Reflecting On A Surprisingly Good 2024-25 Season For The New England Patriots

It's easy to look at 4-13 and say the season was a failure. That our first year head coach wasn't fired because of all the team success we encountered. But as is most things in life, it's about perspective. So as I reflect on this season, I can't help but feel mostly positive, not just about what transpired, but how what transpired has set us up for what's ahead.

One year ago, the Patriots were lost souls. Bill Belichick was run out of town, and the dynasty era, although it felt like it had been for years, was officially over. They introduced a first time head coach, and he brilliantly decided to surround himself with first time coordinators and assistants, cause experience is overrated.

They had the worst roster in the league and the most cap space in the league, which they decided to not use because either 1) they were too cheap and ignorant to realize they had to overpay players to come to a now losing organization or 2) no one wanted to come, no matter what they offered.

They drafted Drake Maye from what media made it out to feel like as much desperation as it was desire to save the franchise. He was perceived to be raw, with a ways to go fundamentally to be considered NFL-ready. The thought was to take it slow and let him grow and learn instead of being thrust into what felt like an impossible situation. The plan was to play for the future, and use this season as a sacrifice.

But just five games in, after some of the most uninspiring offense you've ever seen, they said fuck it, let him die behind this O line, at least if he stinks the excuse is built in.

But instead he excelled. Every game he made plays that made you look to your right or left and say to your couchmate "that's the guy". He extended plays, threw the ball with the zip we haven't seen since long-haired Tommy, and made it look effortless. The mistakes were there as they are with any rookie (excluding Jayden Daniels), but not many Pats fans, if any, left this season with much doubt that we have our guy, and that with sufficient talent around him, the future is bright.

In the efforts of being realistic, that's about the extent of the positives with our on-field physical team. I can't really sugarcoat a 4-13 season too much outside of the young QB looking promising. But then again, how many teams wish they could confidently say they had their guy?

We move to the offseason, where within days of losing by means of winning and forfeiting the rights to the number one pick, the Pats scooped up every coach-less team's number one choice, New England Patriot Hall of Famer Mike Vrabel.

He was every team's top choice. No offense to Ben Johnson who was a close second, but Vrabel's been there and done it. There's not many coaches who've proven they can win in this league, and less so that can say they did with Ryan Tannehill as their franchise QB, that become available in coach free agency.

It was an obvious fit in New England, and you can re-read my reaction post if you want to know all my feelings, but it felt like within minutes of his intro press conference the culture had changed. Fucking around time is over, and it's time to bring back the glory that Mike Vrabel played an integral part in bringing to Foxborough 25 years ago. We will spend the money we have, we will become a destination once again, and there's a vision for the future. After a few years of not knowing where to take the next step, we have an organization's two key cornerstones; coach and QB.

Lastly, Patriots fans got to soak in the Super Bowl and be reminded that the dynasty that was is nowhere close to being touched. I won't lie, this season was nervy. As the Chiefs kept winning, and the inevitability of their success became more unavoidable, the Patriots dynasty was on the verge of being questioned as history's best within years of concluding.

But all debates, whether it be Brady vs. Mahomes, Belichick vs. Reid, or Patriots vs. Chiefs, were put to rest last Sunday after the Eagles dismantled the Chiefs in a way Belichick and Brady's Patriots never allowed to happen. And I'd bet behind Eagles fans, Patriots fans enjoyed that game more than anyone else.

Our legacy is protected for the foreseeable future. It's not safe forever, but the way KC lost that game, on top of the way they lost the previous Super Bowl (to Brady no less), on top of the fact they lost the only playoff matchup to New England in 2019, they'd have to pass us in order to take the crown. And I don't see that happening. Watching KC lose Sunday night the way they did was the happiest I've been watching a non-Patriots game maybe ever.

On the surface, this season was bad. We were 4-13, fed our rookie QB to the wolves, and fired our succession plan at coach one year into his tenure.

But if you peel the onion, you'll find some beams of light. That QB we fed to the wolves became a lion. We read the tea leaves of our succession plan, and cut ties before we suffered any longer. We brought in one of the best coaches in football, the coach everyone wanted, to bring stability back to the organization he created stability in long ago. And we finished the season with people glamorizing our 20-year run, reminding everyone to stop being prisoners of the moment and appreciate the greatness we gave the world for two decades, a greatness that no team is even close to matching.

Tell me another 4-13 season you remember that went this well. I can't wait for free agency.