FOXBORO — For the first time in ages, this list is easy.
Too easy.
What should the Patriots be thankful for this year? Must we spell it out?
Yes. Oh yes.
Because there’s no better time to give thanks than when the real football season begins, and playoff games await in the New Year.
The Patriots are good again.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Drake Maye
He’s a burgeoning superstar and icon, yet still a humble 23-year-old whose right arm, by all accounts, is strong enough to carry this franchise for the next decade.
Quarterbacks like Maye are the greatest asset, and greatest gift, in the NFL.
Most weeks, this space is reserved for analysis of his physical gifts. But Maye’s processing and personality are equally responsible for the player he is and will become. Opponents fear Maye, teammates love him and coaches can’t stop showering the southern gunslinger with praise.
By the way, how many quarterbacks would you take for the next five years over Maye? Possibly Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Is that it? All three have won MVP awards, and multiple times in the cases of Mahomes and Jackson.
And would you believe Maye might win an MVP at an age younger than Tom Brady was when Brady won his first start?
Give it a few more weeks, and he just might do it.
Mike Vrabel
What a difference coaching makes.
Vrabel has modernized, professionalized and aggrandized the Patriots in a matter of months. He’s instilled winning habits that have yielded a winning culture. He expanded the team’s staff in virtually every department, from game-day analytics to the front office. Everything flows from the head coach, even if Vrabel tends to deflect credit when it arrives at his doorstep or during a press conference.
His imprint on the organization is too clear, too obvious to be overlooked. Once again, the Patriots are a tough, smart, tight-knit football team thanks to their head coach.
“We created this quick brotherhood,” Pats cornerback Carlton Davis said Monday. “We want to play for each other, but we also want to play for (Vrabel).”
Josh McDaniels
McDaniels has directed Maye’s development, which already is on pace to be one of the great successes of his career.
This offseason, the Patriots started with Maye’s footwork, his movement in the pocket and leadership. Secondarily, McDaniels has refined his internal clock and use of cadence. But Maye’s malleability and growth isn’t the only story here.
McDaniels has developed, too.
His playbook now carries influences from assistants Thomas Brown and Todd Downing, longtime NFL coaches and former offensive coordinators themselves. McDaniels seems looser now. But while his connections with players seem to run deeper than in his previous stops, McDaniels’ knack for creative plans and timely play-calls is still very much his calling card.
“He’s just dialing it up multiple times and getting guys open and really making it easy for me,” Maye said in October. “He’s done it his whole life, and I feel like he was put on this earth to be an offensive coordinator.”
2025 free-agent class
Stefon Diggs is the best receiver the Patriots have fielded since prime Julian Edelman.
Milton Williams sealed the win at Miami with a fourth-down sack.
K’Lavon Chaisson is making $5 million and already has 6.5 sacks.
Harold Landry has 6.5 sacks and a captain’s patch.
Robert Spillane is one of two players in the NFL with 90-plus tackles, two interceptions and a sack.
Morgan Moses has started all 12 games at right tackle and allowed one sack all year.
The Patriots had other players at the top of their free-agent wish list — namely, Chris Godwin and Ronnie Stanley — but they nonetheless spent the $192.2 million they guaranteed last spring wisely. That list, a fraction of their total free-agent signings, is littered with quality starters, leaders and playmakers.
New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs celebrates his touchdown during the third quarter of an Oct. 26 game at Gillette Stadium. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
It’s rare a team leads the NFL in free-agent spending, and doesn’t come to regret it over time. But it’s hard to envision the Patriots will feel much pain in their pocket given the early returns on this class.
Good health
First, knock on wood.
Second, before the Patriots watched rookie left tackle Will Campbell and rookie left guard Jared Wilson get carted off in Cincinnati, they were perhaps the healthiest team in football. But even accounting for their absences, and injuries to Khyiris Tonga and Brenden Schooler that same day, the Pats have only placed a single starter on injured reserve all season.
This late in the season, that type of health is nothing short of amazing.
A last-place schedule
Yes, the schedule’s been easy. No, that’s not a black mark on the season because if the Patriots do claim the No. 1 seed in the AFC, they can and should take credit for everything they poured into this season dating back to OTAs. Every year, only two NFL teams can clinch a top speed and a first-round bye in the playoffs. Those teams always earn it.
But, fans in Denver and Indianapolis would be quick to note the roads their teams will have traveled to the postseason are not the same as the Patriots’. Even over the next six weeks, both the Broncos and Colts will play at least half their games against teams currently in the playoff picture, while the Pats, at most, have two: versus Buffalo and at Baltimore.
The Jets
No matter how bleak it gets in New England — and eight wins the past two years combined qualifies as pretty damn bleak — the Patriots are never, ever down as bad as their one-time rivals.
Those J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets, who are without a franchise quarterback for yet another year and mired permanently in dysfunction.
What a bunch of turkeys.