There’s ample reason Drake Maye's emerged as an MVP candidate and Mike Vrabel as a Coach of the Year contender.
A year ago at this time, the New England Patriots had finished 4-13 and dead last in the AFC East for the second straight season.
Now, the Patriots have completely reversed their fortune, entering the playoffs for the first time since 2021 with a 14-3 record and as AFC East champions.
Regardless of how amazing the turnaround has been, Vrabel stressed Wednesday that the Patriots can’t simply be content with having arrived at Wild Card Weekend to host the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
“I mean, I'm happy, I'm excited, but also, we're not here just to get here,” Vrabel said Wednesday, via team transcript. “We have to be able to host games and compete for championships. So, there's not going to be any consolation prize for anybody. We understand what we have to do.”
It’s difficult not to get lost in the accomplishments already had by the Patriots.
Their 14 wins are the most in NFL history by a team that lost 13 or more games the previous season, underscoring just how radical the turnaround has been.
They won 14 games for the first time since Tom Brady’s final season in 2019, earning the AFC’s No. 2 seed. It’s the first time since 2018 that the club has been a top two seed.
Sunday’s game will mark the franchise’s first home playoff tilt since 2019.
As fate would have it, that last playoff home game saw the Patriots lose to the Tennessee Titans, who were then coached by Vrabel. Back with the Patriots, with whom he won three Super Bowls as a player, Vrabel hopes Sunday will be the start of Gillette Stadium once again being the frequent homefield for January games and an arduous place to play, all in the same.
“Well, it’s just got to be a tough place to play in January,” Vrabel said. “If we're able to get there in January like we are, we have to create an environment that makes it difficult to play. Whatever the record was back when I was looking at the stats in 2019, 21-3 or whatever it was in January -- I'm going to be off by a couple games because it's a few years ago -- but we were talking about what we would have to do to come in and win. We need to create a hard environment, we need to play well, let our crowd feed off of us and let us feed off of them.”
The message is clear from Vrabel: The Patriots are back in the playoffs, and back at home, but that’s not good enough.
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