When Mike Vrabel was introduced as New England Patriots head coach in January 2025, he set some goals that seemed quite lofty for a team coming off back-to-back 4-13 seasons. Among them was winning the division
and hosting home playoff games.
Almost to the day one year later, the Patriots will do just that. On Sunday night, the AFC East champions will welcome the Los Angeles Chargers to Gillette Stadium in the NFL wild card round. It will be the first postseason game in Foxborough since January 2020, and a chance for the organization to win its first playoff contest since Super Bowl LIII in February 2019.
Naturally, most of our attention this week was on that particular game. For everything we did not yet touch on, let’s clean out the notebook. Welcome to the first playoff edition of our Sunday Patriots Notes.
Patriots playoff debutants
The Patriots’ rebuilding process and recent lack of success have contributed to the team entering this year’s playoffs with limited experience. Looking at their current roster, 34 of 53 players have never appeared in a postseason game (and neither have the two practice squad elevations).
Among those 34 are some of the biggest names on the team, including quarterback Drake Maye and cornerback Christian Gonzalez.
“I think the natural thing is to get a little more amped. I guess that’s just natural, as a human, for a big game,” Maye told reporters this week. “Just trust what you’ve been doing. I told these guys at the end of the season, before the playoffs came, to put some extra work in, to stay after practice. Some guys have been running extra routes and little things like that that can go a long way, but don’t do anything out of the ordinary.
“That’s the biggest thing. Trust what you’ve been doing. Trust the preparation you’ve been doing all season. Trust your coaches and your teammates around you, and just go out there and have fun. It’s playoff football, so you’ve got to bring your best, and everybody knows that. That’s the expectation. Just trying to live up to that and just trying to be myself.”
The Patriots have preached sticking to their usual preparation throughout the week, and, as wide receiver Stefon Diggs put it, are not trying to “go and make new macaroni.” In terms of playoff experience, Diggs is on the opposite side of the spectrum to Maye and company: his 14 postseason games top the team ahead of defensive tackle Milton Williams’ and cornerback Carlton Davis’ nine.
The veteran leadership on the team that has been in that position, therefore plays a vital role getting their lesser-experienced teammates ready. Linebacker Robert Spillane summed up the message like this:
“Trust yourselves. You put in the work your whole life for these moments. They are fleeting moments and you never know when you’re going to be back and given an opportunity like this. Go out there, trust yourself, have fun and do what you’ve been doing all year.”
Youth movement
The fact that more than half of the Patriots’ roster has not yet appeared in a playoff game is also a reflection of its overall composition: despite some notable exceptions, the team is fairly young. In fact, when looking at its average age entering wild card weekend, it is among the youngest in the NFL playoffs this year.
At an average age of 26 years, 0 months and 25 days, as calculated by Bill Speros of bookies.com, New England is ranked fourth among the 14 playoff teams behind only Green Bay (25/3/18), Seattle (25/10/20) and Philadelphia (25/11/21). This also means that no team on the AFC side has a younger roster in this year’s tournament than the Patriots.
Robert Spillane’s impact
Among the Patriots players who have some postseason experience on their résumés is linebacker Robert Spillane. Sunday night will be the team captain’s third playoff appearance after two previous appearances with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020 and 2021.
Spillane’s third postseason game comes after a prolonged absence; an ankle injury had kept him out since the Patriots’ Week 14 bye. Typically a player who rarely leaves the field, his presence will add another element to New England’s defense as play caller Zak Kuhr explained this week.
“Leadership, physicality, savviness, having a good feel for where the ball’s going to be, not just sacrificing himself through a gap and understanding blocking schemes and where the ball might go,” Kuhr said. “Just being savvy, being disciplined with the run fits and getting other guys lined up and calling out backfield sets or formation sets that might give guys some tips.”
In addition, Spillane also shines with his ability to adjust on the fly.
“He doesn’t even need the tablets,” said Kuhr. “He remembers exactly what happened on the field and he’ll tell you as soon as he feels something that wasn’t up to par for him he’ll let you know about it. ‘Hey, I messed this up or I could have been better here.’ Great communicator on the sideline, really good at making adjustments.”
Special teams trickery
The playoffs is the time to leave it all on the field, and that includes diving deep into the playbook to find any advantage you can get. It might involve some trickery as well, be it on offense, or as special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer pointed out, the kicking game.
“I think it’s opponent-specific,” Springer said. “At the end of the day, if you’re going to exploit something, you always want to look for something, maybe steal a possession there. That’s something that we do weekly. I think every team probably does that, looks for it, and if there’s nothing there, there’s nothing there. But you always want to have some things in your back pocket just in case things aren’t going well offensively or defensively, just to help the team out from that standpoint.”
For Springer, however, the core responsibility of his units is to support the offensive and defensive teams as well as possible.
“I always tell our guys, like, ‘Hey, on special teams, if we can cover well, flip the field, no penalties, take care of the football, don’t give it up — those things right there are going to really help our offense, defense out.’ And when you have Drake Maye, just get him the ball back and let him go do the magic. Let us just cover well, play fast, play violent, and let the things shake out the way they’re supposed to.”
Shades of 2018
The last time the Patriots made a playoff run, back in 2018, Josh McDaniels was their offensive coordinator. Fast forward to 2025, and McDaniels is back in the building and seemingly using his past experience in preparation of the tournament.
Like seven years ago, when New England ended up beating the Chargers in their playoff opener before marching all the way to their sixth Super Bowl title, the team has quietly started becoming a powerhouse on the ground: since the start of December, no team in the NFL has been as productive running the football.
