perennially in the spotlight.
So it will surely be hard for many longtime football fans to compartmentalize all of that now and see these Mike Vrabel/Drake Maye Patriots as the fresh, compelling narrative they actually are heading into their Super Bowl LX showdown with the Seattle Seahawks next Sunday.
But with most any other logo and colors attached, this team would absolutely be the one casual football fans attached to this week.
The NFL is set up for quick turnarounds, so the Patriots going from back-to-back 4-13 seasons (and three straight losing seasons overall) to 14-3 and in the Super Bowl the next year is not unprecedented in any way.
In fact, it’s the fifth time in the last decade that a team immediately followed a losing season with a Super Bowl appearance.
The 2021 Cincinnati Bengals (from 4-11-1 to 10-7 and the Super Bowl) and the 2019 San Francisco 49ers (from 4-12 to 13-3 and the Super Bowl) are the best comparisons. (The others in that span would be the 2017 Philadelphia Eagles, from 7-9 to 13-3, and the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, from 7-9 to 11-5, and the Super Bowl).
That doesn’t quite tell the story, though.
New England opened the season with 80-1 odds to win the Super Bowl, per BetMGM, trailed only by the Indianapolis Colts, Las Vegas Raiders, Carolina Panthers, New York Giants, New York Jets, Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints.
If the Patriots win the Super Bowl, they would be the second-biggest preseason underdog to ever do so behind the 1999 “Greatest Show on Turf” St. Louis Rams (150-1 odds). Next on the list presently are the 2001 Patriots (60-1 before going on to win their first Super Bowl title), the 1981 49ers (50-1) and the 2017 Eagles (40-1).
Maybe that puts it into better context.
Which raises the compelling question of how did these Patriots manage to get to this point?
How Patriots Built a Super Bowl Contender (Anew)
The recipe for success in the NFL is no secret — hire the right coach and find an elite quarterback.
So we could perhaps keep this simple and to the point and leave it at that.
It’s not revisionist history to say that many thought the Tennessee Titans were making a catastrophic mistake in firing head coach Mike Vrabel after the 2023 season.
Yes, he was coming off two straight losing seasons of 7-10 and 6-11, but that came during a time when QB Ryan Tannehill dealt with multiple ankle injuries and resulting ineffectiveness and young QBs Malik Willis and Will Levis proved unsuccessful or up to the task.
But before that, Vrabel had led the Titans to four straight winning seasons and three straight playoff appearances, including an AFC championship game, and won an NFL Coach of the Year award during his time there.
After taking a break in 2024 and serving as a consultant on the Cleveland Browns’ staff, he was highly coveted for open jobs last offseason and was, of course, a natural fit in New England, where he won three Super Bowls as a player and was already in the team’s Hall of Fame.
So, after a major miss on one-and-done first-time head coach Jerod Mayo in 2024, the Patriots struck gold on one of the two most important components of building a winner.
Enter Drake Maye At QB
Meanwhile, leave it to the Pats’ good fortune that the first time they drafted in the top 5 overall during the last 30 years (and just their fourth top-10 pick in that span) turned out to be one of the best QB draft classes in recent memory with four true stars at the position having already emerged from it.
New England snagged North Carolina standout Drake Maye at No. 3, and he showed flashes of great potential as a rookie despite putting up modest numbers overall on a bad team with 2,276 passing yards, 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, plus 421 yards and 2 TDs rushing.
Along with hiring Vrabel, the Patriots brought back offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for his third stint with the franchise.
It’s hard not to give McDaniels a ton of credit for the leap Maye took in his second season, where he is now a top MVP candidate after leading the NFL in completion percentage (72%), passer rating (113.5) and QBR (77.1) while throwing for 4,394 yards, 31 TDs and 8 INTs and rushing for 450 yards and 4 TDs. His 4,844 yards of total offense also led the NFL during the regular season.
So the Patriots nailed the head coach hire, brought home one of the most accomplished offensive coordinators in the league and hit on a top-3 draft pick to find the ever-elusive piece to any team’s puzzle — a true star quarterback.
That’s the foundation of this Super Bowl team, certainly.
But to go from back-to-back 4-13 seasons to 14-3, AFC East champions and the Super Bowl requires even more.
The Patriots had an excellent top of the 2025 NFL Draft and were one of the most aggressive teams in free agency to rebuild the weakest areas of their roster.
Per ESPN, the Patriots’ $209 million in guaranteed money to free agents in 2025 was the most of any team in the league — and it’s clearly paid off.
How The Patriots Rebuilt Their Offense
While they had the most important piece in place in Maye, the Patriots knew they had to overhaul their offense last offseason after ranking 31st out of 32 teams in 2024 in averaging 291.9 yards per game and 30th in scoring at 17 points per game.
