What rest of NFL can learn from Patriots' Super Bowl campaign

Few expected the New England Patriots to be playing in Super Bowl LX. Entering Week 1 of the 2025 NFL season, they had 60-1 odds to win a Lombardi and accounted for just 1.3 percent of preseason Super Bowl wagers.

A deep playoff run was not the only surprising aspect of the Patriots' season, however. In the regular season, they tallied 14 wins after bookmakers set the line at 8.5 and took the AFC East despite +550 odds. Some of New England's improbable success can be attributed to luck.

In the regular season, New England had one of the league's easiest schedules and played in an AFC field missing the typically elite Kansas City Chiefs (finished 6-11). Lady Fortune, too, blessed New England in the AFC Championship Game, when it faced Denver's inexperienced backup quarterback in Jarrett Stidham after starter Bo Nix fractured his ankle the week prior.

Attributing all or the majority of New England's success to luck, however, is illogical. There are no easy paths to the Super Bowl, and every team that wins a conference championship must be elite in multiple areas of the sport. Here's why the Patriots were able to accomplish in three seasons what many franchises couldn't in several decades.

A patient yet swift rebuild

Two key advantages to being a bottom-feeder NFL team are a high draft pick and an easy schedule the following year. New England was one of the NFL's worst teams for several seasons. It slumped from late 2023 to early 2025 (16-35 record), but the team and its executives made the most of it. 

Using an elite drafting position, New England added players like cornerback Christian Gonzalez, tackle Will Campbell and quarterback Drake Maye to build a talented core of athletes. Simultaneously, Patriots executives were careful to limit spending in free agency. They only splurged when the timing seemed right, saving them money and resources in the long run.

So, while on the surface, New England appears to be a random beneficiary of an easy schedule, behind the easy schedule is a methodically structured rebuild strategy that took several years to execute. The same competence during a rebuild cannot be said for many other NFL teams. The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars have never played in a Super Bowl despite a decades-long NFL existence.

Competent ownership

Why do NFL teams fire coaches and general managers yet not improve in the long run? The answer is that sometimes incompetence within a franchise comes from the one person who cannot be fired: a team owner.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft (six Super Bowls, 11 AFC Championships, 20 division titles) is the most decorated active NFL owner for a reason. He has a knack for making excellent personnel decisions that put the Patriots in a position to succeed. The most recent example of this came in early 2025, when he replaced head coach Jerod Mayo with former Coach of the Year Mike Vrabel. 

A team identity that keeps players engaged

Often, talented NFL players will ask to leave their franchise because they are unhappy with how the team operates, like the 49ers and Brandon Aiyuk, Haason Reddick and the Jets or Davante Adams and the Raiders.

The Patriots, on the other hand, have done a remarkable job retaining players. We know that players aren't attracted to the Patriots because of geographical location. Foxborough is one of the coldest NFL cities, and Massachusetts has a high income tax rate. 

New England attracting and keeping players is a result of team culture. Whether it has to do with the 2000s dynasty, Vrabel, Kraft or all of the above, players see something special in the Patriots, explaining why they hesitate to leave.