In their four games since, the Patriots are ranked first in the NFL with 0.179 expected points per run while also averaging over 180 rushing yards per game. Having both Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson available and in fine form plays a part in this, but so seemingly has the introduction of some six-man offensive lines, with backup tackle Thayer Munford Jr. seeing regular action as an extra blocker up front.
“It obviously adds an element of size and physicality, but it also allows us to distribute some of the responsibilities that others have shared during the course of the season to some other people,” explained McDaniels.
“Whether that’s tight ends doing some things that the receivers were doing or them doing some things that the tight ends were doing, we try to utilize our bodies. And [Mike Vrabel] has preached this all year: if there’s a healthy body at the game and we can give them a role and he can help us win then we’re all for it. So, using every guy in whatever way suits their skillset. If they can help us gain an advantage, then we’re looking to do that. I was excited to see the volume of snaps we’ve actually accumulated now. We kind of know what we’re doing and it adds an element for us that can take somethings off of others.”
Physical Christian Gonzalez
One of the knocks on cornerback Christian Gonzalez coming out of Oregon in 2023 was an apparent lack of size and physicality. He has answered these questions emphatically, with this season in particular seeing him play some impressive football in that regard.
“I think just a confidence level of understanding that he is a big corner. He’s strong, he’s got good size, good strength. And he doesn’t just have to be a fast, athletic corner,” explained Mike Vrabel after the regular season finale against Miami.
“It’s hard to take and say that the corners in this league aren’t going to have to tackle. They’re going to have to tackle when they hand the football off. We don’t want them to every single play, but there’s times where they have to, they have to crack replace, they have to close the distance, they have to stay on their feet and tackle. And you’ve seen it the other way where we’ve been able to get out there or get on some DBs and they’ve missed tackles, and those turn into X-plays. And so, I appreciate Gonzo doing that, [Carlton Davis], Marcus Jones and all of those guys, especially.”
No extra motivation
The Patriots announced Mike Vrabel as the 16th head coach in franchise history on Jan. 12, 2025. However, history could have looked quite differently had the Chargers made a different decision the previous offseason: Vrabel was among the coaches to interview for their vacancy in 2024.
Two years later, Vrabel harbors no ill will toward the team that picked Jim Harbaugh over him at the time.
“Everything that I do and every second that I spend preparing will be to help the players,” he said this week. “That’s a well-run organization. The Spanos family is a good one. But no, that’s no extra motivation.”
View from Los Angeles
While we are providing a Patriots-centric view on this week’s game, it also makes sense to go outside one’s own bubble. So, here are some statements on New England courtesy of the Chargers.
DC Jesse Minter on Patriots offense: “Maybe the top offense in football right now, when you look at all the numbers. MVP-level quarterback. Probably one of the most accomplished, greatest, especially post-season offensive coordinators in the history of the game in Josh McDaniels. Got a lot of respect for him. Coach Vrabel team. The thing that I respect about his teams the most is just the toughness, the physicality, but also every game is played a certain way to win that particular game. They’re not trying to — they can be very versatile, I guess, would be the thought. He’s always been that way. Saw him when he was with the Titans. And so, they just have a lot of great players. Starts with their quarterback. They’ve added pieces, obviously, on the O-line, some young guys. A bunch of really good weapons, really good running game. So, all-around just a major challenge.”
S Derwin James on Patriots offense: “Drake Maye, MVP of this league this year, I feel like. Can make all the throws. They got two great backs, receivers that can get open and a tight end that can get open. They got a lot of weapons, but we got to make it about us.”
ED Khalil Mack on Drake Maye: “He’s special. He has the arm talent. He looks pretty fast as well. So, it’s going to be a challenge for us to keep him in the pocket and play for his run up front. Rushing coverage is going to have to work very well this week.”
QB Justin Herbert on Patriots defense: “They’re really good. They’re hardly ever out of position and it’s a sign of players that play by the rules and listen to great coaches. They play together, they play fast, and they communicate really well. They’re a really good defense.”
OC Greg Roman on Patriots defense: “These guys are good at all three levels. They’re really sound, highly-rated against the run and pass. You really can’t see a whole lot of weaknesses with these guys. They play really smart football, really complimentary football as well as a team. So, we need to bring our A-game to the East Coast this weekend.”
AFC East coaching carousel
While the Patriots were ramping up the preparation for their game against the Chargers, another AFC East team made a major change. The Miami Dolphins, who finished the season with a 7-10 record and will therefore have to continue to wait for their first playoff win since the 2000 season, fired head coach Mike McDaniel on Thursday.
With a coaching change coming to Miami, the Dolphins will now take sole first position in non-interim head coaches employed within the division this century:
- Buffalo Bills: 8 (+2 interims)
- Miami Dolphins: 8 (+3 interims)
- New England Patriots: 3
- New York Jets: 8 (+1 interim)
Wh0 the Dolphins will hire to succeed McDaniel remains to be seen. They have been linked to recently-fired Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh, but so have been multiple teams with head coach openings.
Week ahead
What the Patriots’ next week will look like will be determined by the outcome of their game against the Chargers. If they advance, they will play in the divisional round against the highest-ranked AFC team besides top-seeded Denver. This means that, regardless of what happens elsewhere, a third meeting with the Bills is off the table.
Whether or not that hypothetical game would take place Saturday or Sunday will be seen. The team’s preparation will look accordingly, with the first practice either set for Tuesday or Wednesday.
If the Patriots lose, their season ends. We will still get to talk to Mike Vrabel on Monday, but offseason mode would kick in quickly in that case: futures contracts would be signed, and the focus shift toward fixing what went wrong.