New England had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL, had no true No. 1 WR and one of the least dynamic rushing attacks in the league.
To address those weaknesses, the Patriots brought in seven impact offensive additions through the draft and free agency that reshaped the unit.
Starting up front, the Pats changed out four starters in remaking their offensive line.
They used the No. 4 overall draft pick on LSU left tackle Will Campbell, used a third-round pick on new starting left guard Jared Wilson (from Georgia), signed free agent center Garrett Bradbury (a former first-round pick and veteran Vikings starter) to a two-year, $12-million contract and signed experienced right tackle Morgan Moses (with 158 career starts for the Commanders, Ravens and Jets) to a three-year, $24-million deal.
PFF ranked the Patriots’ offensive line the 11th-best in the league this season, while noting the unit improved from 31st to 7th in its pass-blocking efficiency metric from last season.
For what it’s worth, Maye was still among the most sacked QBs in the NFL with 47 in the regular season and 15 more in three postseason games, but at least some part of that is his style and looking to extend plays with his mobility.
It’s hard to dispute the upgrade up front overall, though.
The Patriots had the sixth-best rushing offense in the league at 128.9 yards per game, while veteran running back Rhamondre Stevenson was rejuvenated. After averaging a career-worst 3.9 yards per carry in 2024 and managing just 2 runs of at least 20 yards despite getting the bulk of the carries, Stevenson surged back to 4.6 YPC with 7 runs of 20-plus yards (tied for 9th-most in the league).
To upgrade the overall speed and big-play potential of the backfield, meanwhile, the Patriots used a high second-round pick (No. 38 overall) on Ohio State RB TreVeyon Henderson. After a slow start, Henderson broke out in a big way, finishing the regular season with 911 rushing yards and 9 TDs on 5.1 YPC, plus 35 receptions for 221 yards and a TD.
All told, the Patriots went from just 9 rushing plays of at least 20 yards last season (including 3 from Maye) to 16 this season, ranking 4th.
The most dramatic change of all, though, came in the passing attack.
New England Invested To Improve Passing Game
After ranking dead-last in the NFL in passing offense in 2024 (176.1 YPG), the Patriots finished 4th this season at 250.5 YPG while Maye emerged as one of the best deep-shot passers in the NFL.
What changed? Beyond the upgrades in pass protection and bringing in McDaniels to call the plays and coach Maye, the Patriots addressed their glaring need for a star receiver by gambling a three-year, $63.5-million contract on well-traveled veteran free agent Stefon Diggs.
Diggs was a star for the Vikings and Bills with six-straight 1,000-yard seasons, but it seemed like both sides were good with parting ways when Buffalo traded him to the Texans before last season. A torn ACL last October ended his time there, but New England took a chance that he could bounce back despite turning 32 years old this season.
Indeed, he did. Diggs delivered enough of his old self to give the Pats what they needed, leading the team with 85 catches for 1,013 yards and 4 TDs.
While tight end Hunter Henry (60-768-7) and wide receivers Kayshon Boutte (33-551-6) and DeMario Douglas (31-447-3) maintained significant roles as well, the Patriots also hit on a bargain free agent pickup (2 years, $8.4 million) in journeyman WR Mack Hollins (46-550-2), who is playing for his fifth team in five years and sixth overall. Hollins accounted for 51 of Maye’s 86 passing yards in the blizzard-ridden AFC championship win in Denver.
It’s also worth noting the Patriots used a sixth-round draft pick last spring to make Andres Borregales the first kicker selected, and he went 27 of 32 on field goals (4 for 4 from 50 yards and beyond) during the season and is 4 of 6 on FGs in the playoffs.
All told, those shrewd moves helped New England go from a bottom-of-the-league offense to one of the best in 2025, ranking 2nd in scoring (28.8 PPG) and 3rd in yards per game (379.4).
That’s about as dramatic a one-year turnaround as it gets.
How The Patriots Rebuilt Their Defense
Believe it or not, the Patriots’ makeover on defense might have been even more extreme, though.
New England had a middling defense last season, ranking 22nd in allowing 24.5 PPG and 333.4 YPG. With Vrabel, these 2025 Patriots finished the regular season 4th in giving up just 18.8 PPG and 8th in total defense at 295.2 YPG.
Again, the drastic year-over-year improvement can be tracked back to an aggressive offseason.
Four of New England’s top six tacklers and eight of its top 13 are new to the team this season. It’s top four sack producers were new additions. Overall, nine defensive starters or key rotation players were brought in since Vrabel took over.
That’s substantial.
Most of those impact additions came in the front-7.
Free agent defensive tackle Milton Williams, a key cog up front for the Eagles last year who had 2 sacks and recovered a strip-sack fumble in their Super Bowl win over the Chiefs, signed a 4-year, $104-million contract that made him the highest-paid Patriot ever in terms of average annual salary.
