The New England Patriots are known for being the best football franchise in NFL history. Their resume from 2001-2019 are one the best sports dynasties recorded in all of professional American sports. The New England Patriots in this long tenure accomplished 6 superbowl wins (2001, 2003, 2004, 2015, 2017, & 2019), 15 AFC championship appearances and winning 9 out of those 13 appearances. Along with 9 superbowl appearances, the only other team in the history of the NFL that comes close to this were the Pittsburgh Steelers. After 25 years of great success this era came to an end”
After the 2019 season during the off-season Tom Brady became a free agent after losing the Tennessee Titans in the wild card round. Reports came in that Brady may not be coming back to New England for the 2020 season because of opposing differences between him and former Head Coach Bill Belichick. The rumors that were surfacing the media were no short of being true because Tom Brady signed with the Tampa Buccaneers and went on to win the superbowl that same year. What this meant for the Patriots was a slow death. In 2020 the New England were in a position they’ve never been in before and that was “who will be our quarterback this season?”
This seemed to be the theme for the Patriots for the next 5 seasons accumulating a 33-50 win/loss ratio. Through these years the Patriots cycled through 5 quarterbacks. The last two out of those five years were by far one the most depressing seasons for Patriot fans by putting up two 4-13 seasons.
It was obvious that New England needed to get back to the win column. One of the major changes the Pats had made was firing Jerod Mayo(Former New England Patriots LB) who although had a bad season showed signs of hope of the future by drafting a talented first round quarterback named Drake Maye. The problem was trying to figure out who was going to be his new coach and what wide receivers he would be throwing to. In the off-season of 2025 the Patriots stayed with their familiarity route by hiring Mike Vrabel after a short tenure with the Tennessee Titans. This was ultimately the first major step in the surprising comeback year for the Patriots.
Then we see something from New England that never happened before and that is signing significant players like Stefon Diggs and top evaluated rookies to their team during the off-season and the NFL draft. Even though the Patriots are having a successful offseason this didn’t convince the media that this will be a team who would win more than 8 games despite the talent that surrounded them.
Fast forward to today and this very team who was projected to win only 9 games with a first round exit in the playoffs are now on their way to another potential conference championship this weekend.
So what led to this team from being known as a forgotten dynasty to potentially having one of the fastest rebuilding seasons ever? One of the ways that made the Patriots so successful this year was the growth of their new franchise quarterback Drake Maye who is currently top MVP candidate. He finished the season with the highest quarterback rating of 77.2 %. The Patriots were able to finish the regular season on offense and defense in top 5 categories in the regular season rankings. However much controversy has been circulating around about how serious this team’s success should be because of their strength of schedule.
Nonetheless, throughout the playoffs they’ve consistently been showing the world that the miraculously improved performance of the New England Patriots is not just a coincidence but a result of their ability to make plays and trust in each other in order to reach a common goal which is to win another super bowl.
