Mike ReissDec 1, 2025, 06:00 AM ETCloseMike Reiss is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the New England Patriots. Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009. In 2019, he was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association.Follow on X
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Roughly 11 months ago, after a second straight season in which the New England Patriots were one of the NFL’s worst teams, owner Robert Kraft touted what he believed would spark a turnaround.
On the day Kraft introduced Mike Vrabel, 50, as the 16th head coach in franchise history, Kraft complimented his playing and coaching experience and shared how Vrabel detailed to him a “clear and focused strategy to get us back to a championship way.”
“I want to galvanize our football team. I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans,” he said Jan. 13.
The 10-2 Patriots enter Monday’s game against the visiting New York Giants (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) tied for the best record in the AFC with the Denver Broncos and riding an NFL-best nine-game win streak. New England has done it with shrewd free agent signings and a productive draft class, focusing on team chemistry, having one of the NFL’s more favorable schedules and, of course, quarterback Drake Maye’s ascension to MVP candidate in his second season.
“I came here because of Drake,” Vrabel said on the Amazon Prime postgame show Nov. 13. “I knew what he would be. That’s who I wanted to coach.”
Vrabel used free agency and the NFL draft to build around the franchise quarterback, who is completing 71% of his passes, with 21 touchdowns and 6 interceptions while adding 307 rushing yards and 2 rushing scores. Maye is second behind only Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in MVP odds, according to DraftKings.
“His ownership and command of the line of scrimmage has dominated the season,” ESPN NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky said. “His pocket movement and presence/feel has become one of the best in the NFL.”
Stiffer challenges await should the Patriots continue their momentum into the playoffs, but to this point, they are one of the NFL’s most surprising teams.
“When we went through this process in the offseason, we were just trying to get the right people in the building at the right time. Talent obviously wins, but character and who you are is important in building a football team.”
WHEN CORNERBACK CARLTON Davis III arrived for a team meeting around the start of training camp in late July, he recalled one of Vrabel’s requests to players as outside the norm.
“That kind of alleviated all of the tension that may come into a football building,” he said. “He came off being a cool guy, personable, players coach. Everybody kind of bought into it, and we kind of created this quick brotherhood and this bond between each other, where we want to play for each other. But we also want to play for him.”
“He wanted everyone to be comfortable because you get the best out of everybody when they are not all tensed up and scared to make a mistake, on edge. I guess everybody kind of felt him in that moment. He’s the same way. It’s not like he’s saying something he’s not doing. He comes in and cracks jokes. He’s always on point on what’s going on.”
“At the moment, I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ But through that, you saw guys come together and create camaraderie,” said Davis, who spent the first six years of his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and last year with the Detroit Lions.
That was on display after a last-minute win in Cincinnati during Week 12, when the players gathered in the locker room and held up a phone to FaceTime with veteran linebacker Jahlani Tavai, who missed the game because of undisclosed personal reasons. They dedicated the win to Tavai, who didn’t return to the team until this past Friday.
Kraft said in a recent radio interview that togetherness has been a driving force for the team in a league driven by parity.
“I was talking with Coach and just saying how you have to try to find the little things that give us a competitive advantage. It’s interpersonal things, and relationship things because we all [are under the same salary cap],” he said.
Tight ends coach/passing-game coordinator Thomas Brown, who won a Super Bowl as a member of Sean McVay’s Rams staff (2020-22) and was interim head coach of the Carolina Panthers (2023) and Chicago Bears (2024) before joining the Patriots this season, has noted Vrabel’s tone-setting in another way.
“When you have a consistent message, and lead people and treat people the right way, you have an opportunity to set the expectation and standard from Day 1,” Brown said. “What you want to have eventually as a coach is that your message echoes throughout the locker room and then your players communicate the same thing you want to emphasize — the team. They take ownership of it.
“When your players have the opportunity to control the locker room and take charge, and create an environment of positive peer pressure, then you have an opportunity to be special.”
WHEN PLAYERS ENTERED the locker room a few weeks ago, they each had a gift from Vrabel draped over the chairs in front of their stalls. It was a customized blue “mechanic” work shirt with a patch on the left chest that included their name or nickname.
