Mike Reiss
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — First-round draft pick Will Campbell emerged from inside the Gillette Stadium tunnel on his first official day as a member of the New England Patriots, turning the corner onto the field alongside owner Robert Kraft and team president Jonathan Kraft.
With each step, in their crisply pressed sport coats and business attire, they moved closer to the six Super Bowl banners hanging above the south end zone — proud reminders of the Patriots’ prominence from the first decade of the 2000s and the 2010s.
“The biggest thing for me was I wanted to play for an organization that had history,” Campbell said, looking in the direction of the red, white and blue championship banners, the day after the former LSU offensive tackle was selected with the fourth overall pick. “The proof is in the pudding with this place.”
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But recent history hasn’t been as kind to the Patriots, who are coming off back-to-back 4-13 seasons. Only the Carolina Panthers have totaled fewer wins over that span.
Kraft, who purchased the franchise in 1994, said bluntly: “The last two years have been really, really difficult; the worst two years of our ownership.”
As a result, the Patriots have undergone a thorough transformation over the past five months with coaches, executives and players. Their hope is that the changes have positioned them to close the gap on the Buffalo Bills, who have won the last five AFC East titles, while also accelerating their path back to Super Bowl contender. ESPN puts the Patriots’ projected win total at 8.5. Last year at this time, the Patriots had a projected win total of 4.5.
Kraft, who turns 84 in June, moved with urgency in early January by firing first-year head coach Jerod Mayo in the hours following the Patriots’ regular-season finale against the Bills.
“This whole situation is on me,” Kraft, patting his chest, said the day after moving on from Mayo. He called himself out for putting Mayo in an “untenable situation” by rushing him into the job as Bill Belichick’s successor despite having just five years’ experience as an assistant coach.
“I don’t like losing. I don’t like losing the way we lost. Things were not developing the way we would have liked. It was time to move on,” Kraft said, adding his goal was to “find a coach who can get us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships.”
Mike Vrabel was hired eight days later.
Vrabel’s tenure as the Tennessee Titans head coach (2018-23) — where he was 54-45 in the regular season and 2-3 in the playoffs, in addition to being named Coach of the Year in 2021 — was appealing to Kraft. As was Vrabel’s ties to the franchise’s past glory as a linebacker on three Super Bowl championship teams in 2001, 2003 and 2004.
With Vrabel’s arrival came an injection of energy and change that the franchise hopes will set it on a new course.
“I want to galvanize our football team,” Vrabel said, “I want to galvanize this building. I want to galvanize our fans.”
VRABEL WASTED NO time assembling his staff after being hired. He focused on trust, loyalty and those he believed would be committed to his plan. Vrabel operated with the belief that if alignment is off, cracks could grow and sabotage team success.
Of his 28 assistants, 11 previously worked under him in Tennessee, most notably first-time defensive coordinator Terrell Williams, vice president of football operations and strategy John “Stretch” Streicher and director of sports performance Frank Piraino. The three men were some of Vrabel’s first hires.
Meanwhile, Vrabel brought back Josh McDaniels, an assistant under Belichick on six Super Bowl championship teams, as offensive coordinator to work closely with Maye — like he did with future Hall of Famer Tom Brady.
McDaniels, 49, never coached under Vrabel, but the two had a coach-player connection from Vrabel’s eight-year playing stint in New England. McDaniels is the first NFL coordinator since at least 1990 to have three different stints with the same team (2001-08; 2012-21; 2025-present), according to ESPN Research.
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The addition of former Bears interim head coach Thomas Brown, who is the first passing-game coordinator in franchise history and will also work with tight ends, was a hire Vrabel pursued aggressively after interviewing him for the coordinator job.
Vrabel also retained four position coaches from Mayo’s staff, led by special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer.
Vrabel is proud of the coaching staff he’s assembled, to which he’s assigned “three simple jobs”: to teach, develop and invest personally in the players. Vrabel hopes by building trust with players, they will play hard for him and the team and show more of a willingness to go outside their comfort zones.
The changes, while not as extreme, extended to the front office.
Most significant was the hiring of Ryan Cowden as the team’s official No. 2 executive. Cowden had previously worked with Vrabel in Tennessee from 2018 to ’22 as vice president of player personnel. The blending of Cowden and Streicher — two of Vrabel’s confidants — with the existing staff of executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf and top aides such as senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith and former director of player personnel Matt Groh (now working more on contracts) has been an evolving process.
Wolf noted a possible breakthrough moment for this new dynamic during a pressure-filled moment on Day 2 of the draft: The Patriots were close to making their pick early in the second round (No. 38) and were debating between speedy Ohio State running back TreVeyon Henderson and another player, according to Wolf. There were differing opinions in the draft room. Ultimately, Wolf said the other player in the discussion was selected before the Patriots’ pick, making the decision for New England. But Wolf was pleased with the constructive discussion leading up to that point.
“I think it was a really good step in the right direction, in our relationship as co-workers, because we have to have productive disagreements for this to work,” said Wolf, who sat between Vrabel and Cowden in the draft room.
Wolf also credits Vrabel, Cowden and Streicher for improving the Patriots’ process in pursuing undrafted free agents, and he views this year’s 16-player class as one of the best he’s seen from a team he has been a part of over his 21-year career.
That group, paired with an 11-member draft class that has been viewed favorably by most draft analysts (ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. rated it third highest in the NFL), has injected much-needed youth into the roster as a result of inconsistent prior drafting and development.
“We can’t just agree on everything, we can’t just acquiesce to each other on something, so I think it was really productive from that standpoint,” Wolf said.
MILTON WILLIAMS BECAME the highest-paid player in Patriots history when he signed a four-year, $104 million contract, including $63 million in guarantees, in March.