He’s been a tone-setter up front alongside holdover DT Christian Barmore (29 tackles, 2 sacks, 4 tackles for loss and 50 pressures, per PFF) with 29 tackles, 8 TFLs, 3.5 sacks and 36 pressures while commanding double-teams from opposing offensive lines with his relentless pressure.
Williams had 2 sacks in the wildcard round vs. the Chargers and a team-high 4 pressures in the AFC championship win over the Broncos.
Meanwhile, Harold Landry III (who played for Vrabel in Tennessee and came to New England on a 3-year, $43.5-million contract) and K’Lavon Chaisson (on a bargain 1-year, $3-million deal) combined for 16 sacks, 20 TFLs and 3 forced fumbles to lead the pass rush with Chaisson adding 3 more sacks and a FF in the playoffs. Undrafted free agent Elijah Ponder (out of Cal Poly) has seen his role grow in recent months and finished third on the team with 4 sacks as a rookie.
In the middle of the defense, free agent LBs Robert Spillane (3 years, $33 million) and Jack Gibbens (who played for Vrable in Tennessee and came over for 1 year and $1.3 million) have been instrumental, along with holdover Christian Elliss (94 tackles).
Spillane, who is officially questionable for the Super Bowl with an ankle injury, finished the regular season with a team-high 97 tackles, 4 TFLs, a sack, 2 INTs, 5 passes defended and a FF. Gibbens ranked third on the team with 81 tackles to go with 8 TFLs, a sack, a FF and 4 PDs.
Secondary Gets An Upgrade
New England already had some strong pieces in place in the secondary with star cornerback Christian Gonzalez (69 tackles, 10 PBUs during the season; game-sealing INT in AFC championship), nickel Marcus Jones (65 tackles, team-high 11 PDs, 3 INTs, 8 TFLs, 2 sacks during season; sack and forced fumble vs. the Chargers in wildcard round and pick-6 vs. Texans in divisional round) and safety Jaylinn Hawkins (71 tackles, team-high 4 INTs and 6 PDs).
But that didn’t stop the Patriots from spending big there either.
Cornerback Carlton Davis III got a three-year, $54-million contract to come over from the Lions. After a productive season (69 tackles, 10 PDs), he had 2 INTs and 4 PDs in the playoff win over the Texans.
And it sure looks like New England hit on rookie safety Craig Woodson, a fourth-round pick in the 2025 draft who had 79 tackles and 3 PDs during the season and leads the Patriots in the playoffs with 20 tackles in three games along with 4 PDs, an INT and a fumble recovery.
All the while, the Patriots have had a tough situation playing out behind the scenes as defensive coordinator Terrell Williams was diagnosed with prostate cancer after the first game. It was just announced this week that he has been declared cancer free and traveled with the team to the Super Bowl. Linebackers coach Zak Kuhr filled in as the defensive play-caller this season.
Patriots’ Path To The Super Bowl
So that’s how the Patriots built a Super Bowl contender in one offseason. Quickly, let’s also break down how they put it all together on the field to be one of two teams left standing.
Believe it or not, New England was one of just three teams to lose to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders. Incredibly, that’s how this Super Bowl run started, with a 20-13 Week 1 loss at home.
If the Patriots were 80-1 underdogs to win the Super Bowl before the season, the first game did nothing to inspire more confidence. After a win at Miami and a loss to Pittsburgh, they were 1-2, giving no indication what was about come.
What followed was 13 wins in the next 14 games with the lone loss coming 35-31 to the Buffalo Bills in a game New England led 24-7 at halftime.
The Patriots, who had won the first meeting with the Bills, closed out their first AFC East title since Tom Brady’s last season with the team in 2019.
We’ve belabored this point in previous columns so we won’t rehash it all again here, but it is fair to say the Pats had a favorable schedule while facing an unusual number of backup or soon-to-be-benched quarterbacks.
But they handled business week after week, and that has continued into the playoffs with a 16-3 win over the Chargers led by 6 sacks of QB Justin Herbert, a 28-16 win over the Texans driven by 5 defensive turnovers (including 4 first-half INTs of C.J. Stroud) and then the 10-7 slugfest in the AFC championship game in Denver with the Broncos playing backup QB Jarrett Stidham and a blizzard taking over the fourth quarter.
Between hitting on such a high percentage of free agent pickups and draft picks to the way the schedule unfolded and timing it all with Maye’s star-turning second-year breakout, it’s fair to say it has been a fortuitous year for the Patriots.
But that said, it hardly feels like a fluke. NFL fans may want to accept the reality now that New England sure looks to be opening another long Super Bowl window with yet another elite coach/QB combo.
