There are a lot of big stories surrounding the New England Patriots’ sudden return to the top of the NFL. One of them involves quarterback Drake Maye, who is in a neck-and-neck race with Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford for the 2025 MVP award.
However, Maye isn’t the only New England player who could win a major end-of-season award. Although TreVeyon Henderson received some consideration for the Offensive Rookie of the Year award, it appears Maye head coach Mike Vrabel is leading the pack in the race for another major award.
In his first year as head coach of the Pats, Mike Vrabel completely changed the team’s fortunes. Although there were several other candidates, such as Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears and Liam Coen of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Vrabel led the pack in the race for coach of the year in an NFL.com poll of the league’s front office executives.
“Despite a strong field of candidates, Vrabel (13 votes) more than doubled the vote total of runner-up Bears coach Ben Johnson (six),” Tom Pelissero wrote.
“It’s been an instant turnaround in New England, where the Patriots are 12-3, in playoff contention and in contention for the AFC’s No. 1 seed after winning eight games in the previous two years combined…Vrabel turned the Patriots culture around overnight and is fully in charge on game days.”
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After the Patriots endured two miserable four-win seasons, Vrabel came in and led the team to a 12-3 record in 15 games. The players deserve credit for going out and playing good football, but Vrabel has masterfully implemented new plans on both sides of the ball, while completely changing the culture of the organization.
There are still two games left in the regular season, but it appears that award will go to Vrabel if New England wins the AFC East against the Buffalo Bills. The team will look to take a big step toward achieving that goal in Week 17 when they take on the New York Jets.
