From chasing the No. 1 pick to the No. 1 seed, the Patriots’ turnaround is stunning

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From chasing the No. 1 pick to the No. 1 seed, the Patriots’ turnaround is stunning

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Mon, Dec 29, 2025 ·

4 min read

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As the Patriots hugged and celebrated on the field at MetLife Stadium after bulldozing the Jets, 42-10, on Sunday, it felt almost impossible to believe how far they’d come in 2025.

Jan. 5, 2025, was a cold and miserable afternoon in Foxborough, the last day of a bad season. Smart Patriots fans didn’t want Drake Maye to play because they were rooting for a loss.

In New England , late-season results were viewed through the filter of how they impacted the NFL draft order, not playoff seeding. The Patriots had been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs weeks ago and realistically eliminated weeks before that.

They needed to lose to the Bills, who were resting their starters for the playoffs, to clinch the No. 1 overall draft position . So fans wanted Maye on the bench, fearing that if he played too well, it could cost them their draft spot.

But in a year that they couldn’t win when they wanted to, they couldn’t lose when they needed to. Maye played just one series, but they still won. The Patriots scored the last nine points of the game and dropped three spots in the draft order with a 23-16 win.

That was just 357 days ago. But it feels longer. The Patriots have come a long way since.

A year ago, New England was actually worse than the forever-bumbling Jets. The two rivals split the regular-season series, but even with their ill-fated win over the Bills, the Patriots still finished below New York, 4-13, dead last in the AFC East.

Playoffs, division titles, postseason awards and hope all seemed like distant pipe dreams.

But after the Patriots hammered the Jets, the Bills blew a chance for another come-from-behind win against the Eagles on Sunday. The combination made the Patriots the AFC East champions.

Led by a coach of the year candidate and an MVP candidate, New England is still in the running for the top seed in the AFC and a legitimate contender to reach the Super Bowl. Hope is overflowing.

The seeds of this success started on that bleak day in January.

Robert Kraft pulled the plug on Jerod Mayo shortly after that game ended. Rather than throw good money after bad, the Patriots owner admitted a mistake and fixed it. He hired Mike Vrabel and together they brought back Josh McDaniels.

Those were all smart moves. But they felt like early steps in a multi-year rebuild. This was a job for a contractor not a painter. Getting to eight wins in 2025 would have been cause for celebration.

Even expectations for Drake Maye were tempered. Early in training camp, a popular narrative was whether Maye could handle McDaniels’ complicated offense.

That sounds ridiculous now. Maye has become a superstar, the best among a wave or talented young quarterbacks to emerge this year.

Maybe in the future, fans and talk show hosts will debate who was more important to this turnaround, Maye or Vrabel, the way they did with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady , but right now the combination looks awfully good together.

If they win next week, the Patriots will have flipped their record from 4-13 to 14-3 in just one season. Because New England’s last Super Bowl wasn’t that long ago, the magnitude of that turnaround has been a little underappreciated in real time in New England.

But history will remember this team as special. They’re going into Week 18 with the best record in the NFL. No matter what happens after this, they’re the 2025 AFC East champions and still more is possible, this year and into the future.

As halftime approached on Sunday, there were smart Patriots fans rooting again to get Maye off the field. This time, with a big lead, they didn’t want to risk him getting injured with the postseason just around the corner.

Just 357 days after they botched the No. 1 pick, they’re alive for the No. 1 seed and maybe more. That’s quite the turnaround.

As he handed out the team’s AFC Champion hats and T-shirts, Mike Vrabel said the Patriots aren’t done.

“On April 7, we said three things: Win the division. Host home playoff games. Compete for championships,” he said. “So we got the first one taken care of. This season is far from being over.”

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