M Mike Vrabel was remarkably calm after the New England Patriots’ 52-10 victory over the New York Jets last Sunday. After all, the win marked New England’s first appearance in the NFL Playoffs since 2021 and that, at the same time, with a title win in the American Football Conference. Yet Vrabel remarked dryly: “Yes, I’m proud of this team. But there’s a lot to do.”

Sure, someone like Vrabel doesn’t pop the champagne corks just because his team has made the playoffs. After all, Vrabel was a central member of that Patriots dynasty led by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, which had dominated the league for 20 years. Six championships, nine trips to the final, 19 playoff appearances—the numbers speak for themselves. At this time of year, in Football America until about five years ago, there was usually a heavy weight, because the playoff weeks would, with exhausting inevitability, again once more become a big Patriots show.

Since Brady moved to Florida in 2020, that has not been the case. Without the superstar on the field, the super-coach Belichick’s wings were clipped. Before he hung up his hat in 2023, things were getting worse; Belichick was in danger of losing his aura as a super-coach. And in the first year after Belichick, 2024, it did not look rosy: the Patriots won only four of their 17 games. Boston lost interest in football and turned to the undoubtedly more successful Celtics in basketball.

In der neuen Bostoner Footballkultur gibt es für eine Playoff-Teilnahme noch keine Straßenfeste

In recent months, however, a new football enthusiasm has awakened in Boston as well as throughout the Northeast. The way the new Patriots under Vrabel play is enjoyable and successful. With Vrabel and the new, young star quarterback Drake Maye at the helm of the former superclub, there is a new trailblazing duo at the top. Even talk of a new “dynasty” is circulating.

Of course, such talk is premature. Whether the current Patriots have what it takes to reach even the Super Bowl remains to be proven in the coming weeks. But after the Kansas City Chiefs’ early exit, their chances are as good as those of any other team. With 13 games played, they have won five more than in the previous two years combined. On the road, their record stands at 8-0, flawless.

The Years After Tom Brady

The main reason for the Patriots’ renaissance is undoubtedly the 23-year-old Maye, whom many already in his second professional season regard as the best quarterback in the league. In his first season with the Patriots he already flashed his special talent. He played the best football of a rookie at the position, for as long as even the most die-hard experts can remember. But his teammates on offense could not keep up with him, and the Patriots’ defense remained, as in previous years, a disappointment.

The turnaround came with Vrabel’s return and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Both were part of the golden Patriot era, and with them the magic returned to Patriots Stadium in Foxboro. “We simply have a culture of success again,” Maye says. A culture that does not see a playoff appearance as a reason for street parties.

Of course, what helped Vrabel was the fact that, amid the rubble left by Belichick and his successor Jerod Mayo, there was a lot of money. With 130 million dollars of salary-cap room, he could shop with ease. And with his keen instinct and experience, he assembled a fine supporting cast around the greatest quarterback talent since Patrick Mahomes. In particular Stefon Driggs and Garrett Bradbury harmonize well with Maye, while Morgan Moses reorganizes the defense.

Thus one is excited in Boston and its surroundings for the playoffs again for the first time in six years. And the rest of the crowd is happy for them — which during the seemingly endless era of the Patriots’ crushing dominance was not always the case.