The defensive tackle was also among the first Patriots players subjected to Vrabel’s motivational tactics in the initial days of voluntary offseason workouts.
“Coach Vrabes called me out in front of everybody, which I like. He said ‘if you’re going to be here, you have to set the standard,'” said Williams, who’d spent his first four NFL seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles.
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The Super Bowl LIX standout had finished a conditioning drill sprint in the allotted time and turned to jog back to the starting line at a pace that allowed other teammates to catch up to him. An irritated Vrabel wanted to know why.
“He was like ‘Don’t let them catch you. If you can make it [back] faster, make it.’ So every rep since then I’ve just been trying to make sure I’m the first one back,” Williams said. “I feel like that’s going to help me get where I want to be, and the guys running with me, it’s going to push them to run even harder.”
The exchange reflects a core tenet of Vrabel’s coaching philosophy.
“We’re going to be moving. We’re going to demand effort and finish,” Vrabel said at his introductory news conference. “People ask what nonnegotiables are. Our effort and our finish is going to be the contract that we make with our teammates. That will be my job to make sure.”
Vrabel has also taken a sledgehammer to the roster, opening the path for new leaders to emerge.
Of the 91 players on the roster, only 47 of them were with the Patriots last season — a near 50% churn. According to Elias Sports Bureau, that is tied for the fourth-highest turnover with the Panthers, behind only the Las Vegas Raiders (44 returning players), Titans (44) and Minnesota Vikings (45).
The shedding of those with the deepest ties to the Belichick years has been especially notable. Center David Andrews and long-snapper Joe Cardona, the team’s longest-tenured players (since 2015) who were part of two Super Bowl championship teams, were released. They had been the only players to attend Vrabel’s introductory news conference, sitting in the front row as Vrabel shared his vision for the franchise.
Suddenly, safety Kyle Dugger, a 2020 second-round pick, became the longest-tenured Patriot alongside fellow classmates linebacker Anfernee Jennings and offensive lineman Mike Onwenu.
“It happened fast,” Dugger said with a knowing smile.
Meanwhile, Williams has emerged as a leader in the voluntary offseason program. He has plenty of company.
Vrabel wants an attacking defense that plays “violent” and “on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage.” To that end, the Patriots invested big in free agency for inside linebacker Robert Spillane (three years, $33 million), outside linebacker Harold Landry (three years, $43.5 million) and cornerback Carlton Davis III (three years, $54 million) to help a unit that ranked last in the NFL with 28 sacks last season. Spillane and Landry are strong candidates for a captaincy, given their history playing for Vrabel in Tennessee.
And then there’s the quarterback.
Vrabel has said one of the reasons he accepted the Patriots job was the presence of Maye, who enters his second year. So using the team’s first four picks in the draft on offense — Campbell, Henderson, receiver Kyle Williams and center Jared Wilson — was an intentional strategy to provide more infrastructure around Maye. So, too, was the signing of free agent receiver Stefon Diggs (three years, $63.5 million) and veteran No. 2 quarterback Joshua Dobbs as a supportive sounding board, among other moves.
“It obviously comes with the position. I’d like to hopefully call myself this year a leader. I think I’m working towards that,” Maye said.
At least one teammate has noticed Maye’s evolution in that area.
“[He] maybe has even more confidence,” nine-year veteran receiver Kendrick Bourne said. “Coming out of that shell, he’s going to become a vet. I think that’s what he’s embracing.”
THE PATRIOTS’ LAST AFC East win — 23-16 over the Bills in the 2024 regular-season finale — reinforced how badly things have gone for them in division play. A loss would have ensured they had the No. 1 pick in the draft.
So even when they actually won, they didn’t.
In the nearly five months since Vrabel has been hired, the Patriots believe they’ve taken steps toward closing the gap on the Bills in the AFC East, who remain the team to beat with reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Josh Allen at quarterback. The Miami Dolphins finished in second place last season with an 8-9 record, and hope a focus on offensive-line additions helps keep oft-injured quarterback Tua Tagovailoa healthy. The third-place Jets (5-12) have wiped the slate clean with first-year coach Aaron Glenn and first-year general manager Darren Mougey.
“I think we’ll be much more competitive this year,” Wolf said. “I don’t like to put expectations on it, but we did a lot of things this offseason that were advantageous to us moving forward.”
Two scouts with ties to the AFC East agree.
“This is the best offseason they’ve had in a while. I feel like they’re the Bills’ biggest threat,” one scout said.
Specifically, the scout noted that while the Patriots paid a team-record contract for Williams, he is still an ascending player, and a defensive-tackle tandem of Williams and Christian Barmore (assuming a return to full health from a blood clot diagnosis) could be the best in the AFC.
The other scout drew a parallel to how Vrabel’s Titans teams were built, led by Jeffery Simmons and a wave of complementary defensive linemen, and saw a similar picture developing in New England.
“Look at the history of Vrabel’s teams — they’ll play hard and mirror his personality,” the scout said.
Likewise on offense, there has been a heavy emphasis on attempting to solidify the offensive line and boosting the run game to help Maye — just as the Titans attempted to do in Tennessee.
But while one of the scouts acknowledged the offensive line should be better than last season — with Campbell likely starting at left tackle and veteran free agent signing Morgan Moses at right tackle — they still question if the Patriots have done enough. The Patriots ranked 31st in the NFL in pass-block win rate last season and were 32nd in the 2023 season.
The Patriots’ struggles in developing skill position players has also been a concern. But overall, they agree the Patriots are in a better position than they’ve been in recent years.
“A lot of new faces, a lot of veterans, guys that have played at a high level,” Maye said when asked about the offseason adds. “We found answers in a lot of different spots … get guys that can come in here and help us win now. Add that in with some young talent we’ve had in the past couple drafts, I think hopefully we’re headed in the right direction.”