Pats social media team continues to be absolutely horrible good job guys

— Ian B (@Ian11st0) May 15, 2025

The New England Patriots finally have dates next to the opponents they’ll be playing later this year after Wednesday’s official 2025 NFL schedule release.

There is more optimism surrounding the team this year with the hiring of Mike Vrabel as the new head coach and the many roster moves the team has made this offseason. The Patriots were one of the more active teams in free agency, and they selected 11 players at the 2025 NFL draft.

They also have one of the most favorable regular season schedules they’ve had in years. All of the ingredients are there for the Patriots to be one of the surprise teams this year. Of course, that doesn’t mean they won’t face a different set of challenges along the way.

Here are six takeaways from the Patriots’ 2025 NFL schedule:

Another late bye week

The Patriots will be playing marathon football for a second consecutive season with their bye week once again being penciled in for Week 14. That includes two primetime games, including a short-week Thursday Night Football game, in a three-week span before the eventual break. It’s a brutal stretch of football that could have the team running on fumes later in the season.

There’s no reason to doubt Patriots coach Mike Vrabel’s ability to prepare his team for so many games without a break, but it’s also something worth monitoring as the season goes on.

Patriots return to the primetime spotlight

After only appearing in one primetime game last season, the Patriots are returning to the spotlight in a big way with three primetime appearances slated for 2025. They have a Week 5 Sunday Night Football matchup against the Buffalo Bills, a Week 11 Thursday Night Football game against the New York Jets and a Week 13 Monday Night Football clash against the New York Giants.

That means more eyes will be on quarterback Drake Maye than ever before this year. It will be a great opportunity for the second-year quarterback to build his star status by proving he can win on big stages.

Pete Carroll’s return set for the opener

New England won’t have to wait long to see former head coach Pete Carroll make his return to Foxborough. The Raiders coach is set to open the season in Week 1 against the Patriots in front of the same fan base that once cheered for him many years ago. It’ll also be his first opportunity to unleash explosive rookie running back Ashton Jeanty on the NFL.

The Patriots have a home run hitter of their own in the offensive backfield in second-round draft pick TreVeyon Henderson. It should make for an entertaining regular season opener.

Most difficult stretch comes late

The hardest stretch of the Patriots’ 2025 schedule comes after they return from the bye week. It’s great timing considering they’ll have an entire week off to rest up and prepare for a four-game stretch that includes games against the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens and Miami Dolphins. The season finale game against the Dolphins is especially interesting considering it could have AFC East ranking or even potential playoff seeding on the line.

Both games against the Bills and Dolphins will be at home for the Patriots, while the matchup against the Ravens will be at M&T Bank Stadium.

Titans matchup is not a primetime game

What a missed opportunity by the NFL.

They could have had Mike Vrabel’s anticipated return to Tennessee to face the same Titans organization that fired him after the 2023 season on primetime television. That game in particular is likely circled on Vrabel’s calendar, even if he doesn’t say it publicly. It will be an opportunity for him to march right into Nissan Stadium and remind the Titans why they made a big mistake in letting him go.

Was the Patriots’ schedule release video an L?

There weren’t many fans of the Patriots’ schedule release video on Wednesday. The team went with an egg-dropping theme that many fans viewed as corny. Granted, nobody cares about schedule release videos as much as they do about the Patriots winning football games.

Still, here were some of the social media reactions to the team’s schedule release video:

I don’t care about those eggs. Protect Drake Maye.

— Charles Thorp (@charlesthorp) May 15, 2025

Yall need to hire someone else to come up with fun ways to drop the schedules. This aint it

— A Human (@Mr_Lambbb) May 15, 2025

I stopped after one minute and still wasn’t sure what was this about.

First L of the season.

— Luis Herrera (@luisrha) May 15, 2025

What IS this? It’s cringy bad. Good to see the players though

— Alex (@NEAlexZil) May 15, 2025

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