Five reasons Patriots reached 2026 Super Bowl: Vrabel hiring, free agent blitz

For the first time since the 2018 season, the New England Patriots are headed back to the Super Bowl.

New England went 14-3 during the regular season, winning the AFC East and landing the No. 2 seed in the conference. The Pats then defeated Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild card round, got the best of the Houston Texans and their elite defense in the divisional round and went on the road to defeat the Denver Broncos in a sloppy, snowy AFC title game. 

There are plenty of players who contributed to this run and plenty of reasons why the Pats are where they are. But there are some that stand out above the others. In this space, we want to detail the five biggest reasons why the Patriots got to Super Bowl LX.

Hiring Mike Vrabel

The tail end of the Bill Belichick era in New England was a disaster. 

The Patriots made the playoffs just once in Belichick’s final four seasons, and they regressed from 10-7 to 8-9 and then 4-13 in his final three years. The two sides eventually parted ways and the Patriots hired Jerod Mayo, who had been considered the head coach in waiting, to replace Belichick. The lone season with Mayo at the helm was also a disaster, with the Pats slumping to another 4-13 record and all kinds of infighting and mismanagement marring the experience of the year. 

But the Pats cut ties with Mayo after just one year, thankfully, and went out and hired one of the best coaches on the market in Vrabel. (It was him and Bears coach Ben Johnson at the top of the list.) Vrabel — who was only available because the Titans moved on from him amid a power struggle in favor of the since-fired Brian Callahan — is a culture-building head coach who totally turned things around on that front, helping the team go from worst to first in the AFC East and capture the division title for the first time since the 2019 season. 

Vrabel also brought in Josh McDaniels as his offensive coordinator, who helped Drake Maye reach the next level as a quarterback. McDaniels is in his third stint as the Patriots’ OC, having previously worked with Belichick and Tom Brady for years. His ability to put players in position to succeed played a big role in Maye’s development in Year 2.

Drafting Drake Maye

Of course, landing Maye in the first place is a big reason why the Patriots are here. Maye was the third quarterback off the board in the 2024 NFL Draft, and the Patriots were lucky enough to have him fall into their laps. Not that Caleb Williams and/or Jayden Daniels are slouches themselves, but it’s rare that the third quarterback in any given draft class is anywhere close to as good as Maye.

The second-year passer led the NFL in completion percentage, yards per attempt, passer rating, QBR and EPA per play this season. He was the best deep-ball thrower in the league. He’s an inner-circle MVP candidate and one of the finalists for the award. It’s likely going to be either him or Matthew Stafford being awarded the trophy at NFL Honors next week. 

The Pats didn’t spend nearly as long in the quarterback wilderness as do other teams when they’re trying to replace a legend, but they did cycle through guys like Cam Newton, Brian Hoyer, Jarrett Stidham, Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe and Jacoby Brissett before thrusting Maye into the starting lineup. Once they did, they’ve been a totally different team, and they wouldn’t be here without him.

The offseason spending spree

The Patriots entered last offseason with more salary cap space than any team in the NFL, and they put that space to incredibly good use. They spent more money on free agents than any team in the NFL by a significant margin, handing out over $377 million in free agent deals, according to Spotrac. The next-closest team, the Minnesota Vikings, spent around $270 million on free agent signings. 

The hit rate on the free agents was remarkably high. Of the $377 million, $345 million of it was spent on the following players.

Williams missed five games, but he was terrific whenever he was on the field and the Patriots’ defense hit a different level with him out there compared with the games where he was on the sideline. Diggs gave Maye a true No. 1 receiver, catching 85 passes for 1,013 yards during the regular season despite playing only 55% of the team’s offensive snaps.

Davis started all season across from Christian Gonzalez, and while it wasn’t necessarily his best coverage season, he was good enough and finished with two interceptions and 12 pass breakups. Landry picked up 8.5 sacks off the edge. Spillane did his usual very strong work against the run. 

Moses started all 17 games at right tackle, playing 94% of the snaps to solidify the line. Bradbury did the same at center while playing 98% of the snaps. Hollins was a very valuable rotational piece at wide receiver, blocking his ass off and working as both a possession receiver and a deep threat. 

Chaisson had arguably the best pass-rushing season of his career, totaling a career-best 7.5 sacks and 18 quarterback hits. And Tongan was one of the best value signings of the offseason, becoming an elite run stopper in the middle of the defensive line.

When you hit like this in free agency, it can lead to the type of massive turnaround the Patriots had this year.

Not benching Rhamondre Stevenson

Through the first five weeks of the season, Stevenson rushed 38 times for 139 yards — an average of 3.7 per carry. He also lost three fumbles during that span, including two in a one-score loss to the Steelers and then another in a narrow victory over the Bills. He remained the lead back for the next few games, averaging 3.1 yards per carry before getting injured and giving way to TreVeyon Henderson, who absolutely exploded in Stevenson’s absence.

In three games without Stevenson, Henderson rushed 47 times for 264 yards (5.6 per carry) and was ripping off explosive play after explosive play. In the first game after Stevenson’s return, Henderson remained the lead back. But after that, the Pats went back to the previous rotation, and it paid off in a big way.

Down the stretch of the season, Stevenson was fantastic. Across the final five games of the year, Stevenson ran 41 times for 319 yards (7.8 per carry) and caught 15 passes for another 171 yards, totaling six touchdowns along the way. He then had 128 total yards against the Chargers in the opening round of the playoffs and another 81 against the Texans in the divisional round. He was mostly bottled up by the Broncos, but so was the entire offense. Meanwhile, Henderson has been struggling during the same stretch.

If the Pats hadn’t kept Stevenson in the rotation and instead glued him to the bench after his fumbles and his later injury, they might not be where they are right now.

The schedule

Much was made about the Patriots’ schedule during the regular season. 

New England only played two teams that finished the year with a winning record, and went 1-2 in those games against the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots beat up on a slate that included two games against both the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, as well as games against the Raiders (to whom they actually lost in Week 1), Panthers, Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons, Buccaneers, Bengals. Giants and Ravens. 

They compiled a 14-3 record but did it while playing against teams that had a combined .391 winning percentage. That was the easiest schedule in the NFL, and the easiest for any team since the 1999 Rams (who are the only team in history to accomplish what the Patriots are trying to do right now — win a Super Bowl after winning four or fewer games the previous season) and the fourth-easiest for any Super Bowl team in history.

Things got more difficult in the postseason, but not by all that much. The Chargers, Texans and Broncos all had incredibly strong defenses, but their offenses left much to be desired — and the Broncos had to play the AFC title game without their starting quarterback. New England was able to get through the playoff field without being consistently challenged on both sides of the ball in a given game. 

None of this negates the Patriots’ accomplishments, of course. But to pretend that the schedule they faced isn’t a factor in why they’re here would be sticking your head in the sand.