The shirts, in some ways, mirror the type of blue-collar, no-frills players Vrabel had the personnel staff target in free agency and draft to help galvanize a roster that had fallen short in recent years.
“We’ve had players that have been released before, so they know what that feels like to be cut, and they don’t want to feel that again. They do everything they possibly can to not let that happen again. Maybe they don’t take things for granted,” he said.
Fellow linebacker Jack Gibbens, who wasn’t tendered a contract by the Titans as a restricted free agent and then signed a one-year, $1.8 million deal in New England in March, is tied for second on the Patriots with 10 special teams tackles and has been a key reserve on defense (35% of the snaps; 39 tackles). As he departed the locker room earlier this month, he donned his worker’s shirt with the nickname “Gibby” on the patch.
Even defensive tackle Milton Williams, who signed a franchise record four-year, $104 million contract after four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, fit Vrabel’s vision. That was apparent during the first week of the voluntary offseason program when Vrabel called Williams out in front of teammates for not sprinting back to the starting line — after finishing a sprint.
Williams, who entered the NFL as a third-round pick out of Louisiana Tech and played in the shadow of more highly touted Eagles teammates Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter, embraced Vrabel’s motivational ways by saying: “Every rep since then, I’m trying to make sure I’m the first one back. I feel like it’s going to push me to where I want to be.”
Williams, before being placed on injured reserve because of a high ankle sprain Nov. 15, had been arguably the team’s best defensive player. He ranked No. 3 among defensive tackles in ESPN’s pass rush win rate (14%) entering Week 13, behind only Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons (21%) and Kansas City’s Chris Jones (17%).
Veteran receiver Stefon Diggs, who signed a three-year, $69 million deal, has produced similar results as he leads the team with 61 receptions (11th in the NFL) for 679 yards (18th in the NFL) and 3 touchdowns.
Diggs flashed a smile recently, saying of Vrabel: “I don’t know how he does it. He got me to buy in, I’ll tell you that.”
The Patriots have also received across-the-board contributions from their 11-member draft class, a group led by No. 4 pick Will Campbell at left tackle. Campbell, who started the first 12 games of the season before injuring his right knee last week in Cincinnati, won over Vrabel by knocking him on his backside in a predraft workout.
At the start of the season, veteran offensive tackle Morgan Moses, who is in his first season in New England and 12th in the NFL, said: “This is probably one of the best rookie classes I’ve been around. Especially now, with the NIL and all those things, these guys come in with money already. But we’ve got rookies that are humble, willing to learn.”
This was evident at the early-November trade deadline when they were the only contender to deal players to other teams — sending safety Kyle Dugger to Pittsburgh, and defensive lineman Keion White to San Francisco.
“We’ve tried to be as close to the plan as we could going through free agency and how we wanted to allocate it over the next two years — when we look at the [salary] cap,” Vrabel said in September.
The Patriots are in a strong financial position with a league-leading $52 million of salary cap space, according to Over The Cap. They project to carry over a significant amount of that into 2026 to leave themselves flexibility to continue to build the roster in Vrabel’s image.
KRAFT HAS ACKNOWLEDGED something else that has helped the Patriots in their quick ascension to the NFL’s upper tier.
“If you do well, you draft lower and you play a tougher schedule. We have a little bit of an advantage coming off these last couple of years [at 4-13],” he said.
Nonetheless, a few areas could come back to haunt New England in the playoffs as the margin for error tightens. The Patriots ranked 27th in the NFL in rushing average (3.9 yards) and goal-to-go efficiency (65%) despite having the most goal-to-go rushes in the league (34) entering Week 13. They also have started slowly on defense, allowing touchdowns on opening drives in six games, and join the Texans as the only defenses to allow TDs on every goal-to-go drive against them.
“There’s a lot more that we can do. We can play better. We can play with better details,” Vrabel said, leading up to Monday’s game. “So, we’ll have to kind of keep that fine balance of understanding that wins are important, but improving at this time of the year is what’s most important.”