The New England Patriots are licking their wounds after being crushed by the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl. Patriot Nation is still in a state of shock as Coach of the Year, Mike Vrabel, and Drake Maye are picking up the pieces after their Cinderella season that came to an end before midnight on February 8.

Keenan Allen of the Chargers is also still lamenting their loss to the Patriots in the Wild Card Round.

If the saying “misery loves company” is any consolation, at least others, like Allen, are sharing the pain, though nothing can compare with a Super Bowl loss. No loss in any other game or games is felt more acutely than coming up short in the last and most important game in US sports.

Regardless, the Patriots must be on to 2026, leave the tears and disappointment behind, and begin building toward a repeat appearance with a better result next season. With a schedule that will increase in difficulty exponentially due to the team’s 2025 success, even a trip to the playoffs may be a tough assignment.

The Patriots need to continue their rebuild starting now

The Patriots’ higher-ups can’t afford to dwell on the loss or keep lamenting it overly. What’s done is done, and the look has to be forward, not back. Yet it may still be some comfort to know that other teams and players have similar hurt feelings. After all, only one team emerges every year at the top, and all the rest are also-rans.

Kris RhiChargers’m of ESPN related the Charger’s Keenan Allen’s disappointment at their earlier loss in the playoffs to the Patriots.

“In the first quarter of the 16-3 loss, coach Jim Harbaugh decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 at New England’s 2-yard-line with 5:13 remaining. Quarterback Justin Herbert threw to Allen on a short out route in the end zone, but the pass sailed over Allen’s head.

‘It was super painful,’ Allen told ESPN. ‘For me personally, just having nightmares about basically that one fourth down on the goal line — just not coming down with that catch. I definitely don’t want that to be my last play as a Charger.'”

Any team that reaches the Tournament, as former Patriots’ Head Coach Bill Parcells used to call the playoffs, will not take a loss lightly. If you get there, you’re a maximum of four more wins away from the ultimate prize, the Lombardi Trophy.

Yet it’s time to address the obvious deficiencies that the Patriots know they must remedy if they are to have any hope of getting back to the Big Game next season.

Mike Vrabel has a lot to do in the 2026 offseason

Patriots’ Head Coach and more, Mike Vrabel has his work cut out for him in his second offseason. It would be folly to think he can duplicate the amazing, almost unprecedented 2025 offseason again this year. But hope springs eternal that that’s exactly what he’ll do.

Among Vrabel’s multiple needs, the two most pressing are related to sacks. His team surrendered far too many in 2025 (47 in the regular season and 21 more in the playoffs), making quarterback Maye’s life miserable. That has to change, and major investment in the O-line is again an absolute imperative and the team’s top offseason priority.

Coming in close second is the edge. Sacks are drive-enders and game-changers, and their Patriots don’t get enough of them. They were outscored in the Super Bowl by the Seahawks, six to one. That plus two costly turnovers made all the difference.

Vrabel has to go heavy on sack-producing edge players in free agency and the draft to narrow that gap with the NFL’s best.

A lot more will be written this offseason about exactly what the Patriots need to accomplish. Like Keenan Allen, they can mourn the lost opportunities, but now it’s on to 2026. Good and great teams are built in the offseason, as Vrabel’s efforts in 2025 proved.

Now, if he can repeat that masterpiece and bring in the right players in his second go-around, anything is once again possible.