It doesn’t take a gratitude junkie to know this Patriots season has been a gift.
The Pats punched their ticket to the playoffs last week.
Drake Maye has an MVP award within reach.
Mike Vrabel might be the next NFL Coach of the Year.
And the football gods have staged the Jets and Dolphins like bowling pins at the end of the Patriots’ schedule, one of the league’s softest in years.
But in the spirit of giving, let’s hand out a few more gifts.
Merry Christmas, and have a happy New Year.
Drake Maye: A home office
Maye might miss out on the MVP this year — he currently owns the second-best odds — but another is, no doubt, on its way.
Throw in a few more Pro Bowl nods, years of jersey swaps, game balls, other awards and soon, a trophy case won’t be enough for all that greatness. Give the man who will soon have everything proper room to store it all with a small home office. So long, that is, any potential construction on Castle Maye doesn’t interfere with his wife’s now viral holiday series: Bakemas.
Mike Vrabel: A nutcracker
What do you call a ball-buster like Vrabel during the holidays?
Well …
Stefon Diggs: A revised contract
Diggs is owed just $1.7 million guaranteed over the last two years of his deal. That shouldn’t sit well with the Patriots’ No. 1 option, even if his $20.6 million base salary is commensurate with other wide receivers of his caliber.
It’s time to sweeten this deal.
Athletic trainers: Sage
What happened here?
After enjoying most of the season as the NFL’s healthiest team, the Patriots are now suffering from an infestation of injury bugs. TreVeyon Henderson, Kayshon Boutte and Jared Wilson all entered concussion protocol this week, while Milton Williams and Robert Spillane have been out for weeks.
Time to clear the trainers’ room, hand the staff some sage, a lighter and burn away whatever is haunting this team. They have to try something, right?
Marcus Jones: A Pro Bowl alternate
The word “snub” is used too often this time of year, particularly when fans or media don’t bother to remove a player off the Pro Bowl roster to make room for the player they believe was wrongfully omitted.
So, let’s start there. Bench Titans returner Chimere Dike — who has a slight statistical case over Jones — or Christian Gonzalez who, if we’re being honest, earned his nod on reputation and perhaps as a makeup call for last year. Jones has been healthier and more productive than Gonzalez, while Dike is not nearly as impactful outside of special teams. The combination of Jones’ impact in two phases ought to be recognized.
Send that man to the Pro Bowl.
Rhamondre Stevenson: An apology letter
Fans in this market and members of the local media wanted to send Stevenson packing after five games.
Stevenson, if you’ll recall, had a fumbling problem back then, same as last year. But the idea of cutting bait out of frustration was never realistic, nor reasonable. Not that Stevenson minded, by the way, meeting questions about his butterfingers head-on every time he was asked.
Since that tumultuous time (during which, I should say, I suggested benching him for a game), Stevenson has proven what should have been obvious then: he is and was a better player than he was showing. He scored a game-winning touchdown last week in Baltimore and has saved Maye from countless crushing hits as the Pats’ best back in blitz pickup. Perhaps most critically, he bought Henderson time to develop, which, it turns out, was sorely needed.
Not to mention, Stevenson and Henderson are unquestionably better together in a split backfield rather than either one of them taking a lion’s share of the carries.
Harold Landry: A breather
Landry, a captain and starting edge defender, has been playing on a bum wheel since Week 6 at New Orleans. That was more than two months ago.
His pressure rate is way down (averaging 4.2 pressures per game through the Saints game and 2.5 since). His run defense is no longer quite as steady. Landry needs time to heal for a critical playoff run.
A first-round bye would go a long way to helping him rediscover whatever form he can until the offseason.
The Krafts: A day counter
Set it to March 10, 2027.
Until that NFL officially sets the date, that should be the start of the league’s 2027 calendar year AKA the first day Maye is eligible for a contract extension. Make it a lifetime deal for all I care. Pay him.
The sooner the Krafts can ink Maye to a new deal, the sooner the pain of paying what should be the NFL’s richest contract will begin to ease (not that you or anyone else should every, ever care about that pain, save for its cap implications. Like all quarterbacks, Maye is worth more than whatever contract he’s under because he would be paid more in a free market than he is now in an artificially capped one like the NFL). Maye might soon make upwards of $70 million per year, if not more.
Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams and Bo Nix will also be open to extensions that spring. The sooner the Pats can lock down their face of the franchise before they sign, the better.
You: A home playoff game
It’s been six long years since the Patriots kicked off a playoff game at home.
You remember that night: Vrabel prowling on the opposing sideline, Tom Brady taking his final snaps as a Patriot. A fog and uncertainty hanging over a game that ultimately pulled the plug on the greatest dynasty the NFL has ever seen.
But skies are clearer now in New England. The electricity in the stadium is back.
It’s time for playoff football to return to Foxboro